Northeastern women's hockey completed a perfect opening weekend on Saturday with a dominating 5-0 win over the Colgate Raiders. Junior tri-captain Casey Pickett netted her second and third goals of the season, while senior Florence Schelling dominated between the pipes for her first shutout of the season.
The Huskies dominated from the off, outshooting Colgate in the first period 14-5. Much like their opener yesterday afternoon, a 5-2 win over Syracuse, Northeastern wasted little time capitalizing. Just two minutes into the first period, freshman Kendall Coyne embarked on one of many penetrating runs from the left point to behind the net and swung it to sophomore Maggie Brennolt, who found junior Brittany Esposito open along the right hash to pot her second in two games.
Northeastern held the pressure on the Raiders high up the ice, keeping their opponents from anything more than a momentary glimpse on Schelling's net. With nine minutes to play in the first, the Huskies doubled their advantage through senior tri-captain Stephanie Gavronsky, who lined up at left wing and found herself in perfect position to bang home a rebound off sophomore Claire Santostefano's effort from the high slot.
Colgate enjoyed its best spell of the match at the end of the first and beginning of the second period, when three straight Northeastern penalties kept the Huskies on the defensive. The third of those penalties, however, a body-checking minor on Gavronsky, ended in disaster for the Raiders when Coyne intercepted a sloppy pass from a Colgate defenseman. Pickett read the play and was off to the races immediately, streaking behind the defense and receiving the pass from Coyne for a breakaway chance. She coolly deked senior netminder Kimberly Sass and buried it on the backhand to put the game out of sight.
The Huskies saw the game out through the third period, casually controlling the flow of the game, but they might have had more goals were it not for the efforts of Sass. The Colgate keeper stopped 38 shots, including countless point-blank efforts. Finally, after Shannon Doyle went to the box for roughing, junior Rachel Llanes' shot caused a scrum in front of net, and sophomore Katie MacSorley took advantage of the confusion to bag her second of the season with three minutes to play. One minute later, Pickett piled on with her third marker in two games to complete Northeastern's perfect day.
It was a relatively easy day for Schelling en route to her 11th career shutout and first of the new season. Her finest moment came early in the third, when Colgate's Melissa Kueber broke through the Northeastern defense on a breakaway, but Schelling stoned her five-hole effort with a butterfly.
The Huskies return to action Friday afternoon, Oct. 14, with a 3 p.m. date with Union at Matthews Arena.