Although she blinked a few times too many to salvage Northeastern’s passport to the Beanpot title game Tuesday night, Leah Sulyma submitted her sweatiest transcript on the season with 32 saves against an ambitious Harvard team. For the Huskies, that should be a stimulating testament to the senior goalie’s stamina as the prelude to the playoffs picks up.
The No. 10-ranked Crimson ran up Tuesday’s shooting gallery, 21-6, in the latter forty minutes of regulation and ultimately deleted a 3-0 deficit with their second and third goals coming 58 seconds apart. And after a scoreless five-minute overtime, Jillian Dempsey and Josephine Pucci both beat Sulyma in the shootout, enough to put the Sharpie-strong stamp on their comeback.
So once again, coveted civic hardware shall elude the Huntington Hounds. But then again, if this were a regular season Hockey East contest, Sulyma would have been singlehandedly responsible for garnering a precious point in the standings. In accordance with the momentum, Harvard took five unanswered shots in the bite-sized bonus round, but had to wait until one-on-ones to zap a Northeastern team patently out of offensive juice.
Huskies’ head coach Dave Flint may want to do something about that strike force, which has failed to tune the mesh more than twice in any of its last four league games. But he can rightly take comfort in the umpteenth reminder that he is spoiled with the most reliable goaltending tandem in a league that has become the quintessential goalie’s haven, especially when it’s the climax of the pennant race.
“Leah has been solid in net for us the past four games,” said Flint. “She always steps in and does a great job when she is called upon. We are lucky to have two great goalies that give us a chance to win every night.”
Indeed, in her recent string of four consecutive starts –which has doubled her number of appearances on the year since Jan. 23- Sulyma has been nothing short of a vital insurance policy in action.
Standing in for Swiss Save-ior Florence Schelling, out with an undisclosed injury since the final weekend of January, Sulyma may be now tasked with bolstering the remainder of Northeastern’s playoff push. So far, in three conference contests, she has backstopped a cardiac 2-1 overtime win at Vermont, valiantly jousted with Molly Schaus in a 2-1 loss to Boston College, and dueled to a 2-2 draw with Connecticut.
Consider all that the quiz. First-place Boston University –the runaway league leader in offense- is on tap for a home-and-home set Friday and Saturday. (And, as an added bonus, the urban rivals will meet once more next Tuesday for a Beanpot third place friendly.)
With NU lodged in fifth place, and Connecticut and/or Providence bound to give themselves a little separation during their series this weekend, the Hounds are advised to whittle at least a table scrap of tangible gains from the Terriers to keep pace in the middle of the standings. Otherwise, in the name of securing home ice for the wild card round, they risk resorting to a desperate cramming session when they face the other Huskies next weekend.
But if it’s going to be on her to backbone this enterprise, Sulyma is bound to embrace it as her shot at a fireworks finale on Huntington Ave., an opportunity that was in doubt for a time.
One may or may not recall 2007-08, when Sulyma was former skipper Laura Schuler’s new starter and instant team MVP as a freshman. Although left forlorn by a shortage of offensive support, Sulyma had usurped the starting job from veterans Sarah Belliveau and Stacey Scott, repelling 973 opposing shots and claiming credit for all seven NU victories in 31 rookie starts.
Then, Schuler gave way to Flint behind the bench, and with Flint came the otherworldly Schelling, who by the second month of the 2008-09 campaign was the new go-to goalie and the new MVP.
Accordingly, as a sophomore and junior, Sulyma was left to soak in the smaller victory of at least getting the decisive nod whenever Schelling had an obligation with Team Switzerland. It was a reasonably common occurrence, but only enough for Sulyma to put in a combined 30 appearances –one fewer than in her first season- between October 2008 and February 2010.
Last season, while Schelling was savoring her second Olympic gig with the Swiss, Sulyma did percolate some personal momentum akin to what she might have going for her now. She authorized a mere seven goals the final six games of the 2009-10 regular season, culminating in back-to-back shutouts that clinched fourth place for the Huskies.
But her lone postseason bout the following weekend was peerlessly vinegary. She wilted for three goals on six shots against visiting UConn and gave way to Schelling after a mere 7:22 of clock time. Schelling put out that fire, but no one could heal the scalds in a season-ending 4-1 falter.
Restoring normalcy to commence 2010-11, Schelling started all but one of 18 games prior to the December deceleration. And by the time the Huskies had consumed 25 dates off their slate, Sulyma had been allotted only two start-to-finish shifts (both of them wins) along with two relief appearances against Quinnipiac and Wisconsin.
Nonetheless, Flint said, “Leah has handled it with grace, and she and Florence have a great relationship and support each other no matter who is playing.”
With Schelling’s timetable to return –let alone replenish her celestial game- still uncertain, patience can pay off for Sulyma as she vies for a last hurrah, maybe one involving Northeastern’s first Hockey East semifinal berth since 2004.
The task is surely a welcome upgrade from cutting a hole in the ice just to help fish the program out of irrelevance, like she did before the name “Schelling,” let alone “Schellyma,” ever graced a Huntington tongue.
Al Daniel is the Hockey East correspondent to Beyond the Dashers
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