BOSTON - After falling behind 3-0 early in the second period, the Northeastern women's ice hockey team stormed back to score six of the next seven goals to defeat the Russian National Team in an exhibition contest on Saturday night at Matthews Arena, 6-4.
Chelsiea Goll and Rachel Llanes each scored twice for the Huskies, while Kendall Coyne and Kelly Wallace both registered two assists. Kelsey O'Sullivan got the nod in goal for NU, making 17 saves.
Northeastern outshot the Russians 50-21 for the game, and was 2-of-4 on the power play. Team Russia went 1-of-6 on the man advantage.
Despite NU holding a 16-5 edge in shots in the first period, it was Team Russia that jumped out to a 1-0 lead after the first 20 minutes of play. Just 3:29 into the game, Lyudmila Belyakova was able to redirect a shot from Iya Gavrilova from the right side past O'Sullivan for the score.
The Russians thought they had taken a two-goal advantage midway through the frame when Gavrilova picked a loose puck out of the air and into the cage, but a review of the goal showed that the puck was played with a high stick and disallowed.
The Huskies began to mount pressure late in the stanza when several shots from the slot, including one from Katie MacSorley with less than five minutes left that Nadezhda robbed with her glove.
The scoring opened up in the second period as the teams each netted three goals in the stanza. Belyakova picked up her second of the night just 30 seconds into the period with her squad on the power play. The Russians would then go up by three goals 75 seconds later as Anna Shibanova took a feed from Shiryaeva Nadezhda and beat O'Sullivan for the goal.
That's when Northeastern would go to work as the Huskies potted two goals in less than the minute, the first coming from Ann Doherty during four-on-four play. Rachel Llanes began the play with a clean faceoff win back to Doherty at the point, where the sophomore defender took a couple strides towards goal before snapping a shot over the shoulder of Russian goaltender Aleksandrova Nadezhda.
Goll would collect a power play goal 58 seconds later when she poked home a pass from MacSorley from the right side.
Team Russia regained its two-goal edge with 7:09 left in the period was Ekaterina Ananyina knocked in a pass from Olga Semenets from in tight. The goal was reviewed and upheld.
Maggie DiMasi would bring NU back within one just over three minutes later when she rifled a shot from the point through traffic and into the top right corner with the Huskies on the power play.
NU continued to pressure at the start of the third, and knotted the score at four aside as Goll buried her second of the night off a pass from Casie Fields from behind the net.
The Huskies would take its first lead of the night with 8:07 left in regulation as Llanes fired home a shot off a feed from Kendall Coyne behind the goal. Claire Santostefano began the play with a pass down to Coyne below the goal line. Coyne then spotted Llanes alone in the slot, and sent a pass up to the senior forward, who one-timed it past Nadezhda. Llanes would later add her second of the game on a similar play to give NU a two-goal cushion.
Northeastern will resume regular season play on Tuesday as the Huskies welcome Harvard to Matthews Arena for a 7 p.m. puck drop.