The Huskies went into Friday's game with Maine looking for their sixth win of the season and that's exactly what they got. NU scored twice in the first period and once more in the second, and solid goaltending from freshman Leah Sulyma kept the Black Bears at bay for the win.
Early in the first period, freshman Kristi Kehoe became the first to reach the 20-point plateau when Chelsey Jones fed her a pass to the right side of the crease that she was able to knock past Maine goalie Genevieve Turgeon for the first goal of the game, and her ninth of the season.
At 15:01 in the first, NU defenseman Ginny Berg was called for tripping, giving Maine a powerplay. Despite being shorthanded Northeastern captain Nikki Petrich was able to force a Maine turnover in the offensive zone. She skated the puck up to right circle and fired it past Turgeon for her team-leading 11th goal of the season, the 40th of her career. It marks Petrich's second shorthanded goal this season.
The Huskies outshot the Black Bears 12-10, but all of Maine's shots were stopped by Sulyma, and the Huskies went to the locker room with a 2-0 lead.
Maine came out shooting in the second period. During a line change, goalie Sulyma cleared the puck up to Lindsay Berman along the boards. Berman sent a beautiful pass right in between two Maine defenseman to Chelsey Jones who put it away for her ninth goal of the season, giving the Huskies a 3-0 lead. Berman registered her 10th assist of the season on the play and Sulyma earned her first career point.
The Bears blasted Sulyma with 15 shots in the period, but she was able to keep Maine shut out.
Unfortunately Sulyma could not hold the Bears off for the entire game as Pam Patterson was able to grab a rebound and slip one by her for Maine's first goal.
Despite being without a full lineup the Black Bears proved resilient and put 32 shots on net. The Huskies managed 35 in the game.
Sulyma finished the night with 33 saves, the 14th time in 23 appearances she's done so. Turgeon, although pulled for an extra skater with just over a minute left, still amassed 32 saves on the night.
The win improves the Huskies to 6-17-3 and 5-8-1 in Hockey East. They now have more overall and conference wins than they had all of last season.
The Huskies and Bears are back at it tomorrow when they take the ice at 7 p.m., to decide the season series at Matthews Arena.