The New Era of Northeastern Hockey

When Greg Cronin left last summer, he left behind a program that was trending upwards.  The team was coming off a strong second half that included a huge playoff victory at BU.  The overtime loss in the Beanpot and the 1 goal loss in the Hockey East Semifinals, both to BC, were tough to swallow, but it was hard not to be proud of the team for really turning it around after a rough start.

Fueling the optimism was the fact that the recruiting class coming in was considered to be Cronin’s best yet.  Despite losing the top scorers to graduation and early departures, people were definitely excited about this team and the future of Northeastern hockey.

When Cronin left, that optimism took a hit.  No matter who they brought in, the new coach was going to have to steady the ship and keep all of the recruits on board before anything else. Unless they hired from within (Sebastien LaPlante), that was always going to be a tough task.  Even with LaPlante, they likely would have lost one or two.  But overall, it seemed like the next coach that came in would have a solid base and they would pick up where Cronin had left off.

When Jim Madigan was hired, he decided not to take that course. He chose to blow up the foundation Cronin built and start down his own path.   Most of the time when a new coach comes in, they do clear out memories of the old regime and craft the team into their own model.  Madigan’s supporters this year have been quick to point out that Cronin did the same thing when he came in.  To be fair though, the situation Cronin walked into was a far cry from the one Madigan did.  Unlike when Cronin came in, Madigan had plenty of talent to work with.  Still, he decided that he was better off doing things his way and getting his guys in.

Was this the right move by Madigan? We can’t say.  Not now at least.  If Madigan brings in his guys and can get a Beanpot or an NCAA tournament win, I don’t think anybody is going to still be upset about missing the playoffs this year.  But if Madigan’s plan can’t take the program to new heights, then it will probably feel like he did waste what Cronin left here.

Either way, its too early to tell if this the right course of action or not.  But its the course Northeastern is on.  For the second year in a row, its been a difficult summer for Northeastern and when the team takes the ice next season, it will be one major step closer to a Madigan-designed team.  “Cronin’s guys” have been heading for the exits: some by their own will (Bitetto), some because they had no reason to stay (Dongara).  There will be more departures before this summer is over.  Besides Chris Rawlings, Luke Eibler will probably be the biggest reminder of Cronin next year.  Look at the likely Top 6 forwards

1. Ludwig Karlsson (never played for Cronin)

2. Vinny Saponari (never played for Cronin)

3. Braden Pimm (3rd/4th liner under Cronin)

4. Garrett Vermeersch (Member of Cronin’s Doghouse.  4th liner in Cronin’s last season)

5. Cody Ferriero (President of Cronin’s Doghouse.  Suspended once, benched multiple times in just 1 year under Cronin)

6. Adam Reid or Joe Manno (never played for Cronin, Manno committed to Madigan)

Defense isn’t much better.  Just Drew Ellement and Luke Eibler will have played under Cronin.  And of course, Madigan has gotten commitments from his own recruits and let some of Cronin’s go (McKee, Renz).

Its a bit shocking when you look at it.  Obviously Madigan was going to mold the program in a way that suited him, but it is surprising just how quickly he has cleared out Cronin’s guys.  And for fans who watched Cronin turn this program around, that can be a little hard to swallow.  All will be forgiven if Madigan can win, but right now it feels like Northeastern hockey is back to square 1 and it might take a few years for this plan to get going.

Final: Huskies 4, Maine 2

With their backs to the wall, Northeastern pulled out a huge victory last night over Maine, 4-2. 

Photo Courtesy of Dave Luca

The Basics

• Garrett Vermeersch, Justin Daniels, Vinny Saponari and Adam Reid had goals for Northeastern.
• Anthony Bitetto, Joseph Manno and Justin Daniels had 2 points.  Steve Quailer and Luke Eibler also had assists.
• Chris Rawlings made 29 saves and didn’t allow any soft goals.
• The Huskies were outshot 31 to 28.
• NU 2-5 on the PP.  Maine was 0-2, but got 1 shorthanded goal.
• Mike McLaughlin and Alex Tuckerman both sustained concussions.

