[slickr-flickr tag =”mens hockey acadia” type=”slideshow” captions=”on”]
By: Jason Mastrodonato, News Staff
The last thing head coach Greg Cronin wanted was another injury during a meaningless exhibition game.
“Honest to God, before the game started, I was just keeping my fingers crossed, hoping we’d get through it healthy,” Cronin said. “I was more disappointed that we weren’t able to inject some energy into the DogHouse because there was a good group of them for kind of a meaningless game.”
Following last year’s preseason tune-up, Cronin got some bad news while sitting on the couch in his Maine home: Steve Qualier, a talented forward coming off a strong freshman campaign in which he notched 25 points in 41 games, tore his ACL and required season-ending surgery.
Cronin said he was devastated and determined not to let that happen again. So while the Huskies dropped the exhibition match to Acadia University, who traveled from Canada to play Saturday night in front of more than 1,800 fans at Matthews Arena, a 3-2 loss didn’t seem so bad.
The Huskies out-shot their opponents 36-32, but came up short after a brief 6-on-4 power play went unfulfilled as the third period expired.
[Acadia players] were blocking shots like it was the Stanley Cup Playoffs,” Cronin said. “They play an exhibition game with a little more enthusiasm than you’d think an exhibition game should be played … So my goal was to get the guys some live ammunition, get everybody through the game, try to get a sense of chemistry for the lines, get those young guys some ice time and then go from there.”
Despite the loss, the coach said he saw a lot of encouraging signs.
The young line of sophomore brothers Drew and Justin Daniels, along with freshman Cody Ferriero, provided a spark during their time on the ice. The Daniels brothers each returned bigger and stronger than they were last year; Justin gained 10 pounds and Drew gained 20. Ferriero, the sniper from Essex, rifled a slap shot that knocked an Acadia defender to his knees and eventually out of the game.
“Ferriero’s one-timer is frightening,” Cronin said. “And [the Daniels-Daniels-Ferriero line] just played a possession game. They had the puck a lot. I loved the way they took it to the net.”
Cronin said he was impressed with two of his lines and thought the other two needed work, but wouldn’t identify them.
Freshman Zak Stone scored his first collegiate goal in the second period and connected on some big hits throughout the game.
Sophomore goalie Chris Rawlings stopped 21 of 23 shots in two periods of play, but was replaced in the third period by freshman Clay Witt. Rawlings wasn’t exactly a model of consistency last year, but showed flashes of greatness the Huskies are hoping will become more frequent, Cronin said.
“Someone told me before last season, ‘Whenever you start a season with a freshman goalie, you never know what you’re going to get,’” Cronin said during media day at TD Garden last Wednesday.
“One of the things Chris has to learn is that when he has a bad game, get over it, it’s over,” Cronin said. “If he can do that, he’s going to be real special … He has the ingredients, it’s all about his mind.”
Following a year of rehabbing his knee, Qualier got his coach’s attention, even dishing out an assist on the Huskies first goal by junior forward Mike McLaughlin, who wristed in a rebound in the first period of the exhibition.
“I’m feeling better,” Quailer said after the game, showing his sense of humor while performing one-legged squats to prove his health. “There were a lot of people here for this game. That was awesome. It sucks that we got a loss in front of them.”
Defensemen Drew Muench, a junior, and Randy Guzior, a senior, also missed significant time to injuries last season and Cronin said he was happy to see them skating with ease as well. They’ll provide most of the experience on an otherwise young defensive unit, which includes four freshmen and one sophomore.
Jamie Oleksiak, a 6-foot-7 inch, 240-pound freshman, will provide some size on the blue line that the Huskies have been without in the recent years. The 17-year-old hasn’t let his imposing figure stop him from becoming a respectable skater, said Cronin, who thinks Oleksiak could be a first-round NHL draft choice next summer.
“He skates goofy, but he’s starting to become more athletic,” the coach told reporters during media day.
He compared Oleksiak to a young Zdeno Chara, the 6-foot-9 inch defenseman for the Boston Bruins who Cronin coached during his tenure with the New York Islanders.
“They’re very similar,” Cronin said. “Chara skated goofy too. But his size and strength are out of control.”
With increased size at the defensive end and a large portion of the offense returning, Quailer said he can’t help but be optimistic for the upcoming season. After finishing ninth out of 10 in Hockey East last year (11-14-2 league, 16-16-2 overall), Northeastern was ranked No. 5 in the preseason poll.
“Being ninth is motivation enough,” Qualier said. “We don’t want to be in that spot again.”
The four teams ranked ahead of Northeastern in the conference are Boston College at No. 1 (a team that Cronin said can win all 40 games this season and is one of the best college hockey teams in recent memory), Maine at No. 2, New Hampshire at No. 3 and Boston University at No. 4. All four of those teams are ranked in USA Today’s top-15 poll, and while Northeastern was left off the list, it did receive 14 votes.
Tickets for the Huskies’ home opener against BC Saturday at 7 p.m. are nearly sold-out. The season officially opens Friday at Providence.
Quailer said the 10 freshmen on the team have no idea what the DogHouse has in store.
“They’re going to see something new,” he said, smirking. “It’s a new experience. Some of them will be nervous. I’ll even be nervous.”
