BOSTON --Â It's a big week for the No. 17 Northeastern men's ice hockey team, which takes on two top-ten opponents this week beginning on Tuesday night at No. 6/6 Providence at Schneider Arena.
The Huskies are 5-1-3 in their last nine games dating back to Nov. 22, and currently sit in a tie for fourth place in the Hockey East standings. NU is coming off a 4-3 come-from-behind victory against Massachusetts on Saturday night in a nonconference contest at Matthews Arena.
The Northeastern freshman class has been the story of the season for the Huskies. The newcomers have combined for 84 points (24 goals, 60 assists), which leads the nation in rookie scoring. NU is also the only team in the country to have five rookies with at least 10 points.
Mike Szmatula leads the newcomers with nine goals and 14 assists, and is third in the nation among rookie scorers at 1.15 points per game. Szmatula has five points in his last three games, including three goals.
Fellow rookie
John Stevens is also in the midst of a strong opening season on Huntington Avenue, and has notched back-to-back multi-point efforts. Stevens is fifth on the team with 14 points (five goals, nine assists), and is also 17th in the nation with 216 face-off wins. Stevens is riding a four-game point streak (two goals, four assists), the longest of his career.
Sophomore
Kevin Roy, meanwhile, continues to put up numbers for the Huskies, leading the team with 26 points (14 goals and 12 assists). Roy is one of four players in the nation with at least 14 goals this season, and he is fourth in the country with 0.70 goals per game.
Redshirt junior goaltender
Clay Witt has carried the load for Northeastern, earning the start in eight of the team's last nine games. The Brandon, Fla. native, a three-time Hockey East Defensive Player of the Week honoree, has at least 30 saves in five of his last seven outings, and is sixth in the nation with a .938 save percentage.
A win against Providence would …
• Be NU's 886th victory all-time.
• Move Northeastern into sole possession of third place in the Hockey East standings.
• Match NU's conference win total from last season.
• Make the Huskies unbeaten in nine of their last 10 games (6-1-3), its best stretch since the start of the 2008-09 season.
• End a six-game winless skid to the Friars (0-3-3), dating back to Feb. 17, 2012.
• Make Northeastern unbeaten in its last five road games (4-0-1).
The all-time series with the Friars
Northeastern trails 51-79-17 in the all-time series with the Friars, which dates back to 1953. NU is winless against Providence in the last six meetings (0-3-3), with the Huskies' last win against the Friars coming on Nov. 18, 2011.
The Huskies and the Friars have met once already this season on Dec. 6, 2013 at Matthews Arena, the contest ending in a 3-3 tie after PC erased a three-goal third period deficit to force overtime.
A look at Providence
Providence enters Tuesday's game coming off a 1-1 tie with Merrimack at Citi Frozen Fenway last weekend. The Friars are 13-3-4 this season, including an 8-1-1 mark at Schneider Arena. At 6-2-1 in conference play, the Friars are second in Hockey East standings.
The Friars are led by junior forward Ross Mauermann, (13 goals, 14 assists) who has put up 27 points on the season so far, followed by sophomore forward Nick Saracino, who has posted 14 points on three goals and 11 assists.
Sophomore goaltender Jon Gillies has played in 15 games this season, tallying 10 wins for the Friars and posting a 1.88 goals against average and a .941 save percentage. Gillies recently returned from the 2014 International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) World Junior Championship in Malmo, Sweden, where he helped the United States to the quarterfinals.
Last time out
Trailing 3-2 entering the third period, Northeastern scored twice in a span of three minutes in the final period to skate to a 4-3 victory against Massachusetts (6-14-2) on Saturday night at Matthews Arena.
Cody Ferriero scored the game-winner on the power play with 14:35 left in regulation, while
Kevin Roy,
Mike Szmatula and
Mike McMurtry also scored for the Huskies.
Clay Witt made 26 saves in goal for Northeastern.
