Preview: Huskies at PC

The Huskies continue with Hockey East action tonight at they travel down to Providence to take on the Friars for a 7pm contest.

Photo Courtesy of Dave Luca

The Huskies (1-7-2) will be desperate for a win against PC.  But the Friars (6-3-1) are off the a great start under new coach Nate Leaman.   And they are 6-1-1 at home this season.

After dismantling Alabama-Huntsville and Vermont the past two weekends, PC is now scoring 3.70 goals per game.  (NU is scoring 2.2).  Tim Schaller is the guy to watch for PC.  He has 8 goals already this season and he has 3 career points against the Huskies in 6 games.   Daniel New has 5 points in 8 games vs NU to led the Friars.

In net for the Friars will be Alex Beaudry, owner of a 1-4-2 record and .895 SV% against the Huskies.  If NU’s offense is ever going to break out, this would be an ideal time.

PC’s special teams could provide an edge, however. The boast a 20% PP rate and an 89% PK rate with 4 shorthanded goals to go with it.  Compare that to Northeastern’s 9%, 79%, and 1.  But PC does take a lot of penalties and NU did find some success on the Power Play last weekend.  So again, this would be an ideal game to breakout.

Northeastern has had success in recent years against PC.  They are 6-2-2 in the last ten and the series was 1-1-1 last season.

As for lineup news, there isn’t much we can tell you.  Madigan has shown he likes to rotate guys in and out at the bottom. Two of those guys, Alex Tuckerman and Garrett Vermeersch have good career numbers against PC.  Tuckerman has 1-2-3 line in 6 games. Vermeersch has 1-4-5 in 6 games.  So those two will likely be in the lineup.  But with the offense struggling, Madigan could go for a complete shake up.  He showed last weekend that he isnt afraid to do it with the defense and no one is too good to sit. Could we see the same this weekend with the offense.

At the beginning of the year, this looked like a weekend where Clay Witt could get a start but I can’t see it now.  Chris Rawlings has been on fire lately.  And in 6 games against PC, he has 1.79 GAA to go wit ha 3-1-2 record.   He has kept the team in games recently, maybe tonight they can win one for him.

Travelling: For those who don’t have a car and want to go to this game: There is a 5 o’clock train from South Station (5:09 at Ruggles) that gets to Providence at 6:10.  The rink is about an 8 dollar cab ride away.  There is usually a decent amount of NU fans, so you can split the cab.   I’ll be on that train and Cory is picking me up at the train station, so we might have room to take 1 or 2 people if you see us.