By: Jared Shafran, News Staff
Backed by two strong performances from sophomore goaltender Chris Rawlings, the men’s hockey team earned three points from it’s weekend series against the UMass Amherst Minutemen.
Northeastern improved its record to 8-10-7 overall and 7-7-6 in Hockey East play, good for sixth place in the standings.
Rawlings held the Minutemen scoreless Friday in a 3-0 victory for his third shutout in four games, then made 39 saves in a 2-2 tie the following night when the team traveled to Amherst.
Friday night, the Huskies took the lead in the second period when freshman center Braden Pimm came down the left side, moved in front of UMass goaltender Paul Dainton, and made a perfect deke to free up the right side and put the puck in the open net.
NU broadened its lead to 2-0 when freshman forward Rob Dongara wristed one over Dainton’s right shoulder and into the net for his fifth goal of the season.
The Huskies buckled down in the third period as the defense clamped down on the UMass chances, not allowing any type of comeback.
“The team’s playing well and it’s making my job easier,” Rawlings said. “The second half of the season is huge, especially the last three weekends. It’s nice to be on a roll like we are heading into those last weekends, because they’re huge and it’s such a tight race.”
Minutemen head coach Don Cahoon elected to pull his goaltender with just over two minutes remaining and senior captain Tyler McNeely capitalized by hitting the empty netter and sealing the game for NU.
“I think our back-checking has gotten more intelligent about how they’re coming back,” Huskies’ head coach Greg Cronin said. “That communication is critical and they’ve kind of figured it out.”
The next night, things evened out as neither team scored in both the third period and overtime and the teams skated to a 2-2 tie.
“I told our guys that we were lucky to get out of here with a point,” Cronin said. “The last time we were here our power play looked like the Vancouver Canucks power play, and tonight they did a great job shutting it completely down.”
Rawlings made 39 saves in the tie and kept the team in the game in overtime, making eight saves in the extra period.
“Their first goal they got was a bad goal,” Cronin said. “I don’t know what happened but a year ago that would’ve rattled [Rawlings], he might’ve struggled for a little bit. This year he just put it past him and he was good the rest of the way.”
After Friday night’s game, Rawlings said he is feeling more comfortable between the pipes this season.
“It’s not my first year this year, I’m used to every rink,” Rawlings said. “Everything about college hockey is nothing new to me.”
The offense came quickly in the second game of the series as senior forward Wade MacLeod scored just 33 seconds into the contest, giving the Huskies the early 1-0 lead.
The Minutemen wasted no time in responding, and forward Chase Langeraap tied the game 1:16 later.
UMass then took its first lead of the weekend when forward Michael Pereira notched his tenth goal of the season, beating Rawlings to the top right corner of the net.
The Huskies tied the game on MacLeod’s second goal of the night and 13th of the season – 3:01 into the second period.
On a night where most of the Huskies’ offense came from their number-one line composed of three seniors, Cronin spoke about how important they are to his team.
“We’re blessed to have them because not only are they good players, they’re good people,” Cronin said. “Those guys are critical and they were good tonight.”
Northeastern has one more game left before the Beanpot: No. 12 Merrimack at Matthews Arena Friday at 7 p.m.
NU will play Harvard in the first round of the annual Monday night tournament at the TD Garden. The puck drops at 5 p.m. and the game will be televised by NESN.
