Cameron Whitehead slid from one side of the net to the other, protecting the red line as a Boston College player attempted to slide the puck in. He was unsuccessful. 

As the clock expired, Whitehead hugged his teammates in gratitude and disbelief. They had won. It was March 15 and No. 9 Northeastern had just defeated No. 1 Boston College, keeping the Huskies alive in the Hockey East postseason. 

Soon after the season ended, Whitehead signed a two-year contract with the Vegas Golden Knights March 27, marking the end of his career as a Husky. 

In his final year, the Northeastern men’s hockey program had a rollercoaster 2024-25 season, ending with a 14-20-3 record, with Whitehead, a sophomore goaltender, in between the bars for 35 out of 38 total games, including playoffs. Whitehead collected a .911 save percentage, a slight dip from his .917 save percentage last season. 

But Whitehead chooses to ignore these numbers. 

“I try to avoid [it] as much as possible just because it’s easy for it to get in your head and start overthinking,” Whitehead said in an interview with The Huntington News. “It kind of takes the fun out of it a little bit, too. So I just kind of have to try to have fun with it every day and try to get better.”

Originally from Orleans, Ontario, Whitehead had always gravitated towards the goaltender position after “being forced” into it by his older brother.

“I loved the gear and I just loved how the position looked,” Whitehead said. “So as soon as I started playing hockey, I always asked my dad if I could be goalie. … He’s like, ‘Alright, sure.’ And so I stuck with it ever since and it turned out to be good.”

Before attending Northeastern, Whitehead played for the Lincoln Stars, a Tier I junior ice hockey team. It was during this time that Whitehead began his trademark kneeling on the ice between game breaks. “[It was] the first time I ever had a media timeout and I didn’t really know what to do. So I just went out there. I started off stretching and then got tired of stretching, so I just went on one knee,” Whitehead said. “And then when I got here, I just gave up on the stretching part.” 

Although kneeling has become a tradition, it is not a superstition for Whitehead. He tries to approach each game with the same mentality. 

“At the end of the day, it’s all the same sheet of ice,” Whitehead said. “Still just have to stop a puck from crossing the red line.”

The netminder tries to recenter himself and appreciate his time on the ice. 

“I just do it to embrace the moment, trying to get my breathing down from my heart rate and just take it all in every game. It’s a privilege to play in front of a lot of people and to play at this level,” Whitehead said. “So any moment you can, just take it all in and just embrace the moments.”

Whitehead’s game-time kneel isn’t the only time graduate student defenseman Jake Higgins has seen the goalie’s intense concentration. 

“I’ve noticed throughout the year how locked in he was and really how much he cared to get better every day and put in the little things, like being at the rink for so long and stuff like that. And you could really tell his mentality was streamlined, super focused,” Higgins said.

Quentin Sigurdson, a freshman goaltender, noted how Whitehead’s ritual gets him ready for each game. 

“He’s got a routine that starts hours before the game, and he’s just got that dialed in. You see him always working on something,” Sigurdson said, “Typical goalie stuff, but it’s the level of detail that he has in it, whether it’s warming up his eyes or ball tracking. As soon as the game’s going, he’s just dialed in.”

In the opening round of playoffs, the Huskies were matched up with the Merrimack College Warriors, a team they played three times during the regular season, only winning one of the games. 

“I think the postseason, it was [an] us-versus-everybody kind of mentality. Just the guys in the locker room. Everyone’s like, ‘Oh, we’re going to lose [the] first round against Merrimack,’ but then we just kept going,” Sigurdson said. “We’re like, ‘Hey, it’s just us boys in the locker room, don’t worry about anything else.’”

In this game, Whitehead notched 44 saves in the 84-minute game that concluded four minutes in the second overtime. 

Against Boston College in the quarterfinals, the Huskies were ready for revenge after suffering a devastating 8-2 loss against the Eagles during the Beanpot semifinals. 

“Going into it, it was a personal game for us. Obviously, what happened at the Beanpot was embarrassing for our team, and it all hurt us a lot,” Whitehead said. “Obviously, we let a lot of people down. So we knew that we were just going to give it everything we had going in there. We had nothing to lose.”

The Huskies upset the Eagles 3-1, marking the first time a team seeded eighth or lower beat a No. 1 team in Hockey East history. 

“Going into their building, we loved that all the odds were against us,” Whitehead said. “And there’s a quote that’s, ‘Anyone can make a building erupt, a few can silence it.’ And that was kind of the mentality that I came in with.”

Whitehead saved 30 shots from going into the net, 13 in the first period. 

Coming off the high, Northeastern was eager to continue its Cinderella story after losing to University of Maine all three times they faced them in the regular season. 

“It’s funny because we obviously knew what we had in the room,” Higgins said. “You look back on the regular season and we had games where we beat BC, we beat [Boston University]. We had these great games, great performances. And we also had some not so great performances. But I think the mentality was just all of us knew that we could do it. And in one game, really, anything can happen.”

The Huskies dashed at the chance of advancing to the Hockey East Championships and a possible bid to the NCAA tournament after the puck skidded past Whitehead 13 minutes into the second overtime against Maine March 20. 

Despite this loss, Northeastern put up a fight, tying the game at 2 in the second period and taking the lead for about eight minutes in the third. Whitehead’s saves kept the Huskies in the game, continuing their moment and striving for a win. 

“They’re a really good team. They’re coached really well. And they know their systems to a T. And [we] kind of expected a lot of shots coming in. Just got to man the storm a little bit,” Whitehead said. “And if I’m saving everything I have to and not giving up any soft ones, then the team’s going to respond to that. And just giving them a calm presence in the net helps the team relax and focus on their job.” 

Whitehead hit his career-high in saves at 57 against Maine in the semifinals. Many of these goals seemed impossible to stop, but Whitehead managed to stave off the Black Bears for nearly the entire game, letting in only three goals.  

After scrapping out a close overtime win against the Huskies, even Maine’s forward Nolan Renwick gave his first props to Whitehead. “I’ve got to give some credit to the Northeast News goalie,” he said to start off the post-game press conference.

“You always knew Whitehead was going to be playing great every night, always giving the team a chance to win,” Sigurdson said. “Then, he came up big in the big moments at the end of the year and really helped give the team a chance to beat those good teams.”

Whitehead was selected as Goaltender of the Week by Hockey East based on his playoff performances, marking the third time he’s received the acknowledgement throughout the season. 

Northeastern’s shaky start to the season did not determine the outcome as the team was focused on bettering themselves and stretching their season as long as they could.

“We had a really rocky start,” Whitehead said. “And for some people, that makes it hard to come to the rink every day. But here our goal is just to get better every day. That’s our objective. So coming to the rink, positive mindset no matter what. “

Whitehead’s calming presence was a staple for the team as they navigated the tough regular season and the drive during playoffs. 

“We just keep coming together as a group. Kept having fun playing hockey. And we knew the tides were going to change at some point. It took a while for it to change. You got there eventually. We got there eventually. And I think that was just a special moment for us as a team and a bonding experience that none of us will ever forget.”