By Eoghan Kelly, News Staff
The freshman class of the men’s hockey team arrived at Northeastern from all over North America – a small lake town in Northeast Quebec to the cold, snowy heart of Wisconsin to nearby South Boston.
They took different routes to get here, some coming by way of the United States Hockey League, others through Canada’s top junior leagues, one even via the U.S. National Team Development Program. They each brought with them their own style of play but were surrounded by questions of whether their talents would transfer over from their junior careers to Hockey East when they arrived on campus.
Those doubts were put to rest Saturday night at sold-out Matthews Arena.
The talents of the Northeastern rookies were on full display as four freshmen – forwards Kevin Roy, Cam Darcy and Ryan Belonger, and defenseman Colton Saucerman – and second-year transfer Dax Lauwers helped the Huskies knock off defending national champion and then-No. 1 Boston College, 3-1.
“This league, you need contributions from freshmen if you’re gonna be successful,” head coach Jim Madigan said after Saturday’s game. “You look at the team we just played tonight, they’ve got freshmen who were very successful last year. We need the same thing and early in the year we’re getting it.”
In their first two games, the Huskies’ newcomers played major roles and combined for four goals, two game-winners and six assists, springboarding Northeastern to its first 2-0 start since 1999.
Darcy’s shutdown physical play in the defensive zone helped silence a BC (0-1) offense that ranked third in the NCAA and outscored the Huskies 15-5 in 2011-12. He also established himself as a legitimate two-way player, earning his first two collegiate assists on plays that led to Belonger’s and Saucerman’s first-career goals at Northeastern.
But Darcy said the value of Saturday’s game came from the win.
“My whole life, I always dreamed of playing college hockey in Boston and always grew up watching Northeastern, [Boston University], BC,” Darcy said. “And then to now be at Northeastern, beat a team like BC, especially when they’re ranked No. 1, it’s always a dream come true.”
Despite each earning an assist in the Huskies’ season-opening 4-2 win over Merrimack College (0-1) on Oct. 10, Saturday was the coming out party for Northeastern’s young defensemen, Saucerman and Lauwers.
Saucerman lived up to his label as a playmaking blue-liner, quarterbacking the Huskies to a number of chances on the power play and scoring his first career goal on a neutral-zone knuckleball that stunned senior goaltender Parker Milner early in the third period.
Meanwhile, Lauwers – a transfer from Army – emerged as a true defensive defenseman, fearlessly blocking shots, punishing BC forwards along the boards and helping kill off two of the Eagles’ three man-advantage opportunities.
Roy’s success mixed with that of the other starting freshmen resulted in the youth movement at Matthews last week.
The rookie cemented his role as a perfect fit for the second line with juniors Braden Pimm and Cody Ferriero. After an impressive two-point showing against Merrimack, Roy buried a wide-open feed from Ferriero eight minutes into the first period Saturday for his second game-winning goal and third point in two games. He also went 13-3 on faceoffs in those games and helped his line combine for 16 shots, the most of any Northeastern forward threesome.
As a result, Hockey East named Roy the Pro Ambitions Rookie of the Week on Monday.
“Our freshmen are picking things up pretty quickly,” Madigan said. “They’re learning fast, we’re putting them in the situations where they have to learn quickly and they’ve shown that they’ve responded.”
The Huskies’ first two games did expose some of the young team’s flaws – only seven seniors make up the 21 dressed players per game.
Northeastern struggled to stay out of the penalty box, particularly against Merrimack – the Huskies committed three penalties after giving up two unanswered goals to the Warriors, one infraction coming with less than three minutes remaining in the third period – and allowed a power play goal in both games.
The Huskies were whistled for offsides at least five times in each contest and had difficulty preventing odd-man rushes, both products of the team’s aggressive forecheck.
And senior goaltender Chris Rawlings was forced to make 63 saves over the two games, nearly half of which (31) came in the third periods when Merrimack and BC were pressing for a late goal. In neither game did the Huskies outshoot their opponent.
But the product of both games was victory, and the team’s early-season resume – ending BC’s 19-game winning streak, earning its first USCHO poll ranking since October 2009 and claiming first place in Hockey East – will overshadow its defensive shortcomings.
“It’s a nice victory, there’s no doubt, for our team,” Madigan said. “Our club the last couple years has gotten off to some slow starts and it’s hampered either our playoff spot or not getting in the playoffs.”
Northeastern passed its first two tests of the season by beating ranked teams on home ice. But the crowd will not be on the Huskies’ side when they play their next two games on the road against conference foes ranked in the top 15 – No. 3 Boston College on Saturday and No. 15 University of New Hampshire on Oct. 26 – as the No. 14 team.
The question on everyone’s minds will be whether the freshmen can continue to produce.
Their first chance to answer will come Saturday night at BC’s Conte Forum in Chestnut Hill.
“We’re worried about what happens later in the year,” Madigan said, “but we’ll just continue now looking to game three [of the season], which happens to be again back against Boston College.”
