Respect.
Aretha Franklin sang about it. Now the Northeastern University women’s hockey program is starting to receive it.
For the second straight season, the Huskies have punched their ticket to the national semifinals, this time with an NCAA Tournament regional final victory over Wisconsin.
It was a sweet win for Northeastern. Not only did it put the Huskies within two victories of the program’s first national championship, the win avenged a loss to Wisconsin in last season’s national title clash.
Prior to the season, Northeastern was one of the favorites to advance to the Frozen Four.
The Huskies will be joined in University Park, Pa., by another New England team, Yale University.
Unlike Northeastern, which entered the season with a bullseye, expectations were not nearly as lofty for Yale, which was picked to finish seventh in the ECAC’s preseason poll.
But Yale went on the road and upset ECAC powerhouse Colgate in overtime to advance to Pennsylvania.
The semifinal games will be Friday, with the national championship game slated for Sunday.
Here’s a look at how New England’s four teams fared in the NCAA Tournament last week.
Northeastern
Graduate student Aerin Frankel stopped 39 of 41 shots to backbone the third-seeded Huskies to a 4-2 victory over seventh-seeded Wisconsin inside the friendly confines of Matthews Arena.
“It’s one of the most exciting games I’ve been a part of in a while,” NU head coach Dave Flint said. “I’m really proud of my group.”
Wisconsin threw everything but the kitchen sink at Frankel in a game featuring five of the 10 finalists for the Patty Kazmaier Award.
“We knew they were going to put a lot of shots on net. They know that if you’re going to score on Frankel, you've got to put a lot of shots on net,” Flint said. “Our main focus was to keep them to the outside and let her see the shots.”
Maureen Murphy, as she’s done all season, scored a big goal and added an assist. Also posting multi-point games in the marquee matchup were Maddie Mills, Katy Knoll and Brooke Hobson.
Northeastern (31-4-2) will play Minnesota Duluth in a semifinal Friday.
Yale
A year earlier, the Bulldogs had suffered an agonizing 2-1 overtime loss to Colgate in the ECAC championship game.
Yale was ready for the rematch, even if it came on enemy ice in Hamilton, N.Y. Senior forward Tess Dettling pounced on a rebound and sent it into the Colgate cage at 2:05 of overtime for a thrilling 2-1 win and the biggest goal in program history.
Fifth-seeded Yale (26-8-1) received a terrific 28-save performance from Gianna Meloni. Yale advanced despite being outshot 29-22.
“It was really a tense game, but we knew it was going to be,” head coach Mark Bolding said. “There were so many good offensive chances by both teams with great goaltending. I’m so proud of how we worked and found a way to do it. This is really a great moment for the program.”
The Bulldogs will battle top-seeded Ohio State on Friday. This marks Yale’s first appearance in the Frozen Four.
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Harvard
The ninth-seeded Crimson got off to a rocky start, allowing a goal just 39 seconds in, and never recovered against Minnesota Duluth during a 4-0 loss at the University of Minnesota.
It was the Gabbie Hughes show for Minnesota Duluth. Hughes scored the early goal and added two others for the hat trick. Senior Becky Dutton (Milford, Conn./Taft School) kicked aside 26 shots for Harvard (22-10-1), while senior Brooke Jovanovich put a team-high seven shots on net.
Despite the loss, it was a strong season for Harvard, which made its first NCAA Tournament appearance since the 2015 national championship game. That was also the last season Harvard had won 20 or more games.
Quinnipiac
The sixth-seeded Bobcats came oh so close to advancing to the Frozen Four.
After blanking 11th-seeded Syracuse, 4-0, in an opening round game, head coach Cassandra Turner’s team gave top-seeded Ohio State all it could handle before falling 4-3 in double overtime.
Grad student Corinne Schroeder, a transfer from Boston University, staged one of the greatest goaltending shows in NCAA Tournament history. Schroeder made 73 saves, just five off the tournament record.
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Quinnipiac (26-10-3) was outshot 77-22, but the underdogs went into the second OT with a chance to win.
Down 3-2, Taylor House forced overtime when she scored with just 1:22 left in regulation after the Bobcats pulled Schroeder for a sixth skater.
House also scored against Syracuse and Schroeder made 16 saves in the Syracuse victory, the program’s first NCAA Tournament win.
