•
Game Notes
•
Live Stats
•
Live Video (goblackbears.com)
•
Listen Live: Huskies Radio (P x P: Greg Madden | Color: Mark Majewski) •
WRBB Sports (P x P: Ben Horner | Color: Ryan Fallon)
Recapping last night at Maine
Senior captain
Vinny Saponari scored his second-consecutive goal early in the second period, but Maine responded with two goals and an empty-netter in the final period of play to sink the Northeastern men's hockey team on Friday night at Alfond Arena, 3-1. The Huskies' penalty-killing unit kept Maine off the board on all four UM opportunities while senior goaltender
Chris Rawlings stopped 31-of-34 shots in the setback. With depleted front lines, Maine outshot the Huskies, 34-20. Maine's Martin Ouellette stopped 19 shots in his eighth win of the season. After Maine killed off Jake Rutt's five-minute major to start the third period, Kyle Beattie (6:30) and Ben Hutton (10:28) tallied back-to-back goals to take the lead for good in the final period. Northeastern looks to curb a five-game winless streak in Orono on Saturday night to keep the Huskies' Hockey East playoff hopes alive.
The Black Bear beat
Following one of the toughest starts in Maine hockey history (1-9 overall), UM rebounded with a .522 record, going 9-8-6 after losing seven-straight contests from Oct. 19 to Nov. 9. Before beating NU on March 1, the Black Bears split with UMass, shutting out the Minutemen, 2-0, on Feb. 22 before dropping the backend, 5-2, the next night. Rookie Devin Shore and Joey Diamond leads Maine with 20 points (3-17-20 and 12-8-20). Diamond has been the Black Bears' primary goal scorer, accounting for just under 20 percent of UM's scoring with 12 of its 62 total goals. Diamond is also one of 20 skaters in college hockey with a pair of short-handed goals. Goalie Martin Ouellette is ranked 23rd and 30th, respectively, in goals against average (2.24) and save percentage (.920), anchoring Maine's 26th-ranked defense. The offense, transversely, is second to last in the country, averaging 1.88 goals a game.
Do or die
Northeastern must win Saturday night's contest at Maine or the Huskies will be eliminated from Hockey East playoff contention. A tie with Maine would keep five points between the Huskies and Black Bears with two games to play. A tie coupled with a UMass loss could help NU leap the Minutemen at the end of the season with two more UMass losses, but only to get to ninth place. The top eight of 10 teams in Hockey East are eligible for the postseason.
Rawlings rising in the rankings
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 3,449 career saves heading into Saturday night. 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 108 more saves to break Bruce Racine's (1984-88) school record of 3,557. Rawlings needs to average about 35 saves per game, not counting the postseason, to set the NU standard in saves.
Top 100 countdown
Vinny Saponari is four points away from reaching the 100-point mark for his career. Granted, NU's captain scored 47 of his 93 points as a member of Boston University. 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.
.
