By Eoghan Kelly, News Staff
Senior goalie Chris Rawlings made 19 saves in Northeastern’s 3-0 win over the University of Alabama-Huntsville on Saturday night, earning his 10th career shutout and eclipsing former All-American Brad Thiessen for the most in the university’s history.
Rawlings followed up his record-breaking performance with 24 saves in a 3-1 win Sunday night, helping the Huskies sweep the Chargers and break out of an 0-4-1 slump.
With the pair of non-conference wins, Northeastern improved to 4-4-1 overall but remained 2-4-1 in Hockey East play, good for sixth place.
“It was a big test for me and obviously our team played well. It was tough, but I’m happy with the result,” Rawlings said Saturday, adding that moving into first place all-time is “an honor. Brad is a great goalie. [But] it’s over and done with now.”
The Huskies held UAH’s (0-9-1) offense – the worst in the nation at 1.20 goals per game – to a single goal over 120 minutes but struggled to produce quality scoring chances against the NCAA’s second-worst team defense (4.40 goals allowed per game).
Despite the fact that Northeastern landed 88 shots on goal and attempted a whopping 156 total, six goals proved to be more than enough. But the Huskies were stifled by strong goaltender play – senior John Griggs and freshman Gregg Gruehl made 51 and 31 saves, respectively – and an inability to get pucks on net from high-quality scoring areas.
Head coach Jim Madigan said taking quality shots is something his team needs to improve upon, but stressed that a win is a win.
“In a business that’s results-oriented, we got the win,” Madigan said after Saturday’s game. “It’s not a game that we’re gonna reflect, I think, that positively on … there’s some work to do, and the guys in the locker room know there’s some work to do.”
Senior forward Vinny Saponari (1-2-3) and freshman forward Kevin Roy (0-3-3) each tallied three points on the weekend, extending their point streaks to four consecutive games.
But sophomore forward Ludwig Karlsson was the star of the series, scoring three goals – two of which came on the power play – including the eventual game-winner Sunday. He now has four goals in as many games and has helped the Huskies score a power play goal in four consecutive contests, improving their season percentage to 11.6.
“I’ve been struggling in the beginning of the year to score,” Karlsson said Saturday. “It feels good for my confidence. Just going keep working hard and hopefully more will come.”
Northeastern continued an early-season trend on Saturday, striking early and scoring a pair of goals before the end of the first period.
Junior forward Braden Pimm opened the scoring with just under seven minutes remaining in the opening frame when he took a cross-ice feed from classmate Cody Ferriero, deked to his backhand and slid the puck past Griggs for his second goal of the season.
Karlsson extended the lead four minutes later when he took a feed from Roy out of the corner and beat Griggs to the short side.
The Huskies went 0-3 on the man-advantage in the second period but looked strong and created a number of shots, particularly when Ferriero was positioned at the point, a strategy the team hadn’t employed in their previous seven games.
“Sometimes we get a little out of sync and try a little too much and maybe a little too flowing, but we moved the pucks well. We’ve just got to bear down,” Madigan said. “We had a lot of good looks … we had a lot of real grade-A opportunities, we just gotta deposit more of those goals. But it’s nice when you get the chances, so that’s a start.”
The power play finally struck gold at 5:57 in the final period when Karlsson one-timed a pass from Saponari on a five-on-three past Griggs for his second goal of the game.
But the Chargers were the ones getting off to a fast start Sunday night.
UAH came out flying and kept the puck in the Northeastern zone for much of the early play in game No. 2 thanks to an aggressive forecheck and physical play.
The offensive pressure resulted in the opening goal just 7:01 into the first period when sophomore forward Kyle Lysaght picked up a rebound at the top of the right circle and fired a turnaround shot past a helpless Rawlings.
“It was kind of a bad bounce on the goal and we were just telling everyone not to get down, not to worry,” Saponari said. “It was in the first period, there’s a lot of time left.”
Saponari equalized when he tipped a point shot from freshman defenseman Dustin Darou over the glove of Gruehl 7:16 into the middle frame for Northeastern’s first second period goal of the season.
Saponari, who has five points in his last four games, said his success has come with a new approach in the offensive zone.
“I think I’ve just been trying to get to the net harder and trying to clean out loose pucks around the net, get a little grittier in front of the net,” Saponari said. “A lot of times when you’re not scoring and the team’s not scoring, we just gotta be harder around the net and find those bounces that happen to go in.”
Karlsson put Northeastern on top for good seven minutes later when he took a feed from Roy and tucked a shot under the crossbar from near the goal line.
Senior forward Robbie Vrolyk added his second empty-netter of the season with 27 seconds remaining.
The Huskies will have a chance to extend their winning streak to three games and make headway in the Hockey East standings when they travel to Providence College on Friday night. Northeastern currently sit sixth of the ten teams.
Saponari said his team will be confident after a pair of wins last weekend.
“We were on a five-game winless streak there and it feels good to get wins, no matter how it happens,” Saponari said. “We know we’ve got to clean a lot of stuff up and we’ve got to be a lot better in league play. But at the end of the day, you win two games and you’re happy with that.”
