Early Saturday morning, freshman Joe Santilli and the rest of the Huskies’ first line went to work on the power play.
They had seen the night before at Amherst how the Minutemen had been an aggressive penalty killing machine and decided to take action against it.
“We noticed they were aggressive at the top of our power play so we needed to go down low,” Northeastern coach Bruce Crowder said.
While tied 2-2 against No. 15 Massachusetts, the Huskies did go down low and, as a result, Santilli knocked home his second game winning goal of the season and the Huskies won a crucial Hockey East game, 3-2 in front of 2,885 at Matthews Arena.
Santilli, who continues to impress on the front line, got a pass from defenseman Tim Judy from the top of the blue line and one-timed a slap shot to beat Gabe Winer over the confused goalie’s shoulder.
“Timmy fed me a great pass and the net was wide open,” Santilli said. “I was really excited to get that goal. It was a big goal for us.”
Big for a number of reasons. The first being that NU was able to gain a crucial point over rival Lowell. It would have been two had it not been for a 4-4 tie the Riverhawks had against Maine.
NU now sits just five points behind idle Merrimack for seventh in Hockey East and, according to Crowder, the team is looking better.
“You look at the last four games, and we could have gone 4-0,” said Crowder.
NU dropped Friday’s decision at Amherst despite holding a 2-0 into the second period.
The Huskies will play Providence next Friday while Lowell travels to New Hampshire.
Santilli now has six points in nine game so far this season and is 36th in the nation in game winning goals.
Senior Mike Gilhooly got the start for Northeastern on Saturday, giving regular starter Keni Gibson a night off. The move paid big dividends. Gilhooly made 31 saves and held the Minutemen, with a man advantage and a pulled goalie, scoreless for the final 1:27.
“I heard the announcer say, ‘one-minute left in the period’ and I thought, ok guys, one more minute and we got it,” said Gilhooly. “I was told at five o’clock that I was going to start so I was ready. I was a little rusty to start off but once you make that one big initial save, you shake that rust off.”
Gilhooly and the Huskies found themselves trailing 2-1 after two second period goals by Massachusetts. But Trevor Reschny, who has been on a scoring surge, made a move on Marvin Degan sending the confused sophomore to the ice while Reschny beat Winer to the weak side from 20 feet to tie the game. The goal came one night after Reschny’s chance to give NU a 3-2 on the road fell just three inches wide of Winer’s net.
NU got on the board early when Jared Mudryk missed a one-timer from two feet only to swirl back around the net with the puck and find a streaking Brian Swiniarski who buried the puck over Winer’s right shoulder.
NU then lost a heartbreaker last Friday, 3-2 after holding a 2-0 lead.
The puck, originally off of Jeff Lang’s stick bounced high into the air and dropped behind Gibson with 9:23 left in the third period.
“I lost sight of it,” said Gibson after Friday’s defeat. “It hit me, then hit another guy and I didn’t see it.”
NU battles the Friars on Friday before making its 51st appearance in the annual Beanpot Tournament scheduled for Monday at 8 p.m., where they will play Boston College.
Husky Notes: Mike Ryan still holds the league lead for scoring. He now has 16 goals tied with Lowell’s Ed McGrane. A picture of Ohio State running back Maurice Clarett stealing the ball away from a Miami corner was hung all over the hallways and lockeroom demonstrating that every inch counts.
