By Sarah Moomaw, News Staff
The men’s hockey team was less than a week removed from being shut out at Boston College when they walked into the Whittemore Center in Durham, N.H., to take on an undefeated University of New Hampshire team.
Head coach Jim Madigan said he was looking for “different chemistry” and to come out with a win, so he introduced four revamped forward lines and two new defensive pairs.
“It was to get a balanced attack and we got some chances,” he said. “We didn’t finish now. That’s the second part, we need to finish.”
A last-minute goal by Wildcats leading scorer, senior right wing John Henrion, sealed a 4-3 win in the first of a weekend home-and-home series on Friday night.
Saturday night on the Huskies’ home ice at Matthews, the same story played out on the line chart with one major change. Madigan opted for senior goalie Bryan Mountain over first-string goalie Chris Rawlings.
“It was clear cut, we told Bryan [Friday night] he was going to be playing,” he said. “The way Bryan came in [Friday] night and played the last 33 minutes, he played very well [Friday] night and was in a rhythm … so yeah, it was an easy decision.”
The second contest in 24 hours proved to be a test of the goalies rather than the offense as 65 minutes of hockey weren’t enough for a single puck to find the back of either net.
“Both goalies stood out. It was a good game,” Madigan said. “I liked the way we competed and battled … you’re never happy with a tie, particularly at home.”
It was Mountain’s first start since a 4-1 loss to University of Massachusetts on Jan. 10, 2010, in which he made 20 saves. On Saturday, he came up with 44 stops with no goals allowed, after making 18 saves and one allowed goal the night before.
“I just wanted to help the team get two points,” Mountain said. “I figured if I focused on winning each period and not trying to do too much and just focused on helping my team, everything else would fall into place.”
The two goalies combined for 78 saves on 162 attempted shots on Saturday. Together, Mountain and Wildcat sophomore Casey DeSmith earned a shared spotlight as Hockey East named them Co-Defensive Players of the Week on Monday.
The new front line of juniors Cody Ferriero, Braden Pimm and senior Vinny Saponari owned 14 of Northeastern’s 34 shots on goal, with 15 shots either blocked by the defense or missing the cage.
“They are all three older guys and offensive players and they all have the ability to score around the net,” Madigan said. “It’s a good indication that it’s the right move … they just have to bear down on some of those chances and bury some of those chances.”
The three were united on one line for the first time this season and wasted no time getting stick to puck and testing out what they could do.
“We’re pretty close kids. We were happy to get a chance to play together,” Saponari said. “We hadn’t really had a chance to play together since I’ve been here. We really just wanted to get pucks to the net and use each other’s skills and we were able to connect pretty well there.”
The shot chart is proof that it wasn’t for lack of trying to get past DeSmith. Some of Northeastern’s best chances to break the scoreless game were hard wristers and danglers skated through traffic.
At 5:54 in the second period, Vermeersch sent a pass to Vrolyk who took the puck down the ice before laying a shot on DeSmith, who was up for the grab. Just before the stanza’s end, Pimm sent the puck to Saponari, who fought through traffic but when met with the backstop, he couldn’t find any luck.
A clean breakaway and shot to the lower left corner to open the third period by freshman forward Kevin Roy was also reeled in by DeSmith. Pimm followed shortly after with a shot of his own after a run along the left boards but hit the keeper’s pads and Saponari couldn’t get a stick on to knock home a winner.
“It’s rebounds. It’s initial shots going to the net,” Madigan said. “A, we gotta hit the net. B, we have to get to the net a little bit harder and look for some of those greasy, gritty goals.”
Friday’s loss prevented the Huskies from grabbing their first win on the road and caused them to fall to .500 on the season (2-2-1 Hockey East), but not without the new pairings proving that they were capable of.
Just like in the Huskies two wins this season, they opened the scoring in the first period by connecting for three goals before the period’s buzzer.
Pimm sunk the game’s first goal just 33 seconds in with Ferriero and freshman defender Dustin Darou on the assists.
The Wildcats tied the game six minutes later on the power play, but the third line’s teamwork proved to be more than DeSmith could handle.
Sophomore Joseph Manno lit the lamp at 6:40 with senior linemates Robbie Vrolyk and Garrett Vermeersch each picking up their first assists of the season for a 2-1 lead.
Sophomore defenseman Ben Oskroba netted his first collegiate goal with assists from fourth-line sophomore Adam Reid and freshman Mike McMurtry to put the Huskies up by two.
In the second period, UNH responded with two goals four minutes apart. The game would remained tied until the Wildcat’s last minute game-winning goal.
“We’ll continue to tweak things here and there, but we need to find more offense,” Madigan said. “We’ve got it, we’ve just got to get more pucks to the net.”
The Huskies will play their second home-and-home series of the season this weekend against Merrimack University. Northeastern and the Warriors have already met once this season on Oct. 10, when the Huskies grabbed their first win of the season, 4-2. Puck drop is set for 7 p.m. Friday at Matthews and 7:30 p.m. in North Andover on Saturday.
