By Jill Saftel, News Staff
The men’s hockey team gained one valuable Hockey East point in a 1-1 tie with University of Maine on Friday night.
The draw came after the previous week’s 6-3 loss to Atlantic Hockey’s Bentley University. After that loss, the focus for the team was all on the defensive zone, and it paid off. Maine put up a strong offensive effort, one that goaltender Chris Rawlings had a strong performance against, turning away 26 shots. The Huskies forced Maine to take its shots from outside the circles in the first period, making it difficult for the Black Bears to capitalize.
“I thought both goalies were the stories of the game. Chris [Rawlings] is in a good place and a good zone,” head coach Jim Madigan said. “Both teams have young defensemen back there, so it’s good to have good goaltending back there.”
Madigan might have been grateful to have the steady Rawlings in net, but the goaltender was happy with the defense playing in front of him.
“The defense played really well in front of me. That was one thing we worked on all week, just kind of giving me a better look at the shot, clearing the traffic in front of the net, and they did a great job,” Rawlings said. “I was seeing a lot of pucks, and if there was a second chance they were right there. I was happy about how they played.”
And while the 1-1 tie gave the Huskies one very valuable Hockey East point, a big challenge lies ahead in a weekend one can only call the “Battle of Boston.” Northeastern will travel to Agganis Arena on Friday night to take on the Hockey East No. 3 Boston University Terriers, also ranked fifth in the pairwise, which determines NCAA seeding.
Friday’s game alone would prove to be a tough weekend, but the Huskies will welcome Boston College to Matthews Arena on Saturday night. The Eagles have sole possession of the No. 1 spot in Hockey East.
Madigan said after Friday’s tie, he was looking forward to the team’s next opportunity to collect some Hockey East points. And while his team will be facing two high-caliber opponents, Madigan said his opponents every weekend in this league are tough competitors and the team will get back to working on the things they need to improve on.
For the Huskies, that’s getting back to basics offensively, Madigan said. His team will be running through a series of systems that will make sure they are up for next week’s opponents, including getting more pucks to the net. Constant improvement is necessary for the team in order to begin a climb up the conference rankings. They currently sit in ninth place with eight points. For reference, BC sits first with 21 points while Merrimack College is in the middle of the pack at fifth place with 13 points.
When asked if Friday’s effort was an improvement over the three-goal Bentley loss, Madigan sarcastically responded with, “you think?” That improvement will start with focusing solely on BU Friday night, keeping players on task.
But the coach knows all too well how exciting a weekend like the upcoming one can be for a Northeastern hockey team, having experienced it himself.
“When you play BU, and our opponent the next night is a team in Boston, and when you play those two teams, it’s easy to get up for that. It’s been that way since I was a player here in ‘81, you relish those games,” Madigan said. “We’re looking forward to it, but we’ll look forward to Friday night at BU first.”
