No. 1 St. Lawrence closed its first home series of the year with a low-scoring yet convincing victory over Northeastern. Senior Emilie Berlinguette notched her fourth and fifth goals of the season to lead all scorers in the Saints’ 3-0 victory.
St. Lawrence (7-0-0) pressed Northeastern (1-8-1) all day, firing 57 shots on Husky netminder Marisa Hourihan, who kept the Saints at bay for most of the day in a stellar losing effort.
“[Northeastern] worked hard start to finish,” said St. Lawrence coach Paul Flanagan. “I just think in the end we outskilled them, our defenders played very well and didn’t give them any real scoring opportunities.”
Freshman Lisa Batchelor scored her second goal of the homestand to open the scoring for the Saints midway through the first period. She beat Hourihan glove side after she put a phenomenal move on a Husky defender to get in all alone.
“I brought the puck into the zone, saw space between the defenders’ legs and her stick, drew the puck through it, got free of the defender, saw the top corner was open and I went for it,” Batchelor said.
Batchelor’s goal didn’t stand alone on the board for long. It took only 11 seconds for the Saints to strike again, as Berlinguette received a saucer pass at the back door from Alison Domenico and beat Hourihan. The assist on the play extended Domenico’s team-leading point streak to four games.
Berlinguette added another insurance goal in the third period after she intercepted the puck behind the Husky net, circled around the front and beat Hourihan above her right shoulder, for the game’s final goal.
Meaghan Guckian stopped all 12 shots she faced for the shutout.
“The low scoring games keep you working,” said Saints coach Paul Flanagan. “We didn’t bear down on shots, there was always a lot of traffic in front of the net. We had difficulty getting things going… Today’s result was all mental, you get ahead 2-0 and it’s just human nature to grow complacent, get away from the basics and start overpassing”.
Although the Huskies didn’t come away with a point this weekend, Coach Laura Schuler was pleased with the team effort Sunday.
“I’m so happy with how the girls played,” she said. “We’ve had a game plan which hasn’t been utilized all year. I told the girls to keep it simple, and they saw how successful it worked. For us to tie the No. 1 team in the country for a period and then only lose the third by a goal is a win in our books.”
The Saints first homestand gave the players a big boost,
“We’ve been on the road for five or six weeks, it’s so great to finally play at home,” said Saints winger Batchelor. “We had great practices all week, the mood in the locker room was excellent. You could tell the team was ready.”
However, the Saints won’t get to enjoy the home ice advantage for long as they begin their ECACHL season, with visits to No. 6 Dartmouth and No. 7 Harvard next weekend, in pursuit of extending their NCAA-best seven-game win streak.