What You Need to Know

• The Huskies came to play right from the get go.   And Garrett Vermeersch scored on their first PP of the game to give them an early lead.
• The second period got off to a bad start.  Maine grabbed a goal 15 seconds in to tie it.
• Then the Huskies reverted to their old habits when Maine gave them a 5 minute major.  NU couldn’t get the puck of their own zone and Maine scored eventually to take the lead.  NU looked to have tied it, but after a lengthy review, it was ruled McLaughlin kicked the puck in.
• Justin Daniels, who picked up 3 points, tied it up for a real a minute later on a tough angle shot.   
• The game looked destined for OT until Joe Manno found himself on a breakaway.  His attempt was saved, but Adam Reid was there to put home the rebound with just 1 minute left.
• The Huskies then sealed the deal with an empty netter.  Steve Quailer broke in, but then in an unselfish move, passed it to Vinny Saponari.

Lines:

Karlsson-McLaughlin-Saponari

Quailer-Vermeersch-Pimm

Reid-Daniels-Tuckerman

Manno-Stone-Morra

 

D:

Bitetto-Manson

Eibler-Cornell

Ellement-Daniels

 

 

Thoughts

What a game and what a win.  With Steve Quailer back in the lineup, the Huskies actually came to play.   Every line had some chances and the Huskies actually looked like a team that wanted to be there for the first time in a while.

 

Chris Rawlings finally played like a guy who plans on being a pro.  He was moving well and made some big saves.   But most importantly, he didn’t let in any soft goals.  The defense helped him out by limiting chances for the Black Bears.

 

It looked like another game that NU was going to blow after wasting multiple PP chances late in the game, but they pulled it out.

 

Manno may not be able to score, but he just keeps getting breakaways.  And Adam Reid always seems to be in the right place and the right time.  Just a great sequence of events to get the game winner.  Both of these freshman are going to play a huge role next season.  

 

I was ready to write this team off, but this was very encouraging.  In a must win game, they came to play.  And they came back from a deficit for once.  It was an impressive win and it gives the team and the fans some hope that playoffs may be in sight.  

 

 

Final: Huskies 2, Providence 2

Yet again, Northeastern skated to a tie last night against Providence.  This one finished 2-2.

Photo Courtesy of Dave Luca

The Basics

• Alex Tuckerman and Adam Reid had goals for Northeastern.
• Mike McLaughlin, Drew Daniels, Garrett Vermeersch, and Drew Ellement all had assists.
• Chris Rawlings made 47 saves, a career high.  But the two goals he let in will be what this game is remembered for.
• The Huskies were outshoot 49 to 35.
• NU 1-6 on the PP.  PC was 1-7, both teams had 5 minute majors.
• Robbie Vrolyk was injured late in the first and did not return.

What You Need to Know

• Northeastern took an early lead, but couldn’t hold on for long.
• With the game tied at 1, Ben Oskroba was sent off for a 5 minute major.   NU did a great job killing the penalty, but they allowed a goal when Kevin Hart shot a puck in from the neutral zone and Rawlings deflected it top shelf.   I know I have said this a few times this season, but this was without a doubt the softest goal Rawlings has given up.  Especially when you consider it was probably going wide of the net before he touched it.
• Adam Reid tied it up on a great move when Vermeersch sprung him on a partial breakaway.
• Speaking of breakaways, Joe Manno had 3.  The first two he shot way over the net and the third Beaudry was not fooled on.   Manno was really flying last night, but his missed chances proved costly
• More missed chances: NU had a PP late in the third and early in OT.  They managed just 1 shot between the 2.
• 1 Shoe OT is still undefeated.

Lines:

Karlsson-Daniels-Saponari

Reid-Vermeersch-Pimm

Manno-McLaughlin-Tuckerman

Stone-Morra

D:

Bitetto-Manson

Eibler-Oskroba

Ellement-Daniels

Cornell

Thoughts

Robbie Vrolyk did not return to the lineup on Saturday after leaving Friday, but even that couldn’t get former fan favorite Rob Dongara back in the lineup.   Madigan went with 11 forwards and 7 D and it actually paid off.  Dan Cornell left the game in the first to get stitches, then Ben Oskroba was tossed for contact to the head.   Cornell eventually returned and the Huskies finished with 6 defenseman.

