For someone who has closely followed the men’s hockey team here since arriving on campus, the highs and lows year in and year out are expected. This program isn’t Boston University or Boston College, and just as previous head coach Greg Cronin was beginning a promising second phase of his tenure, he left the school after a solid end to the season.
The men’s hockey team is going home for the holidays with a sour taste in its mouth.
The Huskies came out on the losing end of a 2-0 decision Saturday night in a physical, defensive battle with the University of Massachusetts-Lowell and their last game until Dec. 29.
The men’s hockey team followed up a much-needed 1-0 win over the University of Massachusetts-Amherst on Friday with a 6-3 drubbing at the hands of the Minutemen in part two of the home-and-home series at Matthews Arena the following night.
But the score of Saturday’s rematch might not entirely reflect the Huskies’ quality of play as they fell victim to events outside of their control.
The referees’ decision not to call a heavy hit on senior defenseman Drew Ellement early in the third period and a defiant fan throwing a teddy bear onto the ice both had devastating consequences for Northeastern, leading directly to the game-winning goal and killing the Huskies’ momentum at a crucial point in the game.
“Well it’s obviously not the way we wanted to come out tonight,” head coach Jim Madigan said after Saturday’s game. “We wanted to build on [Friday] night’s win, and we just didn’t come out playing as hard as I thought we would play to start the game.”
With just over five minutes gone in the final frame and the Huskies (5-8-1, 3-7-1 Hockey East) trailing 3-2, the puck trickled loose out of the corner after Ellement was slammed into the boards by a UMass (5-6-2, 4-6-1 HEA) forechecker.
As Ellement lay on the ice, the whistle was never blown. Junior defenseman Adam Phillips was left to walk in alone, deke to his forehand and roof a shot over the shoulder of senior goaltender Chris Rawlings to score what would prove to be the gamewinner with 14:32 left in regulation.
The Minutemen seized on the momentum swing and buried the Huskies with a fifth goal less than 90 seconds later on a tic-tac-toe passing play deep in the Northeastern zone.
Madigan said Ellement “got concussed” on the play and added the situation was even more frustrating because Northeastern had been controlling offensive play for the beginning of the period and seemed poised to score the equalizer.
“I liked the way we were coming, and then – you guys make the judgment – but one of our players [Ellement] got, I thought, smoked in the corner and then we turned the puck over,” Madigan said. “Obviously we were looking for a call … But he fell on his own into the boards.”
He added, “We were obviously upset on the bench how that fourth goal was scored, and I just didn’t like how we responded after that. Regardless of what happens on the ice, you just gotta go play the game, and I didn’t like how we responded.”
Later in the game, the Huskies’ goodwill came back to haunt them at a costly time.
The team invited fans to participate in a teddy bear toss immediately following the Huskies’ first goal of the game. Multiple announcements were made – after freshman forward Kevin Roy scored a power play goal to give the Huskies a 1-0 lead 6:06 into the game – telling fans not to throw additional objects onto the ice or Northeastern would be assessed a bench minor.
But after senior forward Robbie Vrolyk skated out of the corner and poked the puck under sophomore goalie Kevin Boyle to bring Northeastern back to within two late in the third period, a fan sitting behind the UMass bench threw a yellow teddy bear toward center ice, forcing the referees to assess a delay of game penalty against Northeastern.
The fan was escorted from the arena, but the damage was done. Northeastern’s momentum was stripped and the team was forced to play shorthanded for two of the game’s final five-and-a-half minutes.
Madigan said the team had sent a memo to the league informing it of the teddy bear toss, but the officials were never informed.
“[The officials] said they’d have to give me a warning” after the bears rained down on the ice, Madigan said. “Certainly we made two and three announcements, but it only takes one person – whether it be a Northeastern fan or a UMass-Amherst fan – to throw it out, and we’re the home team so we’re gonna get the penalty.”
The strong play of UMass was just as much of a factor. Head coach John Micheletto employed an aggressive two-man forecheck that pinned the Huskies deep in their zone and forced several turnovers throughout the game, while Boyle kept the Northeastern offense at bay with 32 saves.
The Minutemen also displayed expert passing, both on the power play (despite going 0-4) and when moving the puck in the neutral zone to gain entry into Northeastern’s end of the ice.
But most importantly, UMass capitalized on its scoring chances at opportune times.
Senior forward Rocco Carzo scored his first of two goals on the night off an efficient faceoff set play late in the first period to tie the game at one apiece. Freshman forward K.J. Tiefenwerth added his first career goal with 19.3 seconds left in the opening frame to give UMass the lead and momentum going into the first intermission. And Carzo put UMass ahead for good at 13:58 of the second period – just over two minutes after Roy’s team-leading seventh goal of the season knotted the game at two.
“We generated a fair number of grade-A opportunities off the rush,” Micheletto said Saturday. “We weren’t allowing [Rawlings] to get set and was (sic) creating some second and third shot opportunities … It created more of a frenzied atmosphere in front of him, and I think it just sets the tone that things are going to be a little more unsettled in front of him.”
Even with the Huskies’ struggles, they currently sit eighth in conference standings and only three points out of fourth place. A win Saturday night at UMass-Lowell could leave the Huskies as high as in a tie for fifth place going into the winter break.
But the Riverhawks (4-7-1, 2-6-1 HEA), despite being one of two Hockey East teams with fewer conference wins than Northeastern, will be hungry for a win after being swept in a home-and-home series with the United States College Hockey Online No. 1 University of New Hampshire last weekend.
The Huskies need a victory this weekend. If they can’t get one, it’ll only set them back farther – and they’ll head home for the holidays with more questions than answers.
This has been a disappointing season so far for Northeastern hockey fans. The men’s hockey team started off with big wins against Merrimack College and Boston College, but has since regressed to 5-8-1. The good news is that the women’s hockey team has played well with a 9-5-2 record so far this season.
After picking up their first conference win on Friday night in Amherst in 11 games, the men’s hockey team couldn’t complete the home-and-home series sweep of the University of Massachusetts-Amherst tonight as they fell 6-3 at Matthews Arena.
When the men’s hockey season ends some four months from now, Northeastern may look back at Friday’s 5-2 thrashing at the hands of St. Lawrence University and realize that was when it had truly hit rock bottom.
Men's hockey head coach Jim Madigan turned to the New England Patriot’s head coach Bill Belichick for inspiration for his squad this week, which hasn’t seen a win since Nov. 11’s 3-1 victory over the University of Alabama-Huntsville.
If the Northeastern men’s hockey season was to be analogized to the timeline of a VH1 retrospective, the celebrity would have had no time to celebrate their ascension from rags to riches.
Senior goalie Chris Rawlings made 19 saves in Northeastern’s 3-0 win over the University of Alabama-Huntsville on Saturday night, earning his 10th career shutout and eclipsing former All-American Brad Thiessen for the most in the university’s history.