NU outshot Massachusetts 34-29 in the game and won 38-of-66 face-offs. The Huskies went 1-of-6 on the man advantage, scoring a power play goal for the third straight game, while UMass was 1-of-3 on the power play.
Playing from ahead
Northeastern has gotten in the habit of jumping out to leads in games this year, scoring the first goal in 12 of their 20 games this season, which is tied for 11th in the nation. The Huskies are 8-2-2 this season when scoring first, compared to a 3-4-1 mark when their opponent opens the scoring.
Powerful power play
The Northeastern power play unit has come into its own in recent weeks, netting at least one goal on the man advantage in each of its last three games.
NU is 20-of-103 on the power play this season, and is one of 14 teams in the country with at least 20 conversions on the power play. The Huskies have worked hard to draw penalties throughout the season, as well, and they are one of 10 teams to have at least 100 power play attempts this season.
Senior
Braden Pimm has been the go-to player for power play goals this season for NU. He is one of nine skaters in the country with at least six power play goals, which is tied for fifth in the nation and tops in Hockey East.
Head of the class
The Northeastern rookie class has tallied 24 goals and 60 assists in 20 games this season, which leads the nation in points for a freshman class. Eight different NU rookies have tallied a point this season.
Freshman
Mike Szmatula is second on the team with 23 points this season (nine goals, 14 assists), and is third in the nation in rookie scoring with 1.15 points per game. He is also one of just three rookies to have at least 20 points this season. If Szmatula finishes the year first on the team in scoring, it would mark the third straight season that a freshman has led NU is scoring (
Ludwig Karlsson in 2011-12,
Kevin Roy in 2012-13).
The NU rookies have also tallied five game-winning goals this season, which is tied with Ferris State, Minnesota and Vermont for the most in the nation.
Never out of it
The Huskies have made a habit of doing damage in the third period this season, scoring 28 of its 71 goals in the final 20 minutes of regulation. NU is second in the country in third period goals behind only Providence, which has netted 31.
Double digit W's
The Huskies' victory against Vermont on Dec. 17 gave Northeastern 10 wins this season, exceeding last year's total. It also marked the first time since the 2008-09 season that NU has won at least 10 games before January.
The Huskies are one of 20 teams in the nation with at least 10 wins this season. Of those, eight (UMass Lowell, Providence, Boston College, New Hampshire, Notre Dame, Northeastern, Vermont) are Hockey East teams.
Sophomore surge
Sophomore forward
Kevin Roy has 31 goals and 29 assists in 49 career games with the Huskies. On Nov. 22, Roy became the 56th player in program history to record at least 50 points in their first two seasons in college hockey, and first since Wade MacLeod and Tyler McNeely in 2008-09.
Roy is averaging 1.2 points per game since arriving at Northeastern last season, and leads the team with 26 points (14 goals, 12 assists) this year.
Second half senior
Senior
Cody Ferriero is off to a hot start to the second half for the Huskies, having notched three points (two goals, one assist) in his last two games. Ferriero ignited a four-goal rally with his second goal of the season at Dartmouth on Dec. 30 before netting the game-winning tally on the power play last weekend against the Minutemen.
In the last two seasons, Ferriero has totaled 17 points (eight goals, nine assists) in games played after December.
Killing it on the PK
Despite being seventh in the country with 15.6 penalty minutes per game, the Northeastern penalty killing unit has stepped up its play in recent weeks. In the last eight games, NU has killed off 36-of-42 penalties (85.7%), which is 11th in the country (min. 20 attempts).
That didn't take long
Freshman
Mike Szmatula gave Northeastern a 1-0 very early against the Friars on Dec. 6, scoring his sixth goal of the season just seven seconds into the game. The goal was two seconds shy of tying the NCAA record for fastest goal to start a game (five seconds; four times, most recently on Mar. 11, 2005 Alaska-Fairbanks vs. Bowling Green).