Once again, offense was an issue for the Huskies.   Since Ferriero and Qualier got hurt, the Huskies have scored just 11 goals in 6 games. Pathetic.  If Robbie Vrolyk is out for an extended period of time, the Huskies may not score another goal all season.   Pimm has been working hard since losing his linemates, but it just hasn’t been working for him.  Karlsson has been skating well, but just can’t find the net.   And where is the Vinny Saponari that scored goals for BU as a freshman?  Its not like he isn’t playing with quality guys.   Manno and Reid looked good though.  Unfortunately Manno couldn’t finish the way Reid did or else it might have been a different result.

Going into this weekend, everyone knew they needed 4.   They got 2 and UMass matched them.  So they have made it very difficult on themselves.   They do have 3 out of their last 4 games at home, but picking up points against Maine and BU is going to a very big ask.

Final: Huskies 1, Providence 1

Northeastern skated to a 1-1 tie last night against Providence in what might have been the most boring game of all time.

Photo Courtesy of Dave Luca

 

The Basics

• Garrett Vermeersch scored the lone goal for the Huskies
• Josh Manson and Adam Reid picked up assists on that goal.
• Chris Rawlings saved 22 out of 23 shots, after allowing a terrible goal on the first shot of the game.
• NU had 21 shots to PC’s 23.
• Both teams were 0-4 on the PP.
• Robbie Vrolyk was injured late in the first and did not return.

What You Need to Know

• PC scored on a shot from the corner 30 seconds in and it looked liked the same old story for Northeastern.
• But for once the Huskies didn’t fold up after a soft goal and Vermeersch tied it up 5 minutes later.
• Then everyone fell asleep and when we woke up the game was over, still tied at 1.
• 1 Shot OT is still undefeated.

Lines:

Karlsson-Daniels-Saponari

Reid-Vermeersch-Pimm

Vrolyk-McLaughlin-Tuckerman

Manno-Stone-Morra

D:

Bitetto-Manson

Eibler-Oskroba

Ellement-Daniels

Thoughts

The Huskies were the better team for most of regulation, but that isn’t saying much because PC was pretty bad.  Their gameplan was a smart one: shoot pucks from weird angles and try to get some cheap goals off Rawlings.   Northeastern figured it out pretty quickly and after that PC had almost no chances.

On the other hand, Northeastern was doing an ok job of getting the puck in the zone but as usual no one wanted to shoot.  So instead of challenging Beaudry to make a save, they just pass it back to the point.  The defenseman make the forwards look trigger happy.  They just wait and wait and wait until an opponent comes to them.  When that finally happens, they fire a shot right into their legs.  Absolutely brutal.   If the Huskies had just taken a few more shots, they probably would have won last night.  But I suppose that has been true for more than a few of their losses.

But then came overtime where the wheels just fell off.  The Huskies didn’t manage a shot on net in the 5 minutes, but they almost gave the game away plenty of times.   Rawlings came up with a couple big saves, but also had some shaky moments, including one with about 30 seconds left where the puck trickled through his legs and went just outside the post.   It seemed like Northeastern was just daring PC to score on them with countless neutral zone turnovers and when that didn’t work, Alex Tuckerman decided to up the ante and do it in his own zone.  Somehow they survived with the point.

Power Play was beyond brutal.  Again.   Just unacceptable, but its not going to change.    Justin Daniels actually played pretty well on the first line.   And Josh Manson saw more ice time than he has seen all season and he handled it pretty well.   He is still getting a bit risky when he tries to rush the puck, but he was impressive last night.  Ludwig Karlsson also looked good after being a bit quiet lately.

With other results going NU’s way, the point was big, but they will need 2 more tonight to make it a good weekend and keep themselves in the playoff hunt.

Final: Huskies 4, UMass Amherst 3 (OT)

Northeastern extended thier win streak to 3 games last with a 4-3 OT victory over UMass Amherst.

