Penn State women’s hockey faces off against Northeastern in its first game of the season

The Penn State women’s hockey team is heading to Boston for its first game of the 2023 season against Northeastern. The games will be on Saturday at 3 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m.

Northeastern was 34-3-1 last season and its conference record was 24-2-1. Captain of the Huskies, Megan Carter, has 14 goals and 47 assists in 131 games in her career and has won a lot of awards and honors.

Last season, Penn State finished off the year with a record of 27-9-2 with the conference record being 14-1-1.

The Nittany Lions also won the CHA title for the first time which led to them making their first-ever appearance at the NCAA tournament. The blue and white fell to No. 8 Quinnipiac in the NCAA tournament that ended its season.

This season, the Nittany Lions look to come back even better.

In the offseason, head coach Jeff Kampersal named graduate student Julie Gough to serve as the team’s captain for the 2023-24 season.

Gough has 38 goals and 24 assists in 125 games played over her four years at Hockey Valley. Last season, she was named to the CHA All-Tournament team and the CHA Tournament MVP.

The offseason also included other announcements like Olivia Fox being named Director of Hockey Operations and the promotion of Ben Halford to Assistant Coach.

Kampersal is entering his seventh season with the Nittany Lions and he has been a game changer helping this team make history. He has won CHA Coach of the Year in the 2020-21 and 2022-23 seasons and he is a two-time AHCA National Coach of the Year finalist.

Head coach for the Huskies, Dave Flint has been with Northeastern for the past 13 seasons. In his time with the team, their record has been 287-137-41 and he has led them to six NCAA tournament appearances and two Frozen Four appearances.

Not only has Flint been with the Huskies, but in the 2010 Winter Olympics he served as assistant coach for Team USA. Flint has helped make history for the team and he has been named the Hockey East Coach of the Year four times and he was the All-New England Coach of the Year twice.

Not only are the coaches something to pay attention to, but each team has some incredible athletes. Some players to watch on Northeastern are Katy Knoll, Peyton Anderson and Megan Carter.

Last season, Knoll posted 34 points in 38 games while Anderson tailed 20 points and scored 5 powerplay goals. Lastly, Carter is someone to watch on the defensive end as last season she posted 55 blocks which was the second-most on the team.

The players to look at wearing blue and white include Tessa Janecke, Kendall Butze and Julie Gough.

Janecke is in her second season and during her first she posted 38 points in 28 games with 4 game-winning goals. Butze was +30 last season with 32 blocks. Gough, captain of the team, played 35 games last year tallying 21 points.

This will be quite the start to the season as this is the first time these teams will play each other and they are both looking to start with a win.

Kassandra Vasellas is a freshman majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact her, email kmv5506@psu.edu