Szmatula's goal was also the fastest Northeastern has scored to start a game since the 1979-80 season, and the quickest to start any period since Jan. 15, 2000 (Mike Jozefowicz, second period at Massachusetts). Northeastern has now scored twice in the first minute of a period twice this season:
John Stevens scored eight seconds into the second period against Western Michigan on Nov. 29.
Filling the net
While head coach
Jim Madigan has shuffled the lineup a bit through the first half of the season, one line of Huskies have remained intact.
Kevin Roy,
John Stevens and
Braden Pimm have been grouped together on the same line in 18 of NU's 20 games this year, totaling 29 goals and 29 assists along with a combined +7 rating.
Lending a helping hand
Northeastern has tallied 120 assists through 20 games this season, which is eighth in the country and third in Hockey East, sparked by 14 helpers from freshman
Mike Szmatula (tied for 23rd in the nation). Szmatula has an assist in 10 of the team's 20 games this season, including three games with multi-assist efforts.
Filling the scoresheet
Last Monday's game between the Huskies and Dartmouth featured a combined 16 goals between the two teams. It was the most goals scored in a Northeastern game since Nov. 6, 1993 (Illinois Chicago 10, Northeastern 9).
It was also the most goals scored in a Ledyard Classic game since 1994 (Illinois Chicago 9, Vermont 8), and marked the second time in the last three seasons that NU has scored more than seven goals in two games.
At the dot
Freshman
John Stevens has won 51.3% of his face-offs this season, going 216-of-421. His 216 wins are 17th in the nation, and he is one of three freshmen in the nation in the top 25 in face-off victories. As a team, the Huskies are 701-of-1415, which is seventh in the nation.
The NU freshmen have the most face-off wins of all rookies (640). The next closest is Harvard with 318.
Winner, winner
Three of freshman center
Dalen Hedges' six goals this season have proven to be game-winners, making him one of 30 skaters in the nation with at least three game-winning tallies this season. Hedges is also one of just five freshmen with three game-winners, and matched
Kevin Roy's 2012-13 team-leading total on Nov. 30 at Notre Dame.
Poll position
Northeastern moved up a spot to No. 16 in this week's USCHO.com poll. The Huskies are also receiving votes in the USA Today poll. Northeastern is one of seven Hockey East teams ranked in the top 20 in this week's USCHO.com poll, and also appeared in the poll during the first nine weeks of last season, highlighted by a No. 14 ranking on Oct. 15, 2012.
Out of the gates
Northeastern's hot start to the season gave the Huskies a 5-0-0 beginning to the year for the first time since the 1988-89 season, and fourth time in program history (1980-81, 1952-53). It also tied a program-record for the most victories in the month of October, matching the 2008-09 squad. Northeastern's two victories against Alabama-Huntsville to star the season gave NU a 2-0-0 start to the season for the second straight year. It's the first time since 1993-94 and 1994-95 that NU has begun consecutive seasons at 2-0-0.
Offensive explosion
After scoring 81 goals all of last season, Northeastern has nearly matched that total in 20 games. NU is tied for seventh in the nation with 71 goals this season, and its 3.55 goals per game average is also seventh in the country. The Huskies' 12 goals on opening weekend were the most goals scored in the team's first two games of the season since NU scored 13 in the opening two games of the 2002-03 season.
Oh brother
Northeastern's 28-man roster features two sets of brothers in Cody and
Nathan Ferriero, as well as Derick and
Kevin Roy. The Huskies are one of just two teams in the nation to have two pairs of brothers on its roster, joining Quinnipiac's Connor and Tim Clifton and Conner and Kellen Jones.
Hello, my name is …
Northeastern houses 12 freshmen (eight forwards, three defensemen, one goaltender) on its 2013-14 roster, which is the most in Hockey East and tied with Sacred Heart for the most rookies in the nation.
Nine freshmen have seen playing time so far this season, and have accounted for 24 goals and 60 assists, which is 41.8% of Northeastern's total scoring.
