HAMDEN — Despite Northeastern scoring three straight to tie the game up in the third, a five-point night by junior right-winger Kahlen Lamarche powered the No.7 Bobcats past the No. 12 Northeastern Huskies Friday afternoon for their seventh straight victory.
The win, coming in the team’s final matchup against a Hockey East opponent until the Nutmeg Classic, demonstrated the Bobcats’ ability to perform against a ranked side.
“Every win against a top Hockey East team is incredibly important in the national picture,” head coach Cass Turner said.
For Quinnipac, the course of play highlighted many of the good aspects of the squad’s play. A strong defensive effort in the opening period, particularly against a Huskies side that had outshot opponents 149 to 59 coming into the matchup, was imperative for Quinnipiac to succeed in the contest.
For the first 37 minutes, that’s what the Bobcats did. Northeastern’s speed and harsh forecheck bent the Quinnipiac defense, but the back end, led by sophomore defender Makayla Watson and senior ECAC defender of the week Zoe Uens, refused to break.
On the offensive end of the puck, the name of the game was turnovers. The Northeastern defense came into this matchup with the fewest goals allowed in the NCAA, at just four in four games, so from puck drop, creating offense was going to be of utmost importance to the Bobcats.
For Quinnipiac’s first three scores, the squad capitalized in just that manner.
Both of the first two goals found iron—senior center Emerson Jarvis scored bar down on a two-on-one, and Lamarche corralled a puck in the neutral zone before banking her first off the near-side post.
Another defensive breakdown would lead to the third straight Quinnipiac score, with Lamarche once again capitalizing on the hard work of her teammates. Even though both of her goals in the opening two-thirds were unassisted, Lamarche doesn’t discount that the Bobcat domination at the start of the matchup was a team effort.
“Even the unassisted ones…wouldn’t have happened without the F1 forecheck, the F2 forecheck…it’s just all about the details,” Lamarche said.
The details would slip a bit in the final frame. Three straight Northeastern goals, two of which came from senior defender Jules Constantinople on the man-advantage, highlighted the main issue for Quinnipiac in this contest. Staying out of the penalty box.
Coming into this contest, Quinnipiac had only allowed one goal on the penalty kill. Constantinople doubled that within a minute in the third.
“We want to play physical. We want to stay out of the box,” Turner said.
“I think we were fed up with the penalties,” Lamarche said.
Lamarche certainly was. With less than four minutes remaining and the score knotted at three, the Bobcat’s leading point scorer would add to her goal tally, completing the hat trick on yet another odd-man rush for the Bobcat side.
In the closing minutes, special teams would shine once again. After four nearly back-to-back penalties on the Huskies, Quinnipiac’s power play would finally convert on its final of six scoring opportunities.
Once again, the Bobcat that found the back of the net was Lamarche, whose parting words for the afternoon remain a microcosm of the Bobcats’ 2025 season.
“I think we wanted that game more than they did,” Lamarche said.
Quinnipiac looks to sweep the series against Northeastern at home on Saturday, Oct. 18. Puck drop is set for 1 p.m.
