BELFAST, Northern Ireland - The No. 3 Northeastern women's hockey team scored three goals in a span of 35 seconds late in the second period to earn a 3-3 tie against No. 5 Clarkson before a crowd of 2,534 at the inaugural Friendship Series - the first-ever NCAA women's games to be played outside of North America.
Skylar Fontaine, Kasidy Anderson and Mia Brown lit the lamp for Northeastern to turn a 2-0 deficit into a 3-2 lead in the final minutes of the second period. Clarkson's Kelly Mariani evened the game early in the third to round out the scoring in a game that was closely contested from start to finish.
Sophomore Aerin Frankel stopped 28 shots, including four in overtime, while her counterpart - Clarkson's Kassidy Sauve - made 31 stops at the other end.
The Huskies (13-2-3) dominated the shot count over the course of the first two periods, but it was Clarkson (14-4-1) that struck for the first two goals. Loren Gabel opened the scoring at 4:52 of the first period, before Elizabeth Giguere doubled the lead at 12:57 of the second.
It appeared that Northeastern would be trailing heading into the third, before a stunning reversal turned the scales in the Huskies favor. Fontaine blasted home a pass from Matti Hartman at 18:31 of the second stanza to get NU on the board, and just 17 seconds later the game was tied as Alina Mueller forced a turnover and fed Anderson in front for the equalizer.
Brown then gave NU the lead at 19:06 of the second period, knocking home a pass from Tori Sullivan to send the crowd into an uproar heading into the second intermission.
Both teams had quality chances after Mariani tied the game at 3-3 at 3:50 of the third, but the goaltenders took over from there to ensure that the spoils were split.
The teams will square off once again on Sunday at noon local time, 7 a.m. ET.