By Jason Mastrodonato, News Staff
Every opposing coach that has come into Matthews Arena this season has offered nothing but praise for Northeastern’s top line of seniors Wade MacLeod, Tyler McNeely and Steve Silva.
The forwards finished the year as the Huskies’ top three scorers and point-getters, accounting for nearly half (46 of 108) of the team’s goals.
Head coach Greg Cronin has big skates to fill for next year’s squad.
“Wade, Tyler and Stevie scored a lot,” Cronin said. “It looks like we got the whole team back [next season]. But we lost a heck of a lot of scoring, so we’re going to have to come up with that between now and September.”
The three seniors were the magic wand that sprinkled fairy dust over the rest of the Northeastern squad sometime in January, when theHuskies caught fire and went 11-7-4 in the second half of the season.
With the combination of McNeely’s leadership, Silva’s gutsy efforts that seemed to show up night-in and night-out, and MacLeod’s explosive playmaking abilities (which earned him second-team Hockey East All-Star honors), the top line wreaked havoc against even the nation’s best goaltenders.
“Those three seniors, when they put them on the ice in any combination, they’re really dangerous,” Boston College coach Jerry York said. “Those are three dynamic players up front.”
The Huskies will also be without seniors Mike Hewkin and Randy Guzior, who won’t be easy to replace. But surely, the first-line’s production will be the biggest gap to fill when Cronin and his coaching staff turn their focus from game preparation to recruiting over the next several months.
The good news for Northeastern is that they’ve got a great foundation to build upon.
With the emergence of freshman goalie Clay Witt, who finished the season with a 1.86 goals against average and .940 save percentage in nine games, and if sophomore Chris Rawlings can learn from his late-season troubles, Cronin will have two very capable goaltenders to work with.
In front of them will be a blue line that included four freshmen who gained valuable experience this year, including the 6-foot, 7-inch Jamie Oleksiak and Anthony Bitetto, who developed quite a rapport with classmate Brodie Reid as the directors of the power play unit.
“It’s a lot easier to go into the [Hockey East] tournament [with experience],” Cronin said. “They know what the expectation is, what the mechanics of the tournament are. So a lot of the trimmings that go along with being in the tournament, we’ve already been through, so that’s a good thing. The other thing is, it’s a measuring stick of where we want the program to go. Two years ago the tournament ended for us but we were going to the NCAA as a one or two-seed, turned out to be a two-seed. This year we didn’t have that and we were desperate to get a championship and go. So the young guys can get a sense of what that is.”
Reid (11 goals, 17 assists) and Bitetto (3 goals, 17 assists) were named to the Hockey East All-Rookie Team, and along with forward Cody Ferriero, who possesses a slap shot that has injured opposing skaters this season, and the speedy forward Rob Dongara, the Huskies should have a bright future as they look to continue their climb back into the nation’s top 20.
“Northeastern, you look at their club, and they without any question have the best freshmen class in the league,” York said.
If Cronin and his coaching staff bring in recruits that can come close to matching those of this year’s rookie class, York and the rest of the Hockey East coaches will be dreading any visits to Matthews Arena come next fall.
