Game-day information: Game 20 at No. 13/13 St. Lawrence
When	Friday, Jan. 8, 7 p.m.
Where	Canton, N.Y.  |  Appleton Arena  |  Directions
Broadcast and stats	Live Stats  |  Video  |  Audio  |  Tickets
Notes and yearbook	Game Notes  |  2015-16 Yearbook
Promotions	n/a
Social media	@GoNUmhockey  facebook.com/GoNUmhockey instagram.com/GoNUathletics  Use #GoNU

BOSTON -- Unbeaten in four of its last five games, the Northeastern men's ice hockey looks to continue its strong play when the Huskies travel to Canton, New York for a pair of games at No. 13/13 St. Lawrence, beginning Friday night at Appleton Arena.
 
The all-time series with the Saints
Northeastern and St. Lawrence are meeting for the fourth straight season, with the Huskies holding a slight 16-14-3 edge in the all-time series. Last season at Matthews Arena, NU erased a 3-0 second period deficit to battle back and tie the Saints 3-3 thanks to an Adam Reid goal with 23 seconds left in regulation. The Huskies then followed that up with a 4-2 win the next night off a three-point night from Kevin Roy (two goals, one assist).
 
Scouting St. Lawrence
St. Lawrence will host the Huskies after a 26-day layoff for the holiday break, with their last game coming against Vermont on Dec. 12. The Saints are 10-5-2 overall this season, including a 4-2-1 in the ECAC that has them fifth in the conference standings. This weekend marks the final nonconference games of the year for SLU before ending the year with 15 straight ECAC contests to conclude the regular season.
 
The Saints are 6-2-0 at home this season, and are outscoring their opponents by 2.00 goals per game when playing at Appleton Arena.
 
Junior defenseman Gavin Bayreuther leads the team with 13 points (six goals, seven assists) this season. He ranks tied for third in the nation among defensemen in total goals, and is one of five Saints with at least 10 points this season.
 
Kyle Hayton has seen a majority of the time between the pipes this season for St. Lawrence, posting a 10-4-1 record overall. His 1.85 goals against average is 12th in the nation, and he is just one of 15 netminders with a goals against average below 2.00. His .938 save percentage, meanwhile, is sixth in the country.
 
On the road again
The Huskies have been logging some serious windshield time during the first half of the season, and will continue to do so this weekend with a 364 trek to Canton, N.Y. NU has visited Minneapolis (1,392 miles each way), South Bend (893 miles each way) and Belfast (nearly 3,000 miles each way), among others, since October.
 
Northeastern will conclude the regular season having traveled 12,488 miles, according to the New England Hockey Journal, after trips to New Hampshire, Merrimack, UMass Lowell, UMass and UConn to end the regular season.
 
That was a close one
The Huskies have found themselves in several tight games so far this season, including nine one-goal games. That's the most in Hockey East and tied for the second most in the nation. Five of NU's last six games have been decided by one goal or less.
 
NU has played in at least 10 one-goal games in each of the last two seasons.
 
Stiff scheduling
Northeastern will be playing a ranked team for the 14th time this season on Friday night, and 11th time in the last 13 games. The Huskies currently rank 22nd in the nation, and fourth in Hockey East, according to USCHO.com's KRACH rankings.
 
After this weekend's set, Northeastern still has three regular season games remaining against ranked opponents, including two who are currently ranked in the top ten.
 
Recapping Saturday's tie vs. No. 3/2 Quinnipiac
Northeastern received goals from three different scorers, and led 3-2 in the third period before a late power play goal gave No. 3/2 Quinnipiac (17-1-3) a 3-3 tie against the Huskies on Saturday night at Matthews Arena.
 
Sam Kurker, Adam Gaudette and John Stevens all scored for Northeastern, which was 2-of-5 on the power play on the night, while Ryan Ruck made 20 saves in goal. Quinnipiac received goals from Tommy Schutt, Scott Davidson and Sam Anas, who tied the game with 2:44 left in regulation, along with 24 stops from Michael Garteig.
 
NU outshot the Bobcats 27-23 in the game, while Quinnipiac won 34-of-57 face-offs and was 1-of-5 on the man advantage.
 
Streaking
Several Huskies are carrying point streaks into Friday's game against the Saints, led by Zach Aston-Reese, who has points in each of his last six games (four goals, four assists) and 12 points (six goals, six assists) in his last 10 games. Nolan Stevens, meanwhile, is on a career-long six-game point streak (four goals, four assists) and Mike McMurtry has 10 points (two goals, eight assists) in his last five.
 
Shuffling the deck
Looking to spark their club, Jim Madigan and the NU coaching staff have utilized 39 different line combinations at forward through 19 games this season. Four Huskies have already made their collegiate debuts (Jon Barry, Adam Gaudette, Jason Cotton, Lincoln Griffin, Patrick Schule, Eric Williams) while Sam Kurker has made his Northeastern debut after transferring from Boston University.
 
On Nov. 27-28 in Belfast, the trio of Brendan Collier, Mike McMurtry and Ryan Rosenthal combined to produce 11 points (five goals, six assists) and a +13 rating.
 
Shots, shots, shots
The Huskies haven't been afraid to fire the puck on goal in their first 19 games of the season, peppering opposing netminders with 588 shots on goal, the 22nd highest total in the nation. At the other end of the ice, Northeastern is holding opponents to just 25.00 shots per game, the fifth fewest in the nation. NU has held opponents to 19 shots on goal or fewer in three games this year, going 2-1-0.
 
The Ruck stops here
Freshman netminder Ryan Ruck made his collegiate debut on Oct. 17 at Bentley, making six saves in relief of Derick Roy in the third period. Ruck arrived at Northeastern after playing for the Des Moines Buccaneers of the USHL for two seasons, posting a 3.17 goals against average and a .903 save percentage in 33 games in 2014-15.
 
Ruck followed that up with a 21 save effort at Minnesota on Oct. 23, including an early candidate for save of the year, which was the No. 2 play on SportCenter's Top Plays of the night.
 
The rookie has a 2.88 goals against average and .893 save percentage in 15 games this season, and was named the Pro Ambitions Rookie of the Week following a 26-save performance against Michigan State, earning his first collegiate victory.
 
The road ahead
Northeastern will resume conference play next weekend when the Huskies battle New Hampshire in a home-and-home set, beginning Friday night at Matthews Arena.