By Jared Shafran, News Staff

It’s only two weeks into the new year and already the men’s hockey team has ridden up and down the emotional roller coaster.
On Jan. 2, the team took the trip up to Hanover, N.H. to participate in the National Ledyard Bank Classic. Their first opponent was host Dartmouth, and NU wasted no time getting ahead just a minute and 38 seconds into the game on a goal by senior forward Kyle Kraemer.
Kraemer was the first of seven Huskies to score in a game that ended as a 7-0 rout. It was the largest margin of victory for NU since they beat UConn 10-1 Oct. 11, 2002.
Other scorers included sophomore forward Alex Tuckerman, junior forward Wade MacLeod, freshman forward Garrett Vermeersch, freshman forward Drew Daniels, junior forward Tyler McNeely and freshman defenseman Jake Newton. Freshman goaltender Chris Rawlings turned away all 32 shots he faced, and the Huskies cruised into the tournament championship game against fellow Hockey East competitor, UMass’-Lowell.
The next night in a much closer game, the Huskies used a late-game goal from Newton with just 3:35 left to get a 2-1 victory, giving them the tournament title.
‘We knew what we had to do going in and our goal is to have a strong second half,’ junior captain Tyler McNeely said. ‘Everyone was fresh coming back from break and I think everyone meant business. We went in there, played our game, Rawlings played great, and just a good all around tournament.’
Rawlings was named the tournament’s most valuable player after stopping a combined total of 60 shots in the two games. Tuckerman and Newton were also named to the All-Tournament Team in the ceremony following the championship.
This solid start to 2010 was short-lived. The next weekend, the Huskies were back at Matthews Arena for the first time in more than a month for two Hockey East games. Things went the opposite way for the Huskies, as they weren’t able to get any points out of the weekend.
Saturday night was a rematch with the same UMass-Lowell team the Huskies had beaten just six nights before. This time, the Riverhawks came out quickly and took a big lead. Despite a three-goal comeback by the Huskies in the third period, Lowell emerged victorious in overtime, 6-5.
Lowell forward Chris Auger scored 1:17 into the game, skating in front of Rawlings and ripping a wrist shot into the upper right-hand corner of the net to make it 1-0. Additional Lowell goals from forward Paul Worthington and defenseman Jeremy Dehner opened the game up, and by the 12-minute mark of the first period, it was 3-0.
NU got on the board before the end of the period when Kraemer took a pass from McNeely and scored on Lowell goalie Carter Hutton. But Lowell came right back and made it 4-1 on a goal by forward Scott Campbell 7:47 into the second.
‘The first half of the game we honestly looked like we were sitting around watching football all afternoon,’ Huskies head coach Greg Cronin said. ‘I asked after the second period, ‘Does anybody want to play hockey?’ It was like a lifeless two periods.’
Northeastern got some energy from Newton, who scored a shorthanded goal 55 seconds into the third period, but the Riverhawks responded with a goal of their own less than a minute later from forward Michael Scheu, making the score 5-2 and putting the Huskies back down by three.
Kraemer scored his eighth goal of the season on a power play to make it 5-3, and then senior defenseman Jim Driscoll scored his first goal of the season, putting the Huskies within striking distance at 5-4.
‘The power play got us back in the game and I thought the energy that we generated off the power play was what fed the offense,’ Cronin said.
It didn’t take long for NU to get the tying goal, which came under a minute later on a power play from MacLeod to send the game into overtime. But at the end of the extra period, Scheu scored the game winner with just 25 seconds left, giving Lowell their revenge.
‘Tonight we played like it was the consolation game of the Dartmouth tournament,’ Cronin said. ‘It’s unacceptable. You can’t piss away 40 minutes of hockey and spot a team a 4-1 lead.’
The next night the Huskies couldn’t reverse their fortune and lost to UMass-Amherst by a score of 4-1. Freshman goaltender Bryan Mountain made his third start of the season and turned away 20 shots, but it wasn’t enough as the Huskies got behind early once again. UMass scored four goals in the first and second periods and entered the third with a 4-0 lead.
McNeely got his team on the board 2:10 into the third period on his sixth goal of the season, but the Huskies were unable to do much else, firing just 13 shots on UMass goaltender Paul Dainton.
NU is now 8-10-1 overall and in eighth place in Hockey East with a 4-9-1 record. The team will make the trip to Vermont (10-6-2 overall, 4-5-2 HE) in a two-game series Friday and Saturday night. Both games will start at 7 p.m.
‘We’re going to have to battle,’ Cronin said. ‘At some point the guys in the room have to recognize that it’s their team. The best teams have a core in there that creates such a level of pride and accountability that they don’t want to let each other down. You have to want it; You have to generate your own energy.’
McNeely echoed his coach’s words.
‘You know you’re going to have a tight race right to the end of the season and we have to come out and play a full 60 minutes. We know we have the talent, we know we have the work ethic, we just have to show a full 60 minutes.’