Lisa Jönsson is why Northeastern hasn't blinked

Northeastern's skaters get the headlines, and they've earned them. But the Huskies are 4-0-0 in Hockey East and fourth in the USCHO poll because the goalie behind them rarely gives a game back.

Lisa Jönsson is a junior from Stockholm and one of Northeastern's assistant captains, the only third-year player in the leadership group. She opened the league schedule with a 26-save shutout of Providence. She made 52 saves across a weekend against Quinnipiac, then fourth in the country.

Through her first four games she was at a .970 save percentage with two shutouts. It's a small sample, and her last two seasons say it isn't a fluke.

The Sweden debut

This fall she also played her first game for Sweden's senior team: 15 saves in a 5-0 shutout of Switzerland. "It was really fun to finally play senior national team hockey," she said.

She isn't on Sweden's roster for the World Championship that opens Friday in Denmark. Sweden went with Ebba Svensson Träff, Emma Söderberg and Ida Boman. That means Northeastern keeps its starter for every November weekend, and it's playing the whole season without a home rink.

The standard on Huntington Avenue

Northeastern goalies come with a bar. The line runs through Chanda Gunn and Florence Schelling, then Aerin Frankel and Gwyneth Philips, who are the current U.S. starters. Jönsson's sophomore season, 21-7-1 with a .939 save percentage, said she belongs in that sentence.

"Having [Flint] behind me and having him trust me has been the biggest thing for me," she said of coach Dave Flint.

The race

Women's Hockey East is a two-team race in early November. Boston College leads with 13 points from five league games. Northeastern has 12 from four and hasn't lost one. Nobody else has more than five, per the conference standings.

Next for the Huskies: Saturday at Vermont, 3 p.m. ET. The Catamounts are 0-2-0 in the league, and that's the kind of game a goalie wins by being boring.

The W read: Northeastern's depth gets the goals. Jönsson is why a two-goal night is still a win, and that's the profile of a team that plays in March.