Box score

Postgame comments (Jim Madigan - YouTube.com)

The Northeastern men's hockey team curbed its four-game winless streak in demonstrative fashion, picking up its first victory of 2012 with an 8-3 throttling of Vermont on Friday night at Gutterson Fieldhouse.

The Huskies' power play unit lit the lamp a season-best three times while sophomore Cody Ferriero accounted for Northeastern's first hat trick since Ryan Ginand notched one on Jan. 24, 2009 against Providence. The Essex, Mass. native finished with a four-point evening (3-1-4), including his first power play marker of the season, matching freshman Ludwig Karlsson's 2011-12 standard of four points (0-4-4) at Notre Dame on Dec. 2.

Five different skaters were in multi-point figures as juniors Steve Quailer (1-2-3) and Vinny Saponari (0-2-2), sophomore Braden Pimm (0-3-3) and Karlsson (1-2-3) all joined Ferriero in the scoring bonanza. Senior captain Mike McLaughlin, junior Garrett Vermeersch and first-year forward Adam Reid all scored goals for Northeastern, as well.

Junior backstopp Chris Rawlings prevented matching a career-long five-game losing streak by stopping 31-of-34 shots in his ninth triumph in net (9-10-3). Rob Madore got the start for Vermont, but was pulled after the Huskies took a 3-0 lead. Madore stopped 10 shots in 24:25 minutes of work. Senior John Vazzano earned the loss in just his fourth-career appearance, allowing five goals on 17 shots.

The Huskies have now won three-straight contests over Vermont, marking the longest winning streak over any other team in Hockey East.

Northeastern set the precedent early by trotting out an aggressive forecheck, keeping the Catamounts on their heels from the initial puck drop. The Huskies registered the first couple of shots on Madore and Vermeersch drew first blood at 4:17 of the opening period.

Junior Drew Ellement broke up a Vermont cycle on the right dot and kicked the puck out to Karlsson in UVM's zone. Karlsson streaked down the right side of the sheet with Vermeersch flanking to his left. Karlsson perfectly timed his cross-ice pass over to Vermeersch who was able chip a one-timer backhand shot past Madore's blocker for the early 1-0 advantage.

Following NU's quick strike, UVM responded with some shots outside the circles, but Rawlings visualized the disc through the sight lines and kept the Catamounts scoreless.

The Huskies capitalized on a Michael Paliotta cross-checking penalty at 8:24 of the second period to take a 2-0 lead with a power play goal from McLaughlin. Karlsson generated the play by getting the puck in low to Saponari behind the net. McLaughlin broke loose from his man and pounded the precise feed from Saponari on the goalmouth at 9:05.

Before the first period expired, Northeastern nearly turned a rookie Dan Cornell holding call at 15:39 into a short-handed tally opportunity from the work of Pimm and Quailer. Pimm stripped the puck at the blue line and linked up with Quailer during the 2-on-1 short-handed bid, but Madore made a deft move to his left to deny the short-handed tally.

Cornell took his second infraction of the game 57 seconds into the middle stanza, but it appeared as if NU was on the power play because Pimm and Quailer crafted a couple more short-handed opportunities while on the penalty kill.

After Kyle Mountain took a seat at 3:51 (slashing), the Huskies cashed in on their second power play goal of the night on a tic-tac-toe play capped off by Quailer at 4:25.

At the beginning of the Huskies' cycle, the puck hopped over sophomore Anthony Bitetto's stick at the point, but Ferriero streaked in and broke up UVM's attempt at a 2-on-1 play. Ferriero snapped the puck up to sophomore Braden Pimm in between the circles. Pimm had the angle for a shot, but elected to defer to Quailer in stride on the right dot. Quailer accepted the pass and quickly ripped it past Madore for the 3-0 advantage.

UVM head coach Kevin Sneddon called timeout after falling behind three goals and Madore. Sneddon put Vazzano between the pipes at 4:25, but the Huskies were not bothered by the change and scored again at 9:20 of the second period.

After each squad let a power play opportunity pass, Reid tipped in a puck from junior Justin Daniels along the far boards for the four-goal cushion. Saponari found the puck at the red line and handed it off to J. Daniels on the blue line. J. Daniels saw that Vazzano allowed some room between he and the left pipe and tossed the disc towards the net. Reid was in position to tip the puck just a few feet away from Vazzano to make it a 4-0 affair.

Special teams play continued and the Catamounts finally stopped the bleeding on a short-handed goal at 13:45. Matt White and Quailer took penalties six seconds apart from each other, respectively, and then Andres Franzen went off for interference at 11:45. During the 4-on-3 situation, Bitetto rang one off the right pipe off the first draw, but that was the closes NU got on that specific power play chance.

