BOSTON — The Northeastern Huskies are headed to the 2020 Beanpot Final.
The Harvard Crimson and Northeastern battled it out over 60 hard-fought minutes in the Beanpot semifinal Tuesday night at Walter Brown Arena, with NU coming away with a 3-1 win.
Alina Mueller, Skylar Fontaine and Chloe Aurard (empty-netter) had the goals for Northeastern, while Shannon Hollands accounted for Harvard’s lone tally.
Both goalies were stellar in net. Becky Dutton turned away 35 shots for the Crimson, while Aerin Frankel stopped 31.
With the win, NU advances to the Beanpot Final on Feb. 11. It will take on the winner of the BU-BC semifinal.
Here’s how it all went down:
HUSKIES STRIKE FIRST
It was a hard-fought battle through the first 15 minutes and remained scoreless thanks to Dutton and Frankel standing tall between the pipes.
1st | Aerin Frankel keeping things fresh in the Beanpot with a nice save. #HowlinHuskies pic.twitter.com/7AEpzPJI5u
— Northeastern Women’s Hockey (@GoNUwhockey) February 4, 2020
The first goal didn’t come until there was 4:51 left in the first, when Mueller stole the puck in the Crimson zone and finally beat Dutton after the Harvard goalie stopped the first eight Northeastern shots.
Northeastern strikes first as the women's Beanpot is under way on NESNplus!@GoNUwhockey pic.twitter.com/DzOxd0MLA0
— NESN (@NESN) February 4, 2020
The Crimson had a chance to tie things up on a Lauren MacInnis cross-checking penalty, but proved unsuccessful. NU took a 1-0 lead into the second and held a 12-9 shot advantage.
ONE APIECE
Northeastern doubled its lead with just 3:27 gone from the second when Fontaine scored from the top of the right circle to put the Huskies up 2-0. Mueller accounted for the assist for her second point of the game and 51st of the season.
?SKY'S THE LIMIT?
Skylar Fontaine tacks on another goal to push the #HowlinHuskies lead to 2-0! Count the assists from Aurard and Mueller. pic.twitter.com/dyiszv4Hrt
— Northeastern Women’s Hockey (@GoNUwhockey) February 4, 2020
The Crimson killed off another NU power play and cut into its lead 45 seconds later on a Hollands shot that beat Frankel on a high right-corner blast.
Hollands' second of the year cuts the Huskies' lead in half!#GoCrimson pic.twitter.com/VY9e8nKvZm
— Harvard W Hockey (@HarvardWHockey) February 4, 2020
Harvard had ample tries to try to tie the score but Frankel stood on her head and allowed the Huskies to hold on to a 2-1 lead heading into the third.
The shots were tied at 23 apiece after 40.
HUSKIES SEAL IT
NU went on a power play 2:53 into the final period on a Cecilie Ehrhard interference call, but it didn’t last long as Mia Brown was whistled for tripping to make it a 4-on-4 just 21 seconds later. Both penalties successfully were killed off.
The Huskies looked poised to go up by two but Dutton wasn’t letting anything by her.
Another monster stop from Dutton. #GoCrimson pic.twitter.com/g8cRgU9sap
— Harvard W Hockey (@HarvardWHockey) February 4, 2020
Another MacInnis penalty led to a Crimson power play in the final three minutes, but the Huskies killed it off.
With Harvard’s goalie pulled, Aurard potted the empty-net goal to put the game away with 12 seconds left.
?EMPTY NETTER?
Chloe Aurard seals the deal with an empty netter and the #HowlinHuskies lead 3-1! pic.twitter.com/r8KJzDdcLv
— Northeastern Women’s Hockey (@GoNUwhockey) February 5, 2020
