• Game Notes
• Live Stats
• Live Video (friars.com)
• Buy Tickets
• Listen Live: Huskies Radio (P x P: Rob Rudnick | Color: Bil Doherty)  •  WRBB Sports (P x P: Ben Horner | Color: Jack Thaler | Sidelines: Ryan Fallon)

Northeastern at Providence
Northeastern returns to Providence for its final time during the regular season on Friday night before capping the Hockey East set on Saturday night at Matthews Arena. The Huskies have struggled as of late when traveling to Friartown, amassing a 1-2-1 mark in their last four games at Schneider Arena. In the last meeting on Nov. 16, Northeastern's power play unit posted its first multi power play goal performance of the season, but the defense surrendered six goals. Clay Witt relieved Chris Rawlings in his only showing of the 2012-13 season. Northeastern and Providence have played some close games in recent history, tying four times in the last nine meetings. The Huskies last win over Providence occurred in Rhode Island in a 5-2 final on Nov. 18, 2011. NU coach Jim Madigan is 1-1-2 in four-career games against the Friars while PC's Nate Leaman is a combined 2-1-3 agianst NU from his time at Union College.

Focusing on the Friars
Speaking of ties, Providence has not shied away from stalemates as of late. The Friars have skated to four draws in their last five outings to rest at an overall mark of 11-10-7. Providence has settled nicely into its unique barn that is Schneider Arena with a 6-3-3 mark at home compared to a 5-7-4 mark on the road. PC does not possess a breakout player on its roster but likes to spread the scoring around having 11 skaters with 10 points or more. Derek Army sits at the top of the Friars' scoring heap with a scoring line of 12-8-20 while Steven Shamanski (0-12-12) leads PC in the assists column. First-year goaltender Jon Gillies has been the story, with national top-20 stats in save percentage (.930 – 15th) and goals against average (2.10 – 18th). Gillies is also tied for second in the NCAA with four shutouts. Gillies anchors PC's 15th-ranked defense (2.43 gpg) while the Friars' offense is slotted 31st nationally (2.75).

Manson makes it count
Sophomore Josh Manson dialed up his first-career goal in a big spot, burying NU's first overtime winner since last season in a 5-4 victory at Massachusetts on Feb. 19, 2013. The Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, native not only netted his first goal in his 60th-career game, but also notched his first-ever multi-point performance when he assisted on Robbie Vrolyk's game-tying goal. The defenseman also finished with a +3 rating and blocked a team-high three shots in his offensive outburst.

Don't call it a comeback
Facing a 4-3 deficit after two periods of play at UMass on Feb. 19, Northeastern won just its second game in four years after trailing through 40 minutes play thanks to Josh Manson's walk-off winner. The last time the Huskies came back and won a game after facing a deficit heading into the third period was at UMass Lowell on Feb. 11, 2011, when Jamie Oleksiak scored the OT winner at 4:46 of the overtime frame.

Minueman mauler
Senior Robbie Vrolyk had another breakout performance against Massachusetts on Feb. 19, accounting for his first-career three-point performance and his third-career two-goal game. All three of Vrolyk's two-goal performances have come against the Minutemen. He has posted eight goals in eight-career games against UMass.

Mountain of a win
Bryan Mountain relieved Chris Rawlings to start the third period in Northeastern's 5-4 overtime victory at Massachusetts on Feb. 19. The Bryn Mawr, Pa., native picked up his first win of the season via seven through 24:04 minutes of work. The Bryn Mawr, Pa., native won his second-career outing and first since beating Merrimack, 2-1, on Dec. 5, 2009, to help keep the Huskies in the playoff race.

Power play push
Northeastern has now scored a power play goal in its last four games dating back to the Boston College Beanpot contest. That marks the first time that has happened this season and the first time since closing out the 2011-12 ledger with five-straight games from Feb. 18 to March 3, 2012.

Playmakin'
Newcomer Mike McMurtry accounted for Northeastern's second playmaker (three assists in one game) in four games, joining Vinny Saponari's three-assist outing in the Beanpot final. Both performances counted as career-best point performances as Huskies.

MVP effort
After scoring five of Northeastern's six goals in the 2013 Beanpot Tournament, Kevin Roy added to his sterling freshman season by earning Beanpot MVP honors on Feb. 11. Roy became the first Beanpot MVP of a second-place team since Boston University's Sean Field in 2004. Roy is the Huskies' fifth-ever MVP and Northeastern's first since Bruce Racine took home the award in 1988.

Honorable Huskies
Northeastern picked up three Hockey East awards on Feb. 11 after knocking off Boston University in the Beanpot semifinal on Feb. 4. Kevin Roy was named Athletic Republic Player of the Week while Chris Rawlings earned Hockey East Co-Defensive Player of the Week honors. The Huskies were also named Hockey East Team of the Week. In all, Northeastern has won nine league awards this season. Roy won HEA Rookie of the Month (Dec.), marking NU's first honor of that kind since Brad Thiessen in January 2007. Roy has won four awards this season whereas Rawlings wins his first as a senior and 12th of his career.

Top 100 countdown
Vinny Saponari is just six points away from reaching the 100-point mark for his collegiate career. Granted, NU's captain scored 47 of his 93 points as a member of Boston University, but Saponari has now matched that total as a Husky. The last time a Husky scored 100 total career points was when both Wade MacLeod (61-76-137 – 20th all-time) and Tyler McNeely (44-61-105 – tied for 43rd all-time) met the benchmark in 2010-11.

Rookie ruler
Heading into Friday's game against Vermont, Kevin Roy is college hockey's top scorer amongst all first-year skaters. Roy's 34 points and 1.21 ppg are tops amongst all rookie skaters while his 0.61 goals per game ranks second. Nationally speaking, Roy is fifth in the country in goals per game and tied for 11th in points per game. Roy is tied for third overall in Hockey East scoring.

Roy-rking his rookie magic
Kevin Roy has scored 34 points (17-16-33) in 28 games as a rookie. The Lac-Beauport, Quebec native's 30-point benchmark stands as the seventh-consecutive season an incoming Husky has scored 20 or more points in a season, starting in 2006-07 with Chad Costello (11-11-22). Roy is the fastest to 20 points as a rookie since Jason Guerriero hit that same mark in his 18th-career game during the 2001-02 season. Roy is now one point behind JIm Martel (1972-73) and Guerriero for seventh-best season all-time as a rookie.

Rawlings rising in the record books
After his season-high 42-save performance against Maine on Jan. 11, Chris Rawlings surpassed Brad Thiessen's (2006-09) mark of 3,166 stops for the second most saves all-time at Northeastern and has amassed 3,382 career saves heading into Tuesday's game at UMass. Rawlings also surpassed Keni Gibson (2001-05) for the second-most games played in net in NU history. The North Delta, British Columbia native needs 175 more saves to break Bruce Racine's (1984-88) school record of 3,557. Rawlings needs to average 29 saves per game, not counting the postseason, to set the NU standard in saves.



Tweets by @GoNUmhockey .