STORRS, Conn. - The UConn women's ice hockey team hosted Northeastern in the Hockey East Quarterfinals today at the Mark Edward Freitas Ice Forum in Storrs, Conn. but fell to the visitors, 4-0. With the loss, UConn ends the season with a 13-19-3 record while Northeastern improves to 15-12-8. Northeastern now advances to the semifinals to face either Boston College or Boston University next weekend at Walter Brown Arena hosted by top-seeded Boston University.
Connecticut came out strong during the first period as Taylor Gross (Colorado Springs, Colo.) and Alexandra Vakos (Hamden, Conn.) combined for six shots on net during the first 20 minutes. UConn had three power play opportunities during the opening frame, but they were never able to get the puck in the back of the net. Connecticut would end the period a skater down, and NU capitalized on the power play in the opening seconds of the second period.
Northeastern's Alyssa Wohlfeiler posted the eventual game-winner just 15 seconds into the second period when she got a shot on net that deflected in off of Alexandra Garcia (Pointe-Claire, Que.). NU took advantage of the power play, as they ended the first period with the skater advantage and the goal was the first power play goal that UConn has given up in the past seven games.
The UConn defense tightened up for the remainder of the second period as they held Northeastern off the board for the next 19 minutes. Garcia, who tallied 29 saves during the contest, made eight in the second period to keep Connecticut in the game.
Northeastern struck again just under five minutes in to the final period as NU's Casey Pickett was able to get the puck past Garcia for the 2-0 lead. Just four minutes later NU expanded their lead to 3-0 as Katie MacSorley caught Garcia off guard and was able to put in an easy tally.
With under five minutes left in the third period, UConn pulled Garcia for the extra skater advantage and controlled the puck for the majority of the time but they were never able to capitalize on the advantage. Northeastern was able to control the puck with 15 seconds left in the game and Casey Pickett went down the ice for the empty net goal, giving NU the 4-0 victory.
Jennifer Chaisson (Cumberland, Ont.) ends her collegiate career ranked third all-time in the UConn record books with 57 career assists, fourth with 84 career points and eighth with 27 career goals, while classmate Jody Sydor (St. Albert, Alta.) ends her career ranking sixth with 41 career assists.