All eyes on me
Northeastern will take the ice in front of a national audience three times this season, as part of a two-year contract extension between NBCSN and Hockey East, the league announced Oct. 8. NU took on Boston College at Conte Forum on Nov. 1, and will also be on NBCSN for the Huskies' two-game set at Notre Dame on Jan. 24-25.
In addition, NBC Sports Live Extra, NBC Sports Group's live streaming product for desktops, mobile devices, and tablets, will stream all league games telecast on NBCSN. All games will be live streamed via "TV Everywhere," the media industry's effort to make quality content available to authenticated customers both in and out of the home and on multiple platforms. For desktops, NBC Sports Live Extra can be accessed at NBCSports.com/liveextra.
Taking it outside
The Huskies will make their anticipated return to Fenway Park, home of the Boston Red Sox, as the Huskies face UMass Lowell on Saturday, Jan. 11, 2014 as part of Frozen Fenway 2014 festivities. The City of Boston, the Boston Red Sox, Hockey East Association and Fenway Sports Management (FSM) announced the return of Frozen Fenway in a press release on Apr. 25.
"The entire Northeastern family, from our student-athletes, to our coaches and to our fans, is truly gracious for another opportunity to play hockey at Fenway Park," head coachÂ
Jim Madigan said. "I'll never forget my first experience outdoors at Fenway and everyone is very excited to make some new memories. We are also excited to take on a worthy opponent in UMass Lowell."
The matchup between the Huskies and the River Hawks will mark the second time Northeastern has participated in the Frozen Fenway festivities. On Jan. 14, 2012, in front of an audience of 29,601 in frigid temperatures and brisk winds, the Huskies dropped a contentious 2-1 battle to Boston College, the eventual national champions.
Poile named General Manager of U.S. Olympic Team
Alumnus David Poile has been named general manager of the 2014 United States Olympic men's hockey team, USA Hockey announced on Jun. 28.
"Being chosen for this position is a tremendous honor," said Poile. "When you get to represent your country, it's a special feeling. I look forward to working with our management team in fulfilling our ultimate goal of bringing home the gold medal."
Poile, currently the general manager of the NHL's Nashville Predators, played three seasons of varsity hockey at Northeastern from 1967 to 1970. He is 26th on the Northeastern all-time scoring list with 118 points, and he still holds the program record for hat tricks with 11. He was inducted into the Northeastern Hall of Fame in 1987.
Season and individual game tickets now on sale
Season and individual game tickets are now on sale for the Northeastern men's ice hockey team. Starting at just $100, fans can secure a great seat to see the NU men's team take the ice for all of its 14 home games during the 2013-14 season, including nine Hockey East games. Individual game tickets start range from $10 to $20. Log on toÂ
GoNU.com/tickets for more information.
Huskies hockey in high definition
GoNUxstream will broadcast each and every home men's hockey game free, in high definition, live at www.GoNU.com/xstream. Northeastern University was the first school in Hockey East to broadcast a live, HD stream over the internet. The broadcast is complete with live stats, live chat, commentating and sideline reporting.
Hang out with the Huskies
Be sure to connect with Northeastern athletics and Northeastern men's hockey on Facebook and Twitter to receive scores and information, interact with fellow fans, access photos and videos, and receive exclusive promotional and ticket offers. Follow NU Athletics, @
GoNUathletics, and 'Like' us atÂ
facebook.com/GoNUathletics. To get live, in-game updates of Northeastern men's hockey, follow @
GoNUmhockey, and 'Like' us atÂ
facebook.com/GoNUmhockey.
The road ahead
The Huskies will take it outside on Saturday afternoon when Northeastern participates in Citi Frozen Fenway 2014. NU will take on No. 9 UMass Lowell at 3 p.m. at historic Fenway Park in the front end of a doubleheader with Boston University and Maine.
Northeastern is 1-0-0 so far this season against the River Hawks after defeating UML on the road earlier this season, 4-2.