Photo Courtesy of Dave Luca

The Basics

• Robbie Vrolyk had 2 goals, Adam Reid scored his first career powerplay goal, and then Vinny Saponari won it with  a goal in OT.
• Alex Tuckerman and Mike McLaughlin both had 2 assists.  Drew Daniels, Ludwig Karlsson, Garrett Vermeersch, and Zak Stone also had assists.
• Chris Rawlings saved 28 out of 31 shots, but he was pretty shaky for most of the first two periods.
• Both teams had 31 shots.
• NU was 1-5 on the PP.  UMass was 1-4.

What You Need to Know

• The Huskies jumped out to a quick 2 goal lead thanks to some hard work down low.  But they quickly gave UMass 2 goals of their own, thanks to some sloppy play in the defensive zone.
• Chris Rawlings did not have a good night.   He was flopping a lot and he was on his back and out of position for all 3 goals.
• Robbie Vrolyk scored twice.  The junior has 10 career goals.   5 of them have come against UMass Amherst.
• The third line of Vrolyk-McLaughlin-Tuckerman continued their hot streak.    All 3 had a slow start to the year, but since McLaughlin has come back and they have been playing together consistently, they have given the team quality minutes every weekend.
• The new “second” line however did not work.   Braden Pimm was good, as usual, but Justin Daniels and Rob Dongara continue to disappoint.  Its a tough situation.   The 1st line and 3rd line are playing well and you would hate to break them up.   But you could argue that anyone on the 4th line could do just as much as Daniels and Dongara have with top 6 minutes.   There were several times when Adam Reid took shifts instead of Dong.  Hopefully, they will continue to do that until they find something that works.
• On defense, both Luke Eibler and Anthony Bitetto had strong games.   UMass would have probably had a few good shorthanded chances that Bitetto broke up.   Eibler was a physical presence all night and moved the puck pretty well on top of it.
• The two biggest things to takeaway from this game are that the Huskies were unable to come back despite blowing a lead, and that they were able to finally win in Overtime.   And that is despite not playing very well for a good portion of the game.

Lines:

Karlsson-Vermeersch-Saponari

Daniels-Pimm-Dongara

Vrolyk-McLaughlin-Tuckerman

Reid-Stone-Manno

D:

Bitetto-Cornell

Eibler-Manson

Ellement-Daniels

Thoughts

The injuries are obviously going to be a huge obstacle for them to overcome, but the Huskies proved tonight that they can survive.    All 4 goals were just the result of hard work and finishing rebounds.   Unfortunately, the Huskies won’t have the benefit of playing rebound machine Kevin Boyle every night, but hopefully this game can serve as a gameplan.  2 of the best scorers on the team are gone    and that means that other people going to need to step up.   A couple players were guilty of trying to do too much last night, but as a whole the team did a good job in working hard to comeback after giving up 3 unanswered goals.

It was good to see another power play goal.   Mike McLaughlin has been a revelation on the PP unit.  He isn’t a big scorer, but he can move the puck and he makes good decisions.   Adam Reid was a nice addition.  He works well in front of the net, and he showed that on his PPG.   The Power Play isn’t lighting up the scoreboard, but it has gotten better in the past couple weeks.

It wasn’t a great game for Northeastern, but for once they just found a way to win a close game instead of finding a way to lose it.  Now they enter the Beanpot on a 3 game win streak.  But more importantly they opened up  a 2 point lead on UMass and they have worked themselves back into the 8th spot.    There is a long way to go, but picking up points in this game was essential and they took care of business.

Preview: Huskies vs UMass Amherst

Photo Courtesy of Dave Luca

The Beanpot is looming for the Huskies, but they have a huge Hockey East game on their plate before they can worry about that.  The Huskies play host to UMass Amherst who they are tied with for 7th in Hockey East.

This game will have big implications on the Huskies playoff hopes.  Despite being tied in the standings, UMass has played 2 less games than the Huskies.   And if UMass can get a win or tie tonight, then they will win the season series and own the crucial tiebreaker.   So a loss tonight would give UMass a 3 point lead in essence and they would have 2 additional games to be played.

