PROVIDENCE, R.I. —- It was Mike Gilhooly who described it as a ‘?textbook’ win.
He can make those claims on the heels of a 3-1 win over Providence at Schneider Arena.
The 2,300 in attendance saw the Gilhooly make 23 saves including a breakaway one-on-none stop on Frairs star Jon DiSalvitore.
‘?It’s a big win for us,’ he said. ‘?We’re looking at Merrimack now (NU trails the Warriors by just three points for seventh) and not looking behind us. This was a great road win for us.’
Mike Ryan agreed.
‘?This was huge for us,’ he said. ‘?(Gilhooly’s) been the hardest worker in practice. At times, he could have thrown the towel, but he kept sharp.’
The Huskies, which never trailed and at one point led 3-0 and almost added a fourth, were the recipients of some much deserved friendly bounces along with some solid defensive shifts that didn’t allow the speedy forwards of Providence a chance to respond.
‘?Our defense played very well tonight,’ said Northeastern coach Bruce Crowder. ‘?I thought Tim Judy played well and it was probably Joe Mastronardi’s best game of the year.’
Despite the Beanpot looming on Monday, NU looked right in the Friars’ eyes and scored just 42 seconds into the contest when Jason Guerriero knocked in a loose puck in front of goalie Bobby Goepfert. Mike Ryan had kept the puck in on an attempted clear. The puck skidded around the boards and found it’s way to Guerriero’s stick and he buried his chance.
NU would make it 2-0 when Jared Mudryk followed an Eric Ortlip breakaway with a score that seemed to bounce off of someone’s glove.
Ortlip later would get his revenge on a power play goal that Ortlip flipped over Goepfert’s shoulder.
‘?That was a huge goal and it’s too bad that Swini (Brian Swiniarski) didn’t get one after that,’ said Crowder.
Gilhooly made the stand of the night when Providence, already on a 5-on-3 power play, pulled then goalie Nolan Schaefer to make it a 6-on-3 with just under eight minutes
The last 30 minutes, NU just drained the PC offensive attack.
‘?The last half of the game, it wasn’t a very pretty game to watch,’ said Gilhooly. ‘?We basically went into shut-them-down mode. Every time they got it going, we stripped before they could get it deep.’
The Huskies lost the last time they played at the Schneider Arena, 4-3. NU, which led 2-0 midway through the second period, lost the lead on a pair of goals by the Friars within 1:37 seconds of each other.
