By: Jason Mastrodonato, News Staff
And so the story continues.
For a team that’s gone 1-5 in one-goal games this season, blowing a two-goal lead and losing 5-4 in the final minutes against No. 7 Boston University last night seemed like a fitting way to end the first half of the season.
“We play so many one-goal games, and a lot of them we’ve lost without the help of the power play. So we have to find a way to get some greasy ugly goals,” head coach Greg Cronin told WRBB Sports radio. “We’re squeaking along. [Our record] is kind of pathetic.”
The Huskies took a 2-0 lead after outshooting their cross-town rivals 11-1 at one point in the first period at Agganis Arena. But a scrappy game in which starting goaltender Chris Rawlings had to be pulled after allowing four goals on 13 shots left BU head coach Jack Parker with some choice words for Cronin after the game.
“They should shoot the two of us for calling ourselves college hockey coaches,” Parker said.
Northeastern got goals from four different skaters, including a snipe by senior forward Wade MacLeod, to tie the game at 4-4 late in the third period. Freshman Clay Witt stopped six of seven shots off the bench. But a tripping penalty to senior captain Tyler McNeely with minutes remaining resulted in a power play goal for BU and a devastating loss to send the Huskies into the winter break with a 3-9-4 record, 3-6-3 in Hockey East.
“Obviously we’re disappointed,” Cronin said. “I thought we started out really well. We had a couple of reliable defensemen make foolish decisions down low and it cost us the game.”
As for his decision to pull Rawlings, Cronin said, “For me it was simple. They had four goals on about 13 shots. It’s not the goals as much as the way the puck was being managed. A lot of pucks came right back into areas where guys could swipe at him.”
The Huskies also skated with No. 17 Merrimack for a home-and-home series this past weekend, but struggled in the opening period at Matthews Friday and lost 2-1.
Merrimack outshot Northeastern 12-3 in the first frame, as the Huskies had a hard time retaining possession and struggled with a disorganized forecheck.
“I’ve been here for five-plus years and I’ve never seen anything like that,” Cronin said of his team’s play in the first 20 minutes. “That was bizarre. The poor guy eating popcorn up in the balcony was wondering the same thing. You can’t concede a period to a team like Merrimack and expect to come out on top, especially as tough defensively as they are.”
Despite controlling possession for the majority of the period, the Warriors held just a 1-0 lead heading into the second, though Cronin said Merrimack easily could have scored three or four times.
Following a brief 5-on-3 power play in the second period, Northeastern kept pressure on goaltender Joe Cannata, and nearly tied things up when sophomore forward Drew Daniels fired a quick snapshot that pinged off the post.
Merrimack went up 2-0 with four minutes remaining in the second. Stephane Da Costa was waiting on the right side of Rawlings and poked home a rebound for the Warriors’ second goal.
Sophomore forward Steve Quailer, who put up 26 points in his freshman campaign two years ago and was injury-ridden all of last season, scored his first goal of the year early in the third period. With Cannata sprawled out on the ice after a diving effort left the right side of the goal open, Quailer plucked the puck out of the air, set it down and stuffed it through two defenders’ sticks for the goal.
“It finally went in. That felt really good,” he said after the game. “The first five or six games, I wasn’t getting [any points or scoring chances] and now it’s finally coming together.”
Cronin said he has been looking for consistent production out of his second line all season. With the return of sophomore forward Justin Daniels, who was held out with an ankle injury, and the emergence of freshman forward Cody Ferriero, the coach believes there’s enough talent to start producing results similar to that of a top line. But first, Quailer wants to get back to form after missing all of last season.
“You don’t move your feet as much as you should, so it took me a while to get back,” Qualier said. “I’m finally playing better. I’m pretty close. There are still some things I have to work on every day, but it’s getting there.”
The Huskies outshot the Warriors 25-13 in the final two periods, but couldn’t put a second one in as Merrimack held on for the 2-1 win.
The following night in North Andover, Northeastern entered Lawler Arena looking to be the first team to beat Merrimack on its home ice all season. But again, the Huskies fell behind early as Da Costa put away a rebound to give his squad the early lead.
After a relatively quiet first period with just nine total shots on net, sophomore forward Garrett Vermeersch scored his first goal of the season to even the score, 1-1. Senior forward and captain Tyler McNeely added his sixth of the year on a power play later in the second, as the Huskies earned two conference points with a 2-1 win.
“We probably left four or five goals on the ice tonight and we’ve done that repeatedly,” Cronin said. “We have chances and we don’t put them in. Somewhere, as this things start to move forward, there’s got to be some sort of reliable offensive catalysts behind this team.”
