Robert Morris women's hockey season ends with NCAA loss to Northeastern

ERIE — Senior Emily Curlett scored the first NCAA Tournament goal in the history of the Robert Morris women’s hockey team, but it was not enough as the Colonials’ season ended with a 5-1 loss to top-seeded Northeastern on Monday afternoon.

The Huskies opened the scoring with a short-handed goal in the first period and continued to wear down the Colonials as the game went on, a using fast pace and quick passes to get in behind the Robert Morris defense. A Skylar Fontaine breakaway midway through the second put RMU in a 2-0 hole.

Curlett’s goal looked like it might be the start of a turnaround for the Colonials.

With the Huskies about to carry a 2-0 lead into the second intermission, Robert Morris was on its second power play of the game. With under a minute left in the period, senior alternate captain Emilie Hardy attempted a shot from the point that was deflected. It dropped right in front of Curlett near the far faceoff dot. She one-timed it in to make it a one-goal game.

That was as close as the game would get.

Just 53 seconds later, Northeastern’s Alina Mueller, whose checking penalty led to Curlett’s power-play goal, buried a rebound with three ticks left to give the Huskies a 3-1 lead. It was a backbreaker for RMU.

“I think if we were able to go into the second 2-1, we might have had a bit more energy,” Robert Morris coach Paul Colontino said. “They took advantage of a great play and put themselves in a good position moving into the third.

“Overall, unfortunately, (this was) probably not our best game. To Northeastern’s credit, I thought they were amazing. They did a nice job of really just shutting us down for the majority of the night. Any opportunity we got, we really had to work for.”

Sophomore goalie Raygan Kirk kept the game close early on to give Robert Morris’ offense a chance. She made a career-high 41 saves in the game, and the defense helped her with 12 blocks.

Despite the loss, Colontino said he is optimistic for the future of his program and knows every trip to the national tournament brings an opportunity for his players to improve.

“It’s a great learning experience,” he said. “You cannot undermine what experience does for a team — experience at this level. The thing that you take away from a game like this, as an athlete and as a coach, is that fine line between winning and losing. That little bit of difference that … can have a huge, huge impact in a game. We’ll take all the experience we can get and continue to grow.”

After last season’s NCAA Tournament was canceled because of the coronavirus and with the uncertainty of whether this season would come together, Kirk said she was happy to have gotten these opportunities.

“We had no idea if we were even going to get to play this season, so to win a championship last weekend, it was a great finish,” Kirk said. “Some team has to lose. I think we’re just going to keep growing from here. We’ll be here next year, and the hope is we’re going to keep advancing every year.”

Robert Morris was making its second NCAA Tournament appearance. In 2017, the Colonials dropped a 7-0 decision to Wisconsin in a first-round matchup.