By Eoghan Kelly, News Staff
For much of Wednesday night’s Hockey East season-opener, the men’s hockey team gave the 1,350 fans at Matthews Arena a glimpse of the future, and began to rectify previous seasons’ woes by winning their first season opener since 2007 with a 4-2 win over Merrimack College.
The Huskies stymied the United States College Hockey Online (USCHO) No. 19 Merrimack Warriors with a ferocious offensive attack powered by its highly touted freshman class, and complemented by a strong special teams presence and poised goaltending – all traits they lacked in 2011-12.
But the remainder of the game pitted the Warriors against a Northeastern team highly reminiscent of the squad that missed last year’s playoffs, a team insecure when playing with the lead and frequently set backward by inopportune penalties.
“They’re a quality opponent, just like all the other nine opponents in [Hockey East Association],” head coach Jim Madigan said after the game. “These are games last year that we might not have found our way to get two points, and I was pleased the way we found two points tonight.”
For the first 20 minutes, the Huskies played like a team with something to prove, striking three times in the first 8:33 and forcing the Warriors to take an early timeout in attempt to chip away at their opponent’s momentum.
Northeastern (1-0 HEA) scored on its first shot of the game when senior forward Garrett Vermeersch tipped a shot from the point off the stick of freshman defenseman Colton Saucerman just 53 seconds into the game. The goal rattled Merrimack (0-1 HEA) sophomore goalie Rasmus Tirronen, who was making his first career start.
The Huskies didn’t give Tirronen a chance to settle in. Sophomore forward Joe Manno scored on a backhander four minutes later, and freshman forward Kevin Roy one-timed home a wide-open shot on the power play at 8:33 to spring the Huskies to a 3-0 lead.
Roy also assisted on Manno’s goal, giving him two points in his first collegiate game.
Merrimack head coach Mark Dennehy defended Tirronen, saying the goals were products of defensive breakdowns that prevented the sophomore from getting acclimated to the pace of the game.
“I thought he played fine,” Dennehy said. “Of the three goals he gave up, I don’t know that any of them were his fault. The first one was a really nice tip. He was fine. He was not our problem.”
But Husky senior forward Vinny Saponari, who had two assists in the game, said the early lead gave his team an enormous momentum boost.
“It just gets the team fired up, gives us confidence,” he said. “Maybe we take an extra moment with the puck – little more confidence, little more poise. It started us off on the right foot to get things rolling.”
Northeastern continued to apply pressure for the remainder of the period, outshooting the Warriors 16-5 and not giving up a penalty.
The second period was a different story.
Merrimack reversed its fortune in the middle frame, earning six power plays and scoring two unanswered goals to make it a 3-2 game.
The first goal came when sophomore forward Quinn Gould pushed a loose puck past senior goaltender Chris Rawlings 4:20 into the period.
The goal allowed Merrimack to push the Huskies onto their heels for the remainder of the period, creating quality scoring chances in front, possessing and cycling the puck low into the Northeastern zone and winning the shot battle 13-8.
It seemed like Northeastern might escape the period with a two-goal lead, but sophomore forward Justin Mansfield beat Rawlings with a bad-angle shot high to the short side to cut the deficit to a single goal with 4:52 remaining.
“By the time we woke up, we had a three-goal deficit,” Dennehy said. “Our guys stayed with it and we clawed ourselves back into the game, but just too little too late.”
Letting up after securing an early lead was a trademark characteristic of the Huskies of old. But contrary to last year’s team, Saponari said, Northeastern was able to retake control of the game in the third period.
“We had a knack for kind of having periods or moments off in the game that cost us last year,” Saponari said. “We got into some penalty trouble, some turnovers in the second period and Merrimack capitalized on them … We were able to weather the storm and that’s what matters, and we refocused after the second and came out and were more poised in the third.”
Goaltending and special teams proved to be the difference in the game.
Tirronen settled down after the three-goal first period and stopped the final 27 shots he faced, including a flurry of chances late in the third period.
But Rawlings did him one better, turning aside 30 of 32 attempts and 16 in the final 20 minutes.
Despite taking an alarmingly high eight penalties, the Northeastern penalty kill unit helped keep the Warriors at bay by blocking shots and disrupting passing lanes in the neutral zone. The result was seven of eight man-advantage attempts killed off and a shorthanded empty-net goal by senior forward Robbie Vrolyk to seal the game with 58 seconds remaining.
“We put an emphasis and a premium on our special teams,” Madigan said. “I thought our penalty killing did a great job. We pressured when we needed to and we recognized situations off of their power play.”
Roy said the early-season matchup with Merrimack – a team two years removed from a NCAA tournament berth that beat No. 5 Union College 4-1 Saturday – allowed him and the other Hockey East newcomers to get used to the pace of the college game.
“The college-level game is really fast and you gotta do everything faster than I did in the past year,” Roy said. “I think I learned that tonight and I gotta work on that on some opportunities.”
But the Huskies can’t afford to get comfortable. Their next two games are against defending national champion and No. 1 Boston College, the first coming Saturday night at Matthews Arena.
Madigan said the Huskies will be looking to avenge the four losses they suffered to the Eagles in 2011-12.
“We’ll obviously relish tonight’s win and we’ll start preparing tomorrow for Boston College,” he said. “I know we’ll be ready to play. They’re obviously a great team, Boston College. We’ll bring our best and hope that’s gonna be good enough.”
