By Bailey Putnam, deputy sports editor
The Northeastern University (NU) men’s hockey team outmuscled Simon Frasier University (SFU) 10-2 in exhibition action at Matthews Arena Sunday afternoon. Six freshmen scored for the Huskies, including forward Jason Cotton, who scored three goals to notch a hat trick.
It didn’t take long for the Huskies to get on the board. Their captain, senior forward Kevin Roy, opened the floodgates 2:18 into the first period when he curled from the right corner and squeezed a wrist shot past SFU goaltender Lyndon Stanwood’s glove hand.
“It’s a good roll to have,” Roy said of his new responsibility as team captain. “You have to do the right thing all the time, and I think that makes the team better and makes me better as a player, too.”
Freshman forward Patrick Schule followed suit 30 seconds later when he buried a rebound past the lunging netminder. NU’s final goal of the period came with 5:30 to go in the frame when junior forward Zach Aston-Reese buried a centering pass from sophomore forward Nolan Stevens five-hole from the slot.
Redshirt junior goalie Derick Roy, who turned aside three shots in the first, gave way to sophomore goalie Jake Theut in the second frame. Though NU was able to match its first period number of 23 shots in the second period, the Huskies only found the back of the net once when senior forward Mike McMurtry sniped the top right corner to make it 4-0 almost halfway through the game.
Freshman goalie Ryan Ruck took over in the crease in the final period, posting four saves while his teammates scored six times on 18 shots. By the end of the game, the Huskies had peppered 64 total shots on Stanwood.
Freshman forward Adam Gaudette started the flurry when he tapped in a feed from Aston-Reese on the doorstep.
After SFU answered with a bar-in slap-shot goal, Cotton netted his first of the outing, a glove-side wrist shot off a feed from junior forward Brendan Collier.
Freshman forward Lincoln Griffin gave NU a 7-1 lead with 11:30 left in the game, showing off his skills with a five-hole goal after deking out Stanwood.
“I saw that Kev [Roy] got the puck, and my first instinct was ‘Get to the net and he’ll find you,’” Griffin said of the 2-on-1 goal. “He drew the defenseman close to him and gave me all the time in the world, and I snuck it five-hole.”
Collier notched his second assist of the contest 3 minutes later when he set up freshman blueliner Eric Williams for a slap-shot goal from the point.
Cotton buried his second and third goals to close out the game and lift the Huskies into double-digit scoring.
The Huskies’ regular season opener is Saturday night at Matthews Arena, where they’ll take on Colgate University.
“We know now we have to get ready for Colgate, [which is] a real good team who beat us twice up at their building last year,” Head Coach Jim Madigan said. “So we’re excited about about that opportunity, and it’ll be a good week of practice this week to get ready for them.”
Photo by Brian Bae.
