Northwestern v Maryland: The Best Final in College Hockey This Weekend
No. 1 against No. 2. The two best teams in the country. A rematch of a 4-2 classic from two weeks ago. The Big Ten final on Sunday is the game of the weekend, and it’s not close.
Northwestern against Maryland, Sunday at noon ET (10pm PKT) at Buckeye Varsity Field in Columbus, live on the Big Ten Network. The winner takes the Big Ten Tournament title and the league’s automatic NCAA bid. The loser will still make the NCAA field, almost certainly. But nobody in this game is thinking about at-large bids.
Two teams, one loss between them
Northwestern are 17-2. Maryland are 18-1. They shared the regular-season Big Ten title at 7-1 each, and Northwestern took the top seed on the head-to-head tiebreaker.
That head-to-head is the story of this final. On 22 October, No. 2 Northwestern hosted No. 1 Maryland at Lakeside Field in Evanston, and Olivia Bent-Cole produced one of the performances of the season: a hat trick, including two goals in the fourth quarter, as the Wildcats came from 2-1 down to win 4-2. Ella Kokinis added the fourth. Maryland’s Ella Beach and Jordyn Hollamon had put the Terps ahead, but Northwestern scored three times in the final 15 minutes and snapped Maryland’s 14-game winning streak.
It was Northwestern’s seventh straight win over Maryland. Seven. The Terps haven’t beaten the Wildcats in years, and that has to be sitting in the back of their minds.
How they got here
Friday’s semifinals went exactly to form. Northwestern shut out No. 5 seed Indiana 3-0, with Raquel Hofmeister scoring from a drag flick in the 22nd minute, Big Ten Player of the Year Ashley Sessa adding one in the 33rd, and Bent-Cole sealing it in the 46th. Goalkeeper Juliana Boon made a career-high eight saves for the Wildcats’ ninth shutout of the season.
Maryland were just as convincing, beating No. 6 seed Iowa 4-1. Hollamon opened the scoring inside five minutes, Babs van Hest scored twice, and Ella Beach added another, with Maryland winning the penalty corner count 10-1. Iowa’s Fréderique van Cleef, who has 18 goals this season, got one back, but the Terps were never in trouble.
What decides it
Corners, probably. Maryland live off them: they scored three times from set pieces against Iowa and have made the corner their main weapon all season. Northwestern’s defence, led by Boon in goal, just kept Indiana out for 60 minutes despite giving up six corners.
Then there’s Bent-Cole. Nine goals this season, a hat trick in the last meeting, and the kind of player who decides finals. Maryland’s answer is their own firepower: van Hest and Francisca Eschoyez are tied for the team scoring lead, and Beach and Hollamon are both teenagers playing like veterans.
Northwestern are chasing a second straight Big Ten Tournament title and their fourth overall, in their fifth straight final. They’re also the reigning national champions, going for a third straight NCAA crown. Maryland are chasing their first conference tournament title in eight years, and the coaches’ poll still has them ranked No. 1 in the country despite that October defeat.
For our money, Northwestern are slight favourites. They’ve beaten Maryland seven times in a row, they know how to win this fixture, and Boon is in the form of her life. But Maryland have been the best team in the country for most of this season, and a team that good doesn’t lose twice to the same opponent without a fight. Expect goals, expect a fourth-quarter swing, and don’t leave before the final whistle.
The NCAA selection show follows on Sunday night at 10pm ET.
