BOSTON - Kendall Coyne's goal with 2:52 left in overtime sent the No. 10/10 Northeastern women's ice hockey team (10-5-2) into the holiday break with a thrilling 3-2 victory against Dartmouth (4-4-2) in a back-and-forth bout on Wednesday night at Matthews Arena.
Coyne finished the night with two goals, her fifth multi-goal game of the season, and Colleen Murphy also scored for the Huskies. Sophomore netminder Chloe Desjardins made 26 saves in goal while her counterpart, Lindsay Holdcroft, had 26 stops for the Big Green.
On the game-winning play, Paige Savage knocked a clearing attempt out of the air and onto the stick of Coyne, who then sped down the right side of the ice before flinging a backhand through the pads of Holdcroft for her fourth game-winner of the season.
Northeastern outshot the Big Green 29-28 in the game and won 31-of-56 draws. Dartmouth converted on one of its four power play chances while the Huskies were held to a 0-of-5 showing.
Dartmouth controlled the tempo for the first half of the opening period, outshooting NU 6-1 and taking a 1-0 lead 3:26 into the frame. The Big Green jumped out to an early lead when Sally Komarek netted her second goal of the season when she took a feed out of the corner from Jenna Hobeika and one-timed a shot from the slot past Desjardins for the score.
The Dartmouth goal seemed to strike life into the Huskies, who then outshot the Big Green 13-4 for the remainder of the period, and tallied the game-tying goal with 6:14 left to play in the frame. Off a faceoff win by Rachel Llanes, the senior fed the puck up to Maggie DiMasi at the point. DiMasi then quickly slid the puck across the blue line to Murphy, who fired a shot that ricocheted off the skate of a Big Green defender and past Holdcroft for her second goal of the season.
Northeastern held a slight 7-6 edge in shots during the second period, and was able to take its first lead of the night midway through the stanza. At the other end of the ice, Desjardins held up her end of the bargain, turning away all six shots she faced, including several through screens.
Coyne scored her 15th goal of the season with 8:44 left in the frame when she took a pass from Tori Hickel at the point, skated out of the right corner and rifled a shot that went through the five-hole of Holdstrom for a 2-1 Husky lead.
Following a brief 4-on-4 period early in the third period, Dartmouth knotted the game at 2-2 just as its penalty had expired as Reagan Fischer scored her sixth goal of the year with 12:20 left in regulation. Sasha Nanji began the play by skating the puck into the attacking zone and throwing a shot on goal that was turned aside by Desjardins. Nanji, however, scooped up the rebound and fired a pass down to Fischer waiting on the left post for a tap-in goal.
NU was awarded a power play nearly a minute after the Fischer goal, and nearly retook the lead when Coyne found Rachel Llanes on the doorstep, but Holdstorm reacted quickly to snare the shot and thwart the scoring bid.
Northeastern had another scoring opportunity in the final two minutes of regulation when Coyne skated into the attacking zone and let off a slap shot that went off the stick of a Dartmouth defender and off the post, the fourth of the night, to send the game into overtime.
The Huskies held a 2-1 edge in shots in the overtime period before Coyne converted with the winning tally just over two minutes into the extra session.
The Huskies will have nearly one month off for final exams and the holiday break before returning to the ice on Jan. 3 at St. Lawrence. Puck drop is scheduled for 7 p.m. in Canton, N.Y.
Game Notes: Northeastern is now 26-10-3 all-time against the Big Green, and defeats Dartmouth for the first time since Jan. 5, 2001 ... Coyne's two goals extended her scoring streak to three games (four goals, two assists), her third point streak of at least three games this season ... Casey Pickett has four assists in her last three games, and is one point away from cracking the top 20 in career points at Northeastern (102).