UMass is 0-8-2 in road games this season.   One of those ties came at Matthews in the season opener.  Danny Hobbs, TJ Syner, Bredan Gracel and Conor Sheary are the ones to watch.  The only question for the Minuteman is who will be in net.  Kevin Boyle was in net for both of the first two games, but he hasn’t seen much action of late.  Its been mostly a rotation between Steve Mastalerz and Jeff Teglia.  Neither of whom NU has faced before.

Northeastern is 23-33-3 in the games directly before the Beanpot.  They are 4-2-0 against UMass in those games.

The stats have become less embarrassing for the Huskies after last week.   The Power Play is finally in double digits (11%) and they are averaging 3.0 goals per game after last week’s outburst.

The Huskies could be without Steve Quailer, which would cause some lineup reshuffling.   In that case, the best bet would probably be to move Manno up to Quailer’s spot.   Then put Stone back in the lineup in his 4th line spot.   It will be interesting to see how Madigan handles it, if Quailer is indeed out.

Some Interesting Statistical Notes on NU:

• The Huskies are 8-2-0 when leading after the 2nd period, 0-5-2 when trailing, and 2-4-1 when tied.
• The Huskies are 3-11-3 when scoring less than 4 goals.
• The Huskies are 6-2-1 in games following a win
• The Huskies are 8-0-2 when Cody Ferriero scores a point, 4-0 when Adam Reid and Dan Cornell score a point, and 3-0 when Josh Manson, Zak Stone, and Robbie Vrolyk score a point.
• In games when Quailer-Pimm-Ferriero line isn’t together, the Huskies are 2-7-2

3 Stars of the Week: 1/30

1st Star

Cody Ferriero, F, 2 GP, 4-1-5, +3

Hard to argue with this one.  Hat trick on Friday night and an empty netter to seal it on Saturday.   The hat trick is the first for a Husky since Ryan Ginand pull on off against PC in 2009.  The goals were his first since December 2nd at Notre Dame and he now has 9 goals on the season which is tied for the team lead.  The Massachusetts native has much huge strides on the ice in his second collegiate season.  In 34 games last season, Ferriero had 7 points.  This season, he has 15 points in 17 games.   But he has now missed 7 games (30% of the season) because he cannot get his act together off the ice.    He is a very talented player and weekends like this show how much he means to this team.   Hopefully he can stay on the ice and keep this performance up.   It will be interesting to see how he fares without his linemate if Quailer does miss any time.

2nd Star

Mike McLaughlin, F, 2 GP, 1-3-4, +2

The Captain had a huge weekend.   On Friday night, he scored a rare Power Play goal for the Huskies.  On Saturday, he chipped in with assists on 3 out of the 4 goals.   Some people have questioned his leadership as he doesn’t appear to be a very vocal and in-your-face kind of guy.   But that’s ok, because he leads by example on the ice.   No one can question his commitment.   He is a great penalty killer, reliable on faceoffs (58% on the weekend) and he doesn’t take shifts off.   He is not a guy who lights up the stat sheet, but he is someone you want on your team because he does the dirty work.  This was probably his best weekend of the season.

3rd Star

Ludwig Karlsson, F, 2 GP, 1-2-3, +3

Karlsson continues to state his case for Best Freshman in the conference.  He just continues to put up points week in and week out.   Going into the season, I don’t think there was anybody who expected that a freshman would be tied for the team lead in goals and in points this late in the season.    The decommits hurt this recruiting class, that is obvious.  But Karlsson is turning out to be a real gem and he has made everyone forget about John Gaudreau.   Karlsson is just a great hockey player.   Karlsson already has 22 points and he may be able to match Jason Guerriero’s mark of 35 in his freshman year of 2001 if he keeps up his pace.   Playing on a line with Vinny Saponari has certainly helped him, but he also has shown the capability of making things happen all by himself.

Standings
1. L. Karlsson 9

2. C. Rawlings 8

2. B. Pimm 8

4. G. Vermeersch 7

4. C. Ferriero 7

6. S. Quailer 6

7. M. McLaughlin 5

8. V. Saponari 4

9. J. Manno 3

9. A. Bitetto 3

9. J. Daniels 3

12. D. Cornell 2

13. D. Ellement 1

13. A. Reid 1