The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Yale’s bid for Frozen Four blocked by Northeastern
NEW HAVEN — Yale won’t be going to the NCAA Women’s Frozen Four for the second year in a row.
The fourth-seeded Bulldogs dropped a 4-1 contest to fifthseeded Northeastern Saturday afternoon at Ingalls Rink. Last year, Yale advanced to the Frozen Four, where it was eliminated ousted by Ohio State, 2-1, in the national semifinals.
“Losing in the quarterfinals is the one which really stings,” Yale coach Mark Bolding said. “You know you’re good enough to get to the Final Four, but someone’s not going. It was a good matchup of two good hockey teams. If it’s not us, go Huskies.”
On the other hand, it will be Northeastern’s third consecutive trip to the Frozen Four. The Huskies lost to Wisconsin, 2-1, in overtime in the 2021 national championship game and were knocked out by Minnesota-Duluth in the semifinals, 2-1, in double overtime in 2022.
Northeastern (34-2-1) will play top-ranked Ohio State in the national semifinals in Amsoil Arena in Duluth, Minnesota, Friday night. Ohio State topped Quinnipiac, 5-2, in the quarterfinals Saturday night.
“We’re excited to go back to the Frozen Four,” Northeastern coach Dave Flint said.
It also was the 22nd consecutive victory for Northeastern, which hasn’t lost since suffering a 3-0 defeat at Providence Nov. 15. “We haven’t mentioned winning 22 in a row and we don’t talk about it,” Flint said. “My approach is whoever is next in front of us.”
Yale had a couple of good opportunities early in the first period, one thanks to a turnover by Northeastern deep in its own end of the ice and another when Kiersten Goode sent a blast from in between the circles that clanked off the top of the crossbar.
The best chance for the Huskies in the first 20 minutes came at the 11:37 mark when defenseman Megan Carter’s shot from the top of the right circle hit the right post and bounced away.
The Bulldogs had a couple of chances with just over two minutes left in the period but twice forwards fell down trying to get shots around Northeastern players that were sprawled on the ice.
“We didn’t get enough timely traffic and didn’t elevate our shots early enough,” Bolding said. “And we couldn’t find any rebounds.”
Northeastern broke a scoreless deadlock through 4:22 into the second period when Skylar Irving raced down the right boards and found Lily Shannon wide open in front of the net. |
Shannon, who beat three Yale defensemen, skated across the crease and backhanded a shot past Yale goalie Pia Dukaric (26 saves) to make it 1-0.
Yale (28-4-1) seemingly had tied things at 1-1 with 3:18 left in the second period but Naomi Boucher’s goal just outside the crease was ruled by the referees to be a high stick above the waist and was disallowed.
Northeastern tacked on an insurance goal just 2:27 into the third period when Megan Carter’s shot from just inside the blue line was deflected in by Chloe Aurard over Dukaric’s right shoulder.
“It was a two-goal swing in a matter of a short period of time,” Flint said. “It can be crushing to a team to get a goal disallowed and then the other team scores.”
The Huskies made it even more difficult for Yale by making it 3-1 with 10:23 to play in the game when Alina Mueller blasted a return pass from Aurard into the net past Dukaric.
Yale finally got on the board when Anna Bargman popped in a rebound past Northeastern goalie Gwyneth Phillips with 4:39 to go.
But Bargman took a tripping penalty 11 seconds later and the Bulldogs couldn’t pull their goalie until 1:55 was left.
Even with a 6-on-4 advantage in the final 1:39 when Northeastern’s Maude Poulin-Labelle was whistled for tripping, Yale wasn’t able to score again.
“It wasn’t the result we wanted,” Bolding said.
Maureen Murphy added an open net shorthanded goal for Northeastern with 40.1 seconds left.
Gwyneth Phillips was phenomenal in goal for Northeastern with 38 saves, three or four of the highlight variety.
“This is huge for us to go to the Frozen Four,” Phillips said.