Women’s hockey team swept by Northeastern

The University of Rhode Island women’s hockey team dropped both games of a home-

and-home series to Northeastern over the weekend.

The Huskies beat the Rams 4-1 Thursday night in Boston and 4-3 in overtime two nights

later in Kingston. The sweep drops the Rams to 18-6.

Both offenses had trouble scoring early on Thursday before Northeastern’s McKenzie

Powers broke the tie before the end of the first period.

Megan Winters tallied her third score of the season 34 seconds into the second period

to put NU up 2-0. Sophomore Katie Walsh helped pad her team’s lead in the final few

minutes of the second, helping Northeastern get out to a 3-0 advantage heading into the

third.

“We didn’t score, so offensively we’ve got a lot to work on,” Rhode Island head coach

Beth McCann said. “They’ve got to look deep. They still have time with the couple

of games they have coming up and the Eastern Collegiate [Women’s Hockey League]

(ECWHL) playoffs to rebound from this week.”

Rhode Island junior Alisha DiFilippo was able to put the Rams on the board midway

through the third period, but the Huskies got the goal back in the waning minutes on

another score from Powers.

On Saturday, DiFilippo helped the Rams get off to a fast start, netting a power-play goal

seven minutes into the first period. Junior Shannen Doherty added to the Rhode Island

lead later in the action when she slipped a wide-angle shot past Anna Mandell.

The second period was controlled by Northeastern. Winters helped the Huskies cut the

lead in half with a rocket from the blue line, and a five-minute charging major assessed to

Rhode Island sophomore Sydney Collins allowed junior Jillian Hoban to tie the game on

the power play two minutes later.

“We’re going to see [Northeastern] again in the Eastern Collegiate playoffs,” McCann

said. “What we can take out of [these losses] is how much deeper we have to get, how

much better we have to get to challenge these teams.”

Northeastern continued their attack when senior Shannon Kelleher put the Huskies ahead

halfway into the third period. However, the Rams were aided by a hitting-from-behind

major charged to Northeastern that yielded another five-minute power play. Freshman

Brenna Callahan was able to put a rebound into the back of the net with four minutes

remaining to force overtime.

The Rams were set down with two minutes remaining in overtime on a goal from

freshman Michelle Macchione that barely squeezed in.

“I don’t see the desire and passion at the end of the game to really finish,” McCann said.

“We had a comfortable lead, 2-0, and some players think they’ve already won the game.

Finding that desire to go the distance is what we need.”

Rhode Island plays their final two games of the regular season before the ECWHL

playoffs next weekend at the University of Massachusetts.

“It’s going to be a challenge any time we go [to Massachusetts],” McCann said. “We’re

going to focus on our game, the power play and special teams. When we do play them

there are always a lot of penalties, so hopefully we can capitalize on those by staying out

of the box and perfecting our power play a little bit.