Alina Mueller became the all-time leading scorer in Northeastern hockey history with 250 points, passing Huskies legend Kendall Coyne Schofield with an empty-net goal to finish a 3-0 win over Boston College in a Hockey East semifinal Wednesday night at Matthews Arena.

“Once we’re done with the season it’s going to mean a lot,” Mueller said. “My teammates are happy for me and [that] means a lot. I couldn’t do it without them.”

The goal was Mueller’s 96th in 156 games since arriving at Northeastern in 2018 as a freshman from Winterthur, Switzerland. In her five seasons on Huntington Avenue—including an extra year provided by the NCAA in response to the COVID-19 pandemic—Mueller has led the Huskies to consecutive Frozen Fours.
Peyton Anderson netted Northeastern’s first two goals Wednesday, while Gwyneth Philips, the nation’s leading goalie, posted her 10th shutout of the season. The victory sets up what could be a historic Saturday for Northeastern’s hockey teams at Matthews.

At noon, the top-seeded Huskies (32-2-1) will seek an unprecedented sixth straight Hockey East tournament title against third-seeded Providence (22-10-4). The game will be televised by ESPNU.

At 7 p.m. the Northeastern men will host UMass-Lowell (NESN, ESPN+) in a season finale that could deliver them a second straight Hockey East regular-season title. The Huskies (13-6-3 in conference play) enter the last weekend just two points behind first-place Boston University with two games to play.

The men are also looking to qualify for the 16-team NCAA tournament for the second straight year. The Huskies (16-11-5 overall) are ranked No. 17 in the national Pairwise rankings, but can move up with wins over the River Hawks and an extended run in the upcoming Hockey East tournament.

Meanwhile, the fifth-ranked Northeastern women’s team has already qualified for the national tournament for a sixth straight season. Nonetheless, the Huskies will approach their seventh straight conference final appearance on Saturday with a twofold sense of urgency—to extend their record streak of Hockey East titles while also maintaining a high ranking for the NCAAs (the top five seeds get opening-round byes in the 11-team NCAA tournament).

The Huskies haven’t lost in 15 weeks. They’ve won 20 straight by a combined score of 75-16. 

“We were really good defensively today,” said Northeastern’s Dave Flint, who this week was named Hockey East coach of the year. The hungry Huskies outshot the visiting Eagles, 41-15. They’ve gone 5-0 against BC this season.

Anderson needed 47 seconds to open the scoring and she did so cleverly. The senior wing retrieved a Megan Carter shot and banked it in from behind the net off BC goalie Abigail Levy. 

“A lucky bounce,” Anderson said.

BC appeared to pull even in the second period when Katie Pyne redirected a centering pass from Abby Newhook. Flint saw enough to issue a challenge and Pyne was ruled to have interfered with Philips, taking the goal off the board. 

“I still think it should have been a goal,” BC coach Katie Crowley said. “Our player got pushed into the net by their player.”

In a huge swing just 73 seconds later, Anderson made it 2-0 with an inquiring shot along the endline that deflected in again by Levy as Taze Thompson earned her second assist of the night. Anderson said she was hoping to create a rebound and create it she did—for her 11th goal of the season.

“If I was on the other side of that, it’s a morale crusher,” Flint said. “You think you’ve tied the game and a couple minutes later you’re down two. It’s tough to recover from that.”

Anderson hit the pipe while going for the hat trick on a power play in the final five minutes. 

Apart from the hopes for another conference championship and the potential for a long-awaited NCAA title, the enduring takeaway Wednesday was Mueller’s goal. She won the puck at mid-ice and moved matter-of-factly to her spot like a shark roaming around a pool table, sizing up the shot that would look like easy money off her stick.

“I didn’t think anybody would ever come close to Kendall’s record,” Flint said of Coyne Schofield, who played four seasons at Northeastern from 2011 to 2016. “And here Alina has done that. It shows how great a player she is to be on that level.”

Mueller’s response was also revealing. She seemed to hardly celebrate the record-setting goal even as her teammates were mobbing her. And afterward she dismissed all talk of it.

“She doesn’t like being in the limelight, she would rather deflect to her teammates,” Flint said. “That’s why she’s so special. I’m sure she feels good about it and that she’s proud of it.”

“I just hope we can win the last game of my college career,” said Mueller, looking ahead to Saturday and beyond.

Ian Thomsen is a Northeastern Global News reporter. Email him at i.thomsen@northeastern.edu. Follow him on Twitter @IanatNU.