Huskies shoot for Olympic dreams

Kendall Coyne, a star forward for Northeastern hockey, has amassed six points in her first four games for Team USA at the Winter Olympics in Sochi.

But she’s just one of four of the university’s women’s hockey Olympians who will have a chance to earn a medal on Thursday.

Coyne and U.S. assistant coach Hilary Witt, AS’01, will be looking for their first Olympic medals when the red, white, and blue play Canada on Thursday in the gold medal game. Opening faceoff is set for 12 p.m. on NBC.

In her first two seasons with Northeastern, Coyne amassed 63 goals and 50 assists, becoming the first Husky in more than a decade to record at least 45 points in consecutive campaigns.

One of the greatest players to ever don the red and black, Witt scored 113 goals in her college career (1996-00) and was a three-time candidate for the Patty Kazmaier Award, given annually to the top player in NCAA Division I women’s hockey.

“All the work we have done over the last three and a half years has been with gold in the back of our minds,” Coyne told news@Northeastern before leaving for Sochi. Now she and Witt are just one win away from reaching their goal.

Meanwhile, Switzerland’s Florence Schelling, DMSB ’13, and Julia Marty, S ’11, will be vying for the bronze medal when they face off against Sweden on Thursday at 7 a.m. on NBCSN.

In 68 games as Northeastern’s starting goaltender, Schelling compiled a 1.88 goals against average and .936 save percentage. In 82 games, Marty, a defender, scored 10 goals and added 28 assists.

Schelling was magnificent in the semifinals against Canada, stopping 45 of 48 shots in a hard-fought 3-1 loss. Marty logged a team-high 23:22 of ice-time and played a big part in setting up Switzerland’s second period goal.

Northeastern has already been well represented on Sochi’s medal podium; on Monday, Steve Langton, DMSB ’06, won bronze in the two-man bobsled event.