To say that Northeastern competed admirably with Harvard throughout the host Crimson’s 1-0 triumph for the Beanpot championship is to commit one of three errors. One who attempts such a consoling proclamation is either naively investing too much in the core of the scoresheet, bashfully circumventing the finer points, or is just too tunnel-visioned on the third period, when the Huskies finally showed some prolonged perk beyond their own zone.
Conversely, to say that junior goaltender Leah Sulyma valiantly competed with the Crimson’s crushing strike force is to cut more directly and more intrepidly to the point.
Sulyma dealt with her second-heaviest workload in eight appearances this season, ultimately repelling 43 of 44 registered stabs. The sweatiest portion of her night was already over by the second intermission, at which point she had dealt with 38 shots. Her teammates would own the third period shooting gallery, 16-6, and also drew three penalties while only taking one trip to the bin themselves.
Even so, Sulyma was compensated with nothing but an invisible Beanpot silver medal and her second loss in as many outings. All that after she had previously chalked up a pristine 5-0-1 record on the year as she came out of her chrysalis in relief of Olympic-bound starlet Florence Schelling. And all this after she had only authorized three opposing goals in her last 120 minutes of crease time.
Maybe more frightfully, Northeastern is 0-2-2 in its last four ventures for its longest winless slump of the year. And it has just been issued two consecutive losses for only the second time this season.
Granted, both losses have been against Top 10 teams in Providence and Harvard, but the Huskies have been in those same national leaderboards for 12 weeks running now. And yet, they are winless (0-4-1) when facing another certified contender, which incidentally they have not done a whole lot of compared to some other teams.
Perhaps this ill-timed glitch cannot exactly be defined as a shock. A friendly and frank reminder that exactly half of the dozen forwards on NU’s line chart are freshmen, as are two of their regular defenders.
And in Tuesday’s contest, it was clear that the Huskies were left to paradoxically subsist on their own hunger. During the first two periods, Harvard ran up a gaping 61-25 advantage in the way of attempted shots and 38-11 under the SOG heading. Northeastern skaters numbed their own bodies by blocking an aggregate 14 would-be stabs at Sulyma within the first 40 minutes. And even with the lone power play of the opening frame, they could only muster one shot on Crimson goalie Laura Bellamy while Harvard retorted with one shorthanded bid.
By the third, desperation had breathed new energy into the Huskies, who proceeded to try 26 shots –one more than what they had unleashed during the two preceding stanzas. But Bellamy handled 16 of them, including four on one unwhistled power play segment shortly before the halfway mark, while another 10 shots died before they even reached the goalie’s estate.
Translation: everything the Huskies could scrounge up was as good as a collection of empty calories. As a consequence, the scoring department has now been arid for the whole of their last five periods and for a grand total of 114 minutes and 14 seconds, dating back to Lindsey Berman’s early goal against Providence last Saturday.
Given the landscape of the league, Northeastern still looks plenty capable of at least reaching the final four portion of the conference playoffs. But Tuesday’s Beanpot falter dipped them just a little lower to No. 10 in the PairWise rankings, meaning that, contrary to a mere two weeks ago, this team is suddenly in no position to lock away an NCAA tournament passport without the automatic bid.
One could proclaim –and even be spared some ridicule in doing so- that coming up short the way they did with coveted hardware at stake will instill some crucial determination to the Huskies for the remainder of the WHEA pennant race. But Tuesday’s Beanpot final also proves that they need a little more than that to keep their ignition consistent.
They do not, by any means, need a trinity of periods like what they put together in the closing frame on Tuesday, or the first period last Saturday, or early in last Tuesday’s fall-from-ahead 4-4 tie/shootout win with Boston University. They just need to find a way to dole out their energy more smoothly and not get fettered by either too much or too little confidence.
It would be the least they can do for the likes of Sulyma, who has all but played like an exact replica of Schelling in the Swiss Save-ior’s absence.
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