The UVM women’s hockey team suffered their first sweep of the season this weekend at the hands of the Northeastern Huskies. This doesn’t come as much of a shock seeing as the Huskies entered the weekend as the No. 2 team in the nation. As well, they led Hockey East with a 14-1-1 record.
However, there were some positives for UVM. The Catamounts, for most of the weekend, were able to compete well with Northeastern despite those couple minutes when the Huskies would dominate, which led to their back-to-back wins this weekend. Despite the sweep, UVM will host a quarterfinal game at the Gutterson Field House on Sunday the 28th.
Theresa Schafzahl
Despite not getting on the scoresheet on Friday, which ended her six-game point streak, her play was very much noticed, as she proved one of the stronger players in game one of the series. She finished the game with six shots on goal and won the only faceoff she took in the game. This comes as no surprise, as Schafzahl has been a beast offensively and continues to lead them in goals for the season. Once again on Saturday, she would continue to get pucks to the net, as she finished the weekend with 11 shots on goal.
Bella Parento
Bella Parento had a solid opening weekend, but has been quiet for the Catamounts ever since that was up until this weekend. On Friday, she recorded her third assist of the season and was involved in a lot of the game, making smart plays. She’s not a flashy player but this weekend, in particular, was one of Bella’s better weekends for Vermont.
It wasn’t only Parento who had a solid weekend, but it was a very good weekend for the entire blue-line despite what the scoreboard might have said. This poses well for UVM heading into their matchup in the quarterfinal.
Hailey Burns
The Kirkland, Quebec native had a very solid weekend for Vermont offensively. She started picking up an assist while also winning four of the six face-offs she had. On Saturday, she would add another assist, but would only win one of the four face-offs she would take.
The Burns line has been one of the hottest lines for the Catamounts the past two weekends. “It started with that second UConn game and it sparked our comeback and they didn’t score that weekend, but provided us with a bunch of energy,” said head coach Jim Plumer during Thursday’s media availability. They are now referred to as the conehead line.
Heading into the quarterfinals, this one of the strongest lines for UVM and that’s huge, especially knowing this isn’t the line they expect to get the most scoring from.