Preview: Huskies at Notre Dame

The Huskies are back on the road again this weekend as they visit future Hockey East member, Notre Dame for a 2 game series.  The game starts at 7.  You can watch here or listen on WRBB.

Photo Courtesy of Dave Luca

Northeastern and Notre Dame haven’t met since 2001, when they skated to a tie in Boston.  Northeastern’s last trip out to South Bend in 2000, saw the teams split a weekend series.

Notre Dame is ranked 2nd in the country.  They are 10-3-3, with a 3-1 record out of conference play.  Last Saturday, they lost to Lake Superior State, which snapped an 11 game unbeaten streak.  The Irish are also a perfect 5-0 at their brand new arena.  2 of those wins came in overtime, including one with 1.1 seconds left against BC a couple of weeks ago.

Sophomores TJ Tynan and Anders Lee will be the ones to watch.  Lee scores the goals (12, good for 7th in the NCAA) and Tynan gets the assists (18, tied for 1st in the country in Assists/game).  This attack has given them the 17th best offense in the country, scoring 3.25 goals per game.  The also have the 17th best defense giving up just 2.44 goals per game.  Notre Dame has a good Power Play (22%) and an average Penalty Kill (83%).  They average a little over 4 penalties a game.

For the Huskies, their recent offensive surge hasn’t made a huge impact on their stats.  They still allow more goals (2.8)  than they give up (2.7).  They still allow much more shots (34.6) than they take (25.1).  And their Power Play is still in single digits (9%).

But are on a 3 game winning streak and they have looked much better lately.  Mike McLaughlin will likely miss out again this weekend, so the lines should stay pretty much the same.

The Quailer-Pimm-Ferriero line will obviously stick together. Quailer is on a 4 game point streak and Ferriero has a 3 gamer.  The Huskies are 4-0-1 when Ferriero has a point.  Which means they are 0-7-2 when he doesn’t.  Small sample size/coincidence aside, he has been a big part of the turnaround.

Vinny Saponari has only 1 goal for NU and its been 11 games since that goal.  He has played very well, but the results have been in the assist column so far.  I wouldn’t be surprised to see him get a goal this weekend and really start to pick up his goal total.

Nothing should change with the defensive pairs.

In net, it would seem like a good weekend to give each goalie a game, but who really knows.

Its another big test for the Huskies and this game will provide a measuring stick of how far the turnaround has game.  A win would be really huge.

Some of the Doghouse guys made the trip.  One of them, Sean Hathaway, will hopefully be writing about the trip here.  So stay tuned for that and make sure to watch or listen to the game tonight.