Northeastern coach Bruce Crowder had a lot of things on his mind last night following NU’s 3-2 loss at Amherst.
Tonight, after a day where the team practiced on the power play, thought of Ohio State running back Maurice Clarett’s fumble recovery in the Fiesta Bowl and a strong start by senior goalie Mike Gilhooly, NU reversed the trend and knocked off No. 15 UMass, 3-2 at Matthews Arena.
“The Clarett thing is showing that every inch counts,” said freshman Joe Santilli commenting on a number of pictures around the NU locker room and out in the hallway of Clarett ripping the ball out of the hands of a Miami cornerback.
Santilli, who scored the game winning goal on a power play in the second period, as well as his other linemates, practiced on the power play early Saturday morning. After the Huskies had gone 0-2 on the man advantage, Crowder decided to switch it up.
“They were taking a lot away from us on the perimeter,” he said. “And then Tim made a nice feed to Joe and he scored the big goal.”
Santilli was playing on the far face off circle as the puck swung around the blue line between Jason Guerriero and Tim Judy. Judy, who was in the high slot, zipped a pass to Santilli who one-timed it past UMass goalie Gabe Winer.
“I was pretty excited,” said Santilli. “Timmy made a great pass to me and I had a lot of room and got the big goal.”
Gilhooly, who has seemingly been the forgotten man on the Huskies roster, was placed into the lineup at 5 p.m. and said was a little rusty at first.
“It takes a few big saves to get the rust off, and then I started playing well,” he said.
Gilhhooly and the rest of the Huskies had to play the last 1:27 down a man when Eric Ortlip took an interference penalty. Winer was pulled and the Minutemen had heavy activity in front of the senior goaltender, but he fended off the late rush.
“I was a little worried about that to tell you the truth,” said a happy Santilli.
“I just heard it was the last minute of play and I thought, ‘c’mon guys, another minute to go and we can do this,'” said Gilhooly.
NU gained a point on Lowell. The Riverhawks came back to tie No. 1 Maine at Alfond Arena, 4-4.
The goal of the night goes to Trevor Reschny who nearly buried a breakaway last night. The junior forward deked a UMass defenseman to the ice and then beat Winer weak side with a nifty wrist shot. NU was trailing 2-1 when Reschny got his tally.
The Huskies took a 1-0 with 14 seconds remaining in the first period when Jared Mudryk’s behind-the-net pass to Brian Swiniarski found the freshman’s stick and he buried it top shelf.
