The independent student newspaper of Northeastern University

The Huntington News

The independent student newspaper of Northeastern University

The Huntington News

The independent student newspaper of Northeastern University

The Huntington News

Men’s Hockey: Huskies advance to Beanpot final

By Jared Shafran, News Staff

While many Husky fans were fighting off the jitters as the men’s hockey team’s Monday night opening-round Beanpot matchup against Boston College began, a second period offensive explosion and the ensuing rout erased fears and gave cause for celebration in Northeastern’s 6-1 win over the Eagles.
The’ No. 3 Huskies started a bit tentative in the 57th edition of the Beanpot, but emotions were eased early when senior forward Ryan Ginand scored to give NU the 1-0 lead just three and a half minutes into the game.
‘Last year we started off slow and we know how much it means for the team to come out with a victory, especially over BC, who is the defending national champions and defending Beanpot champions,’ Ginand said. ‘The energy tonight was amazing. I can’t wait till next week.’
The goal was Ginand’s 18th of the season, which is tops in Hockey East and third in the nation.
A few minutes later, junior forward Chris Donovan was called for roughing with contact to the head and the Eagles had their first power play of the game.
The Huskies did a good job to kill the man advantage but as the power play expired, BC kept the pressure going in the Husky zone and drew another delayed penalty. As the play continued,’ BC forward Matt Price took a shot from the high slot and junior goaltender Brad Thiessen could only get a piece of the puck as it trickled in to tie the game at one.
The Huskies took the lead back exactly three minutes later on a rebound goal by junior forward Greg Costa. Donovan started the play when he recognized that a BC player lost his stick, and’ moved in on goaltender John Muse and took a shot. Muse made the initial save but a rebound came out to Costa who was able to bang it home, giving the Huskies the lead.
Not long after the goal, BC was on a power play and captain Brock Bradford got a chance. He closed in on Thiessen’s right side and made a nice move, but the Hobey Baker candidate made a great stop with his right pad and the Huskies eventually killed off the penalty.
In the first half of the second period there wasn’t much action as the game started to slow down a bit, but a tripping penalty called halfway through on BC’s Barry Almeida gave the Huskies the opportunity to expand’ their lead.
As the Huskies dumped the puck into the Eagles’ zone about a minute into the power play, Muse went behind his net to make a play, but lost control of the puck. Huskies’ sophomore forward Steve Silva dove at the puck and chipped it out to center ice for senior defenseman Louis Liotti who ripped a shot into the vacant net for the goal.
The Huskies widened the lead only 42 seconds later on another play that went behind the net.
Muse went behind again and this time Donovan stopped a BC clearing attempt. He passed it to senior forward Dennis McCauley who fired a slapshot by Muse, who had never fully gotten back into position, for the goal. The Huskies were on top, 4-1, and cruising toward the championship game for the first time since 2005.
With just over a minute left to play in the second, NU dumped the puck deep in the BC zone and, once more, Muse came out of his net to play it. Donovan made a great play to steal the puck out from under Muse and threw it in front of the net. Freshman forward Steve Quailer was wide open and waiting to hit the open net. That made the game 5-1 and gave the Huskies a 3-0 edge in the second period alone.
‘I think we were very fortunate to get some turnovers right in front of the net and blew open a game that was a tight,’ Cronin said.
As the period ended, there was a scrum in front of the Huskies net. Bradford plowed into Thiessen and a couple players became entangled with each other. Bradford was given a major penalty for charging and in retaliation’ and senior Dennis Chisholm was given a game disqualification for throwing punches after the whistle.
The Eagles started the third period on a power play, but the Huskies killed it off.
The last goal of the game was scored by Donovan who picked up a rebound on an initial shot by freshman forward Alex Tuckerman that Muse could not glove cleanly.
Donovan finished with a goal and three assists on the game and was one of the best all around players on the ice for the Huskies.
Brad Thiessen recorded a season high 45 saves and increased his save percentage to .937 percent on the season.
‘I like to get a lot of shots, it keeps me in the game,’ Thiessen said. ‘I was able to focus on the puck all night and our defense and forwards played great. A lot of the shots I saw all the way and when there was a scramble in front we were able to clear pucks.’
Cronin went on to say how important his goalkeeper’s play was in the team’s win.
‘I think the save he made on the backdoor pass on the power play in the first period was unbelievable,’ Cronin said. ‘To me,’ goaltending is like a quarterback in football or like a pitcher in baseball, you can’t win without one and I think he has been the biggest catalyst for us defensively.’
Northeastern’s record improves to 18-6-2 on the season.
With the win, the Huskies have earned a spot in the Beanpot championship game against Boston University, Monday at the TD Banknorth Garden at 8 p.m.
First, the Huskies are back in action Friday night when they will try to sweep their season series with Merrimack (5-16-3, 2-14-2 Hockey East) at Matthews Arena. The puck will drop at 7 p.m.

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