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Northeastern at Maine
The push to make one of eight Hockey East playoff spots could not be more glaring in this weekend's two-game matchup between Northeastern and Maine at Alfond Arena. Both clubs are currently on the outside of the playoff circle looking in with Maine in ninth and Northeastern 10th. Heading into Friday's game, the Huskies are three points back of the Black Bears while a Maine victory and a Massachusetts loss (at New Hampshire) would have UM in the playoffs if the season ended on Friday night. Northeastern will have to overcome its recent struggles in Orono. The Huskies have lost their last four-straight outings at Maine with their last victory occurring on Oct. 25, 2008. In the last 10 meetings, Maine has posted a 6-2-2 mark over Northeastern. In the first meeting this season,
Kevin Roy scored a goal while
Chris Rawlings posted a season-best 42 stops to help the Huskies to a 1-1 draw with Maine on Jan. 11, 2013.
The Black Bear beat
Following one of the toughest starts in Maine hockey history (1-9 overall), UM rebounded with a .500 record, going 8-8-6 after losing seven-straight contests from Oct. 19 to Nov. 9. Maine is most recently off a split with eighth-place Massachusetts, shutting out the Minutemen, 2-0, on Feb. 22 before dropping the backend, 5-2, the next night. Rookie Devin Shore leads Maine with 20 points (3-17-20), but veteran Joey Diamond has been the Black Bears' primary goal scorer, accounting for just over 20 percent of UM's scoring with 12 of its 59 total goals. Diamond is also one of 20 skaters in college hockey with a pair of short-handed goals. Third-year goalie Martin Ouellette is ranked 24th and 32nd, respectively, in goals against average (2.29) and save percentage (.918), anchoring Maine's 28th-ranked defense. The offense, transversely, is second to last in the country, averaging 1.84 goals per game.
Your defense is offensive
Sophomore
Josh Manson torrid offensive pace continued on Feb. 23 against PC. He has now scored goals in the last three games, including his first-career power play goal on Feb. 23. Those three goals are the first of his career. Manson's career-high three-game point streak yields a scoring line of 3-1-4. Manson not only netted his first goal in his 60th-career game on Feb. 19, but also notched his first-ever multi-point performance when he assisted on
Robbie Vrolyk's game-tying goal.
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.
Longer for Belonger
Freshman
Ryan Belonger extended his point streak to a career best three games with help on
Vinny Saponari's sixth goal of the season. The Green Bay, Wis., native has accounted for one goal and two assists in his last three outings.
Northeastern at Maine
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 scored a power play goal in four-consecutive games from Feb. 8 to Feb. 16. 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.
Don't hate the playmaker
Newcomer
Mike McMurtry accounted for Northeastern's second playmaker in four games on Feb. 19 at UMass, joining
Vinny Saponari's three-assist outing in the Beanpot final. Both performances counted as career-best point performances at NU.
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.
Rookie ruler
Heading into Friday's game at Maine,
Kevin Roy is college hockey's top scorer amongst all first-year skaters. Roy's 34 points and 1.17 ppg are tops amongst all rookie skaters while his 0.59 goals per game is tied for first. Nationally speaking, Roy is seventh in the country in goals per game and 12th in points per game. Roy is tied for fourth in Hockey East scoring.
Rising up the rookie rankings
Kevin Roy has scored 34 points (17-17-34) in 29 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 on the brink of history
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 3,418 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 139 more saves to break Bruce Racine's (1984-88) school record of 3,557. Rawlings needs to average 35 saves per game, not counting the postseason, to set the NU standard in saves.
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