By Eoghan Kelly, News Staff
In its first competitive game of the 2012-13 season, the men’s hockey team came out on the losing end of a 4-3 exhibition decision Sunday to St. Francis Xavier University of Canada.
But despite the loss, the Huskies gave fans a lot to be excited about.
Senior goaltender Chris Rawlings looked solid, the newcomers to the Northeastern roster were impressive and the Huskies scored a goal on their first power play opportunity of the game – all signs that the red and black are poised for a bounce-back season after missing the Hockey East playoffs in 2011-12.
“It was a good test for us just to see how our guys measured up,” head coach Jim Madigan said. “I liked the way we moved the puck a little bit on the power play, we killed penalties fairly well for our first time at it.”
Rawlings, a 24-year-old senior and fourth-year starter who struggled down the stretch in 2011-12, was a strong presence in the Northeastern net throughout the first period and looked confident in front of a young defense. He stopped five of the six shots he faced, the lone goal coming on a power play deflection through a screen 12:28 into the game.
Rawlings was replaced at the start of the second period by freshman Derick Roy, one of eight skaters making their Northeastern debuts.
Highly-touted freshman forward Kevin Roy skated on the second line with juniors Braden Pimm and Cody Ferriero and saw time on the Huskies’ first power play unit. The three combined for nine of Northeastern’s 40 shots – the most of any forward line on Sunday – and assisted on sophomore forward Ludwig Karlsson’s power play goal that gave the Huskies a 2-0 lead.
Freshman forward Cam Darcy made an impact on the penalty kill, helping Northeastern kill two of three penalties.
In spite of all their collective success, though, nerves ran high for the Northeastern newcomers yesterday in the defensive zone. The Huskies struggled in breaking the puck out of their end and maintaining possession through the neutral zone.
“We gotta do a lot of work on our D-zone,” Madigan said. “There was too many breakdowns there, and it wasn’t in a lot of ways structural breakdowns as it was just not being strong enough on pucks … We’ll raise that bar in our own zone.”
The Huskies failed to maintain their momentum after taking a 3-1 lead and allowed three unanswered goals to concede the game to the X-men.
“The effort’s there, there’s a willingness to compete, but the pace is a lot faster than what they’re used to playing at,” Madigan said. “Overall, there’s some good things there and then there’s some things that we’re gonna have to work on.”
After finishing at 2.70 goals per game last season – good for only sixth in Hockey East – the Huskies put up three goals and hit a handful of posts Sunday. What’s more noteworthy is that they racked up 40 shots on goal, an encouraging statistic for a team that was so collectively reluctant to shoot the puck last season.
Madigan said he has confidence in his team’s offensive capabilities for this year.
“I thought we had a lot of looks,” Madigan said. “We want to direct a lot of shots to the net, which we did. We got some traffic in there, we had a chance with 12 seconds left, a good chance at the end, so I think we’ll get our looks [this season].”
Getting shots on goal will be vital for the red and black in their regular season debut Wednesday against Merrimack College. The Warriors lost senior goaltender and 2011-12 Hockey East First Team All-Star Joe Cannata after last season and will likely start either sophomore Rasmus Tirronen – who has never started a collegiate game – or junior Sam Marotta. Marotta, who has just 10 career starts, stopped 33 of 34 shots in a 4-1 win over 2012 Frozen Four semifinalist Union College on Saturday.
After the 1-7-2 start the Huskies had to last year’s season, the team will be hungry for a win to start their 2012-13 campaign Wednesday. But to get two points, Madigan said, the Huskies will be busy preparing for Merrimack in the short week.
“If we don’t take anything from this game to apply it to Wednesday, then this game wasn’t valuable,” Madigan said. “For me, the biggest need we need to work on is our own zone … That’s our biggest challenge in a short period of time.”
