[youtube width=”630″ height=”510″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4776vae7Dk[/youtube]
By: Jason Mastrodonato, News Staff
Senior forward Wade MacLeod scored what he called the most important goal of his career Saturday night as the men’s hockey team earned a 3-3 draw with No. 10 Maine at Matthews Arena.
With less than three minutes remaining, freshman Anthony Bitetto threw the puck on net and MacLeod deflected it in behind Maine goalie Shawn Sirman, giving the Huskies a pivotal Hockey East point as they salvaged the 3-3 tie.
Northeastern jumped out to a two-goal lead in the second period, then Maine scored three straight before MacLeod’s goal tied things up and allowed the Huskies (7-10-5, 6-7-4 HEA) to avoid being swept by the Black Bears (11-6-5, 8-4-3 HEA), who won both games by a score of 4-2 on their home ice in Orono earlier this season.
The Huskies are 4-1-1 in their last six games, and the 2,182 fans in attendance formed the largest crowd at Matthews Arena since NU romped Providence, 5-0, in front of 2,348 back in November.
“It was exciting out there,” said MacLeod, who leads the team with 11 goals and 11 assists. “A couple years ago, the crowds were like that every game. It’s such a fun place to play when the DogHouse is full and they’re all chanting, so it was definitely huge to get that point and give them something to cheer about.”
Saturday’s game marked the first time Northeastern faced an opponent with a winning record since playing Boston University in early December, and the Huskies appeared timid in the opening frame, taking just five shots on net.
“It was really kind of a sleepy period,” assistant coach Albie O’Connell said. “There wasn’t a lot going on and we just weren’t very physical. We weren’t skating as well as we could.”
With a man advantage to start the second, Bitetto converted on a rebound chance off MacLeod’s shot to give Northeastern the early lead.
Just 65 seconds later, freshman forward Rob Dongara carried the puck into the zone and dropped a pass to junior forward Mike McLaughlin, who unleashed a slap shot to the top-right corner as the Huskies went up 2-0.
But the discipline problems that rank Northeastern No. 10 in the nation in penalty minutes, averaging 16.43 per game, came back to haunt them later in the period.
Already trying to kill a 5-on-3, and with another Northeastern penalty looming and Sirman skating toward the bench to give the Black Bears an extra man, forward Brian Flynn redirected a shot from Detroit Red Wings draft pick forward Gustav Nyquist to put Maine on the board.
With the power play still intact less than a minute later, Tanner House flung a shot through traffic that beat NU sophomore goalie Chris Rawlings to even the score at two a piece.
House scored again early in the third to take the 3-2 lead.
But the Huskies were able to get off a team-high nine shots in the final frame, eventually breaking through on MacLeod’s goal with 2:36 remaining.
“That was a great goal; a great effort,” Maine coach Tim Whitehead said. “He made some real good plays tonight.”
The British Columbia native is now 31st all-time in NU scoring with 114 career points and has been the Huskies’ go-to player in the offensive zone.
O’Connell said he’s never seen MacLeod more on top of his game.
Northeastern sophomore goalie Chris Rawlings entered the game riding back-to-back shutouts, but his scoreless streak ended at a total of 167 minutes and 12 seconds.
“I thought he played great tonight,” O’Connell said. “I don’t think he made a mistake. The two power play goals he didn’t really have a shot at. It would have been impossible to save.”
The Huskies are in sixth place in Hockey East with a chance to pick up four more points in two games vs. Massachusetts this weekend. The puck drops at 7:30 p.m. at Matthews Friday and will be broadcast on NESN as the Hockey East Game of the Week.
The first 1,000 fans at the arena will receive a replica jersey T-shirt.
“Our goal as a team is to battle back to .500 in the league and out-of-conference, so we have to inch our way closer,” MacLeod said. “We’ve just have a lot of confidence right now. Any night, the guys in the dressing room, we know we can beat any team and that’s what we need.”
Video / Hockey East