Rawlings made a huge stop on Colin Markison while the Huskies had the extra man, but Markison made up for it with a pass out to Kyle Mountain to Rawlings' left. Mountain buried the one-timer pass with just one second remaining in Franzen's call at 13:45 to cut into Northeastern's advantage, 4-1.

The third period belonged to Ferriero as the sophomore scored his three goals at 4:25, 10:13 and 12:32. Ferriero's first goal came off his own rebound after he tried to make a pass to Quailer on his left. A Catamount defenseman sprawled in between the two to block the pass, but the disc jutted back towards Ferriero and he converted at 4:25 with the backhand past Vazzano to extend the lead, 5-1. Rookie Josh Manson made the play out to Ferriero from the neutral zone.

Kyle Reynolds disrupted Ferriero's natural hat trick (three uninterrupted goals by one player) at 7:48 to make it 5-2 on a nifty backhand through Rawlings' five-hole. Sebastian Stalberg triggered the play with a carving dish through the zone to the goalmouth in front.

The killer combo of Ferriero-Pimm-Quailer banded together and stretched the Huskies' cushion out to 7-2 with Ferriero finding the back of the net on both scoring plays.

Northeastern's sixth goal of the night occurred after Quailer discovered Pimm in between the circles about 20 feet out from Vazzano. Ferriero flanked wide to the right and pounded home a one-time dish from Pimm to Vazzano's left to make it 6-2 at 10:13.

Ferriero then took advantage of an Arthur Griem hitting-from-behind penalty (10:46) and buried Northeastern's third extra-man marker of the night at 12:32. Ferriero's linemates set him up with the scoring threat once again and he delivered the knockout blow with a blistering slap shot to make it 7-2.

Saponari was cited for elbowing at 13:01 and Matt White made NU's penalty-killing unit pay at 14:06 by deflecting a tear from Stalberg. White placed himself in traffic and redirected the one-timer from Stalberg for UVM's final tally of the night.

Karlsson had the last laugh at 18:54, beating Vazzano all alone with the backhander to cap Northeastern's offensive explosion. Bitetto was credited with the assist as the Huskies skated away with the 8-3 thrashing.

Northeastern returns to Gutterson Fieldhouse tomorrow night to close out the regular-season series with Vermont at 7:00 p.m.

Game Notes
• Northeastern's three power play goals mark a season high for 2011-12. The Huskies have found the back of the net with the extra man only two other times this year, including at Minnesota (2-for-12 • Dec. 31) and at Massachusetts (2-for-4 • Nov. 12). The Huskies hadn't scored a 5-on-4 goal since the 2-1 win over Notre Dame on Dec. 3 (Quailer from Vermeersch). The Huskies have now scored 12 power play goals on the season (12-for-103 – 11.7 percent).

• Cody Ferriero's hat trick was the first for Northeastern since Ryan Ginand recorded one against Providence on Jan. 24, 2009. The Essex, Mass. native is also the first Husky to tally four points in a game this season since Ludwig Karlsson did it against Notre Dame on Dec. 2 (0-4-4). Ferriero's first and only other multi-goal game came at Michigan (Nov. 25, 2011). Ferriero now has three multi-point games this season.

• Northeastern posted its second-highest total points in a game this season, accumulating 22 points across the board (8-14-22). The Huskies attained 24 at Notre Dame on Dec. 2 (9-13-24).

• The eight goals against Vermont marks the second-highest total against the Catamounts in series history. NU hung nine goals on two separate occasions, including Dec. 12, 1981 (9-7) and Oct. 25, 1988 (9-6). Friday night's total was the highest ever on the road when facing UVM. If Northeastern wins on Saturday night, it will match the longest winning streak against UVM set back from Dec. 13, 1980 to Jan. 18, 1984.

• Braden Pimm achieved his first-career playmaker at Northeastern, registering three assists in the victory. Pimm now has six multi-point performances this season and seven for his career.

• Steve Quailer and Cody Ferriero made their career benchmark games a memorable one. Quailer's three-point outing occurred during his 100th-career game while Ferriero's hat trick happened in his 50th outing at Northeastern.

• Garrett Vermeersch has scored at least one point in 10 of his last 12 games. The Macomb, Mich. native has accounted for 13 points within that stretch (6-7-13).

• Mike McLaughlin dispelled a 14-game goal scoring draught and his first since he returned to the line up. The Seaforth, Ont. native potted his first power play goal of the season and sixth of his career. McLaughlin's last goal came against Merrimack on Nov. 5, 2011.

• Ludwig Karlsson turned in his sixth multi-point performance and first since the Boston University game on Jan. 13. After his three-point night, Karlsson is the top-scoring rookie (1.05 ppg) in the entire country.

• Vinny Saponari accounted for his fifth multi-point effort for Northeastern and has now posted a pair of assists on four occasions at NU.

• Adam Reid scored his first goal since finding the back of the net against UMass Lowell on Dec. 10. It counted as his first-career game-winning goal.