By Jared Shafran
A clash between two of the top ten teams in the country saw the No. 6 men’s hockey team emerge with a tough 3-2 overtime loss to No. 4 Minnesota in the championship game of the Dodge Holiday Classic Saturday at the Mariccui Arena in Minneapolis.
The loss came one day after the Huskies defeated Western Michigan (3-12-4, 2-8-4 Central Collegiate Hockey Association), 3-1 in the opening round of the tournament.
“We managed the game plan for 60 minutes and knew what we had to do but we had some bad breaks go our way,” said head coach Greg Cronin of the team’s loss to Minnesota. “It’s unfortunate, but that’s part of hockey.”
Junior goaltender Brad Thiessen led the Huskies in both games, combining to stop 50-of-54 shots over the two games, and was named to the all-tournament team. Sophomore forward Wade MacLeod and senior defenseman Louis Liotti were also named to the team.
“[Thiessen] can really manage a game well for us and he keeps us in games when he needs to,” Cronin said. “In the first couple periods he didn’t face too many shots but in the third he had some great stops.”
After not being able to convert on their first two power play opportunities, and with Thiessen making some great saves to keep the Gophers off the board, MacLeod scored his second of the tournament to give the Huskies the early 1-0 lead at 14:28 in the first period.
MacLeod, who beat Minnesota goaltender Alex Kangas with a strong wrist shot, has scored seven times this season including once in each of the last three games.
Late in the period, Liotti took a penalty for boarding and on the ensuing power play, forward Tony Lucia scored for Minnesota with 1:27 left in the period, tying the game at one.
In the second, the Gophers came out strong and Thiessen was forced to make some more great saves to keep the game tied, including a stop of a breakaway attempt by Minnesota forward Ryan Stoa four minutes into the period.
But the Huskies soon regained the lead on a goal by sophomore forward Tyler McNeely. As the Huskies broke out of their zone, senior forward Dennis McCauley passed the puck to McNeely who sped into the offensive zone and used a backhand shot to put the puck in the top right corner of the net, beating Kangas.
It was also McNeely’s seventh goal of the season and it came nine minutes into the second period, putting the Huskies ahead 2-1.
Minnesota outshot the Huskies 12-7 in the second and going into the third, the Huskies were clinging to the one goal lead.
Both teams had chances to score early, but with less than nine minutes left to play, the Gophers got a goal from defenseman Aaron Ness to tie the game at two. That equalizer eventually ended up sending the game into overtime.
Shortly after the extra frame began, Thiessen was called for a delay of game penalty when attempting to clear the puck off the glass. The puck went over the glass and out of play.
As the power play started with a face-off in the Northeastern zone, forward Patrick White of the Gophers quickly took the puck across the middle and backhanded it into the top of the net for the game-winner 1:38 into overtime.
“We just wanted to play our game plan, limit the amount of odd man rushes that we give up and stay out of the box,” MacLeod said. “They got a couple of good bounces that went their way. It was tough.”
In the final, Minnesota had 30 shots to Northeastern’s 28 and Thiessen also made 27 saves for the second consecutive game.
One day earlier against the Western Michigan Broncos, the Huskies again got out to an early lead when freshman forward Steve Quailer scored his fifth goal of the season.
Northeastern was able to take that 1-0 lead into the second period and then extended it at the end of the second when junior forward Chris Donovan scored with seven seconds to go.
The Broncos got a goal at the beginning of the third from forward Ryan Watson and looked as if they might have a chance to get back into the game, but Northeastern got some insurance on a goal by MacLeod after a power play expired with 1:02 left on the clock.
“We played really well and limited them to only a few chances,”MacLeod said. “Luckily I found a hole in the net and was able to score.”
The Huskies outshot the Broncos 40-24 in the game, with Thiessen making 27 saves for NU.
During the tournament and for most of the season, the Huskies have struggled on the power play. They have converted just 12 of 95 power plays and did not score on the power play at all during the tournament.
“The good news is that we have still been winning without a power play,” Cronin said “We are shooting when we should be passing and passing when we should be shooting. We need to straighten that out and work on our power play to win games later in the season.”
The loss snapped a three-game winning streak for the Huskies and put their record at 12-4-2 overall. They remain at 8-2-1 in Hockey East. With the win, Minnesota improves to 10-3-5, 7-2-3 in the Western College Hockey Association.
Northeastern resumes its Hockey East schedule next weekend when it will play a home-and-home series with Merrimack (5-9-3, 2-7-2 Hockey East).
The Huskies will play host Friday for a game starting at 7 p.m. and then will travel to North Andover for Saturday’s game at the Volpe Center, which will also start at 7 p.m.
“They will play hard,” MacLeod. said “It will be a different style of game than we had here against Minnesota. We just have to skate hard and battle.”
