The Huskies got a much needed win Saturday night as they ousted the Bobcats of Quinnipiac, 2-1 in front of 3,259 at Matthews Arena
Donny Grover scored from the point with 6:11 left to lift NU to the win.
“Muddy (Jared Mudryk) and Tuddy (Brian Tudrick) kept working down low and the puck came out to me,” said Grover. “We hung tough tonight.”
NU coach Bruce Crowder made some changes to his lines for the second straight night. Saturday, he elected to put Joe Mastronardi on defense and send Brian Noonan to his first action of the season. Noonan made his presence known when he lifted Matt Froehlich right out of his skates.
“With Joe, it’s kinda just throwing him into the fire,” Crowder said. “Brian was in the right place at the right time and I think that other kid ran into a brick wall.” On Friday, the Huskies dropped a 4-1 decision to the Boston College Eagles at the Conte Forum.
NU was held to just 13 shots for the game and didn’t record its second shot of the third period until 4:39 to go when Eric Ortlip fired one in from outside the blue line.
“They played great defense,” said Crowder after Friday’s loss. “They did a great job on Tuesday against UNH (14 shots). I thought we played better this week then last week.”
The Huskies trailed 2-1 going into the third period. The Eagles scored their third goal on a nifty steal by Ryan Shannon who skated through three defensemen and netted the third Eagle goal.
NU scored the first goal of the game when, on a 5-on-3 power play, and in similar fashion how they scored their goal against Denver, the puck dropped down into the low post where Mike Morris thread a pass through the crease to Mike Ryan who redirected the puck past Tim Kelleher.
Mudryk had a chance to make it 2-0 when he skated in all alone on Kelleher. But as he switched to the back hand, the puck came loose and trickled wide. Mudryk recovered and fired a shot that hit Kelleher in the mask and then Brian Swiniarski thought he added NU’s tally on a rebound.
“We needed a win and I thought we played 60 minutes of hockey tonight,” said BC coach Jerry York. “Timmy made some big saves for us tonight.”
