The sounds of clanking metal and cheering engulfed Matthews Arena Saturday as the No. 10 men’s hockey team came out on top of Bentley 4-1.
Pots, pans and cans night meant a crowd of 3,354 deafened the building for NU goals, big hits and big plays, as well as the donation of three boxes of canned goods for the Boston Food Bank.
Despite fans being treated to a Husky win, it was not the easy victory many were anticipating.
“That’s a trap game,” said head coach Greg Cronin. “I told our coaches after the second period was over, when your shots are 27 to 7 after two periods and we’re only up 2-0 and we still wouldn’t shoot the puck. So we let them hang around long enough and they made a game out of it at the end, so I give a lot of credit to them.”
The first period saw a 10-4 shot difference in Northeastern’s favor, resulting in one Husky goal. The Falcons, who play in the Atlantic Hockey conference, did not look intimidated by NU, and while the period was controlled by the Huskies, the first goal came with 5:49 left in the first.
Freshman forward Steve Quailer knocked in his second goal of the season off a great feed by freshman forward Alex Tuckerman, who collected his fourth assist. Tuckerman skated the puck to the back right corner of the net, and found Quailer at the opposite side of the crease.
Five minutes into the second period, right after a failed NU power play, sophomore forward Tyler McNeely netted the second tally of the game.
McNeely had an open net for his fourth goal of the season – tying him with senior forward Ryan Ginand for team high. Senior defenseman Dennis Chisolm, in his first game back since Oct. 18 against BC, collected an assist after his close shot rebounded right to McNeely, putting the Huskies up 2-0.
Bentley scored next, posting its first tally of the game 11 minutes into the third. Junior goaltender Brad Thiessen, who had been successfully puckhandling throughout the game, played the puck straight to a Bentley forward.
With no NU defenders close by, Falcon Erik Peterson had time with Thiessen and used it. As Thiessen went for the poke check, Peterson flicked it in.
“Both of the D got lazy going back,” Cronin said, “because they’re so confident in [Thiessen’s] ability to play the puck … And that could have cost us a game because they clearly jacked their game up to another level after they scored the goal.”
A minute later, senior captain Joe Vitale answered for the Huskies with an unassisted goal, his first since the BC win. On a 2-on-1, Vitale fired off a quick shot rather than passing, and the decision paid off, since it was his third goal of the season.
Sophomore forward Wade MacLeod sealed the game for the Huskies with an empty netter with 28 seconds to go in the game. Vitale fed MacLeod from behind the net, in an attempt to navigate around the Bentley players.
Northeastern’s penalty kill, which was ranked second in Hockey East coming into the weekend, was perfect Saturday, killing 7-7. In contrast, the Huskies struggled on the powerplay, going 0-7.
“I’ve said all along the power play’s a manifestation of talent. We have the talent to be better than we are, we just don’t have any identity,” Cronin said.
Cronin said the power play must improve going into the four Hockey East games during the next two weeks.
“It’s a game of mistakes and you’re not going to be clicking on all cylinders every night,” Vitale said about the power play. “It’s one of our weaknesses right now, but like anything else you just have to work on your weaknesses, and we’ll get it, we’ll figure it out, it’s just a matter of time.”
Still atop of Hockey East, the Huskies (6-1-2, 4-1-1 Hockey East) are on the road next weekend in two conference matchups, Friday against Vermont at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday against BU, at 7 p.m.
