During the 2008-09 men’s hockey season, goaltender Brad Thiessen played every minute of every game for the Huskies. He was eventually named an All-American, Hobey Baker Finalist, and the Hockey East Player of the Year.
So when Thiessen signed with the Pittsburgh Penguins days after Northeastern’s season ended in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, it immediately meant change for the Huskies.
The man called upon to replace No. 39 was Chris Rawlings, a freshman, who hadn’t played a single minute of action in the NCAA.
All told Rawlings held his own in net for NU this past season. He was named as the goaltender on the All-Rookie team and was also the runner up for the Rookie of the Year award.
Rawlings made his debut at Colorado College Oct. 9, not knowing what to expect and doing his best to keep his team playing at the highest of levels.
“I was extremely nervous coming in trying to fill Brad’s shoes,” Rawlings said. “We got a little bit of a slow start and it set us back a bit but overall I’m happy with how I played.”
After that slow start there were some questions whether Rawlings would be the best replacement. On Nov. 6 he silenced many of his doubters, shutting out the defending champions of 2009, Boston University (BU), 1-0. The game was at home and Matthews Arena was sold out with fans eager to get another shot at the cross-town rivals.
“To have that many people screaming and cheering for us is such a good feeling and everybody feels it,” Rawlings said. “That first BU game was sold out. The whole day I was excited. I had never really played in front of that many people before.”
Rawlings finished with 43 saves that night, giving him the first big win of his career.
The next time the Huskies faced the Terriers was in another big game, the first round of the Beanpot Feb. 1 at TD Garden. Although Northeastern lost 2-1, Rawlings once again played well, stopping 33 shots in front of a sold out crowd.
“Before that game at the Garden I was super nervous,” Rawlings said. “It was more of an excited nervous but playing a game like that is definitely going to help me in the future.”
At one point down the stretch, the team won five games in a row. During that stretch, no one was bigger than Rawlings, who earned Hockey East accolades three times.
“It was such a tight race this year and we rode the emotion the whole time,” Rawlings said. “We had a big winning streak where we were one of the hottest teams in the country and then we kind of fell apart a bit.”
Although his team ended up missing the playoffs by the narrowest of margins, after riding the roller coaster that was the Hockey East this season, Rawlings said receiving accolades at the end of the season was significant to him.
“It’s an honor to win any award and being named All-Rookie was definitely a goal of mine at the start of the season,” Rawlings said. “Being selected as runner up was also an honor and you can’t win everything but I’ll take it.”
Now that he’s finished his first year the net minder said he feels good and is looking forward to his next season.
“We kind of had the injury bug this year, it seemed like we never had everyone healthy,” Rawlings said. “Having some guys come back like Steve Quailer and Randy Guzior will definitely help us.”
And in addition to those guys returning, the team will bring in a whole new crop of freshman next year. Rawlings spoke highly of the new recruits coming and said that he has seen most of them play.
“Next year we have a lot of new freshman coming in just like this year,” Rawlings said. “I’ve seen them play and they are going to be big for our team.”
No matter what impact the new guys make, Rawlings said he is sure he will feel more comfortable in net next fall now that he has a season under his belt.
“Having played at every rink is definitely going to allow me to be more comfortable,” Rawlings. said. “We weren’t happy with how we finished so I’m definitely looking forward to next year.”
