The No. 9 men’s hockey met its match in the No. 6/7 New Hampshire squad, and ended the weekend with a 2-2 tie Saturday at Matthews Arena, after coming back from a 2-0 UNH lead, and a 4-2 loss at UNH Friday.
“The previous six games I thought there was a pretty good rhythm to the way we played, and I thought the last two nights we got out of that rhythm,” said head coach Greg Cronin.
The weekend was marked with animosity, physical play and strong goaltending. In both games, the Huskies came out slow but picked up momentum and goals as the games wore on.
“I thought UNH was outstanding; controlled the game for the first 25-30 minutes. They were buzzing around and we looked like we had a hangover or something. We just weren’t really jumping,” Cronin said Saturday.
Matthews Arena, spotted with Lego men, the Village People and Always Sunny in Philadelphia’s Charlie in the green man suit for the DogHouse’s costume night, welcomed the Huskies home with shaking noise as they took the ice.
The Wildcats started freshman goaltender Matt DiGirolamo, as their go-to man Brian Foster, who played Friday, sat with a tweaked ankle. The change in net and the crowd was not enough to revive the Huskies in the first, however, and the Wildcats went into the locker room up 1-0.
After 10 minutes of UNH domination, broken up by a few NU chances, Wildcat Alan Thompson fed Paul Thompson (no relation), from behind the net, and Paul one-timed it for the first tally of the game. The goal was the example of UNH’s attacking style – pretty plays with strong execution.
The Huskies took their first penalty Saturday with 2:04 left in the first and were down two men for 1:15 after taking another penalty. The Huskies killed the 5-on-3, and started the second period defending the penalty, which they killed as well.
Five minutes into the second, the Wildcats collected another goal to put them up 2-0. Forward Peter LeBlanc knocked in the puck after several rebounds off junior goaltender Brad Thiessen.
Halfway through the period, the Huskies began to find their game, getting more chances and continuing to be strong on the penalty kill, which ended the night 10 for 10. The great play of Thiessen kept his team in the game, with several key saves.
With 3:14 left to go in the period, the Huskies were back on the power play and finally able to shed some frustration and put a notch on the scoreboard. Sophomore forward Tyler McNeely netted one top shelf with 2:40 to go off a great pass from freshman forward Alex Tuckerman.
“When we got that goal it was almost like whatever hangover we had was washed away because we started to play our game, which is puck pursuit and physical and cycling the pucks, and I thought that that was a turning point in the game,” Cronin said.
On the power play again, senior forward Ryan Ginand was able to put one in with 54 seconds in the period. Tuckerman again fed a great pass from behind the net, and Ginand sealed it, tying the game at two.
“Special teams kind of bailed us out tonight,” Thiessen said. “We got a real good job on the penalty kill, especially in the third period, and our power play came through with two big goals in the second. They were on point tonight.”
The third period was filled with animosity, scrums, big hits and, for Northeastern, a whole lot of penalty killing. The team took six penalties resulting in power plays. After a fight on the ice, junior forward Chris Donovan received three penalties – hitting after the whistle, charging and a 10-minute misconduct – resulting in 14 minutes in the box, but were canceled out by a corresponding UNH penalty.
Neither the Wildcats nor the Huskies were able to connect and capitalized to give their team the win, and the game ended tied at two after five minutes of overtime. However, both teams had its chances, with huge saves from both men between the pipes.
Thiessen posted 43 saves, and his defense blocked its share of shots in the game. DiGirolamo collected 22 saves. UNH outshot Northeastern 45 to 24.
“You’re talking about a team that has some of the best talent in the country, and they are going to get chances. They are talented and creative and they are going to make plays,” Cronin said. “I thought UNH has enough talent and enough speed that they got us out of our game quite a bit. The good news is, we learn from it.”
Saturday’s game reflected much of the play from the previous night. Friday saw no scoring in the first, and after falling down 2-0 to UNH in the second, Tuckerman netted the Huskies’ first goal near the end of the period.
Junior forward Greg Costa tied the game up for the Huskies with 5:04 left in the third. The Wildcats responded two minutes later, putting them up 3-2. Then, UNH sealed its win with an empty-netter with 70 seconds left in the game.
“[Friday’s] game was tough to swallow. I don’t think we played great but to lose a game late in the game hurts,” Cronin said. “But like I said, it’s an experience. In the end everyone’s getting excited when we’re 5-0-1 and stuff, but in the end of the day we learn from it and we just [have] to grow and get better.”
Northeastern (5-1-2, 4-1-1 Hockey East), will face UNH (4-1-2, 2-0-2 Hockey East) one more time this season, Friday Nov. 21. The Huskies are home this weekend with one game against Bentley Saturday at 7 p.m. It’s pots and pans night in the DogHouse.
