BOSTON -- Hockey East play continues for the Northeastern men's hockey team this weekend as the Huskies battle No. 19 Providence in a home-and-home set, beginning on Friday at Matthews Arena. Northeastern is in the middle of one of its toughest stretches of the season, with nine straight games against teams currently ranked in the top-20 of the USCHO.com poll, the longest such stretch since the 2000-01 season.
Friday's promotions
Friday night will be 'Movember Night' at Matthews Arena, with the first 500 students in the DogHouse receiving free Movember t-shirts.
The Huskies will also be holding a canned food drive during all home games in November. Fans are encouraged to bring canned foods to the game and drop them off at the merchandise stand, located on the right side of the concourse.
The all-time series with Providence
Northeastern and Providence meet for the 153rd time in program history on Friday night. The Friars own an 82-53-17 all-time record against Northeastern dating back to their first meeting on Dec. 22, 1953 when the Huskies prevailed 5-4. Over the span of their last 10 matchups, NU trails 2-6-2 with their last win coming on Dec. 6, 2014 in a 2-1 triumph at Providence.
The Friars swept the two meetings with Northeastern last season, winning 5-2 and 3-0 in the home-and-home set. At the time, PC held the No. 1 ranking in the nation. In the first game of that series, the Huskies held a 2-1 lead in the second period on goals from
Garret Cockerill and
Zach Aston-Reese. The Friars would score four-straight goals to seal the 5-2 win.
The following night, Providence used two first period goals and lock-down defensive effort to cruise by the Huskies. A third period goal gave them the 3-0 decision over the Huskies. The shutout was the last time that the Huskies were held scoreless all season, a streak that was snapped two weekends ago in NU's 3-0 loss to BU.
Scouting the Friars
The Friars are playing their first game since Nov. 5 when they skated to a 2-2 tie at home against Merrimack. With an overall record of 3-3-2 and a conference showing of 0-1-1 thus far, Providence will enter the weekend hungry to tack up a win. On Oct. 30, they took down Brown 6-0 in the 31st Mayor's Cup. In two matchups with ranked opponents so far, the Friars beat No. 12 St. Lawrence 6-3 but fell to No. 8 Boston College 3-1.
Providence lost their four top scorers from a year ago to graduation, forcing them to lean on younger players to provide offense this season. Forwards Erik Foley and Brian Pinho lead Providence in scoring through eight games, compiling nine points and eight points, respectively. Junior defenseman Jake Walman has posted seven points so far this year. He had 28 points a season ago and was PC's highest scoring player outside of their senior class.
Sophomore Hayden Hawkey has started every game so far this season for the Friars and has notched a 3-3-2 record. He's averaging only 2.22 goals against per game and boasts a .902 save percentage. The Parker, Colo. native made two starts last season, winning both games and surrendering only three goals. He's a sixth round draft pick (177th overall) of the Montreal Canadiens from 2014.
Sunday's game vs. Notre Dame declared a tie
Northeastern No. 9 Notre Dame played 40 minutes of scoreless hockey before a Zamboni malfunction caused damage to the ice during the second intermission, forcing the officials to suspend the game after two periods, 0-0.
On Thursday, Hockey East announced that the game would be recorded as a tie after the schools attempted to find a workable date on which to resume play, but were unable to do so.
Keeping it Theut
After being called upon in relief late in the game on Saturday, junior netminder
Jake Theut earned his first collegiate start the following afternoon against Notre Dame. Despite the shortened game, Theut responded with 22 saves to pickup the shutout.
Fresh legs
In each of the last three weekends, Northeastern has taken on a well-rested opponent. Boston University (12-day layoff), Notre Dame (14 days) and Providence (12 days) all enjoyed bye weeks prior to taking on the Huskies.
Fit to be tied
After skating to draws in five games last season, Northeastern already has four times in 11 games this year, which is tied for the second most in the nation. In two of those games, the Huskies have scored in the final minute of regulation to level the score and force overtime. The program record for ties in a season is eight, which was set during the 2010-11 season.
Last Sunday's 0-0 tie with Notre Dame was just the fifth time in team history that Northeastern has played to a scoreless tie, and first since Oct. 27, 2012 against New Hampshire.
Home sweet home
Northeastern will play its eighth home game in 12 contests overall on Friday night, and is 12-2-3 in its last 17 games at Matthews Arena, dating back to last season.
The Huskies will play 11 home games before the New Year in 2016-17, the most first half home games since the 2002-03 season.
Get here early
After being held without a first period goal in its opening weekend series at Quinnipiac, Northeastern has potted 15 goals in the first period in the nine games since, nearly one half of their total in 41 games last season (40). The Huskies' 15 goals in the opening frame are tied for the eighth most in the nation. Of those 15 opening period goals, 14 have come at Matthews Arena.
Aston-Reese approaching the century mark
Senior assistant captain
Zach Aston-Reese has been one of Northeastern's go-to players during his career on Huntington Avenue. He has 10 career game-winning goals, which ranks in a tie for fourth in the nation among active players.
Overall, Aston-Reese has 99 points (41 goals, 58 assists) in 118 career games, which ranks 10th in career scoring among active skaters nationally. He also cracked the top-50 all-time scoring list at Northeastern on Nov. 4, and is one point away from becoming the 47th player in team history to reach 100 points.
Good Gaud
Sophomore center
Adam Gaudette has been one of the top players in the nation through the first month of the season, recording six goals and seven assists in his first 11 games. It took him 22 games to reach 10 points last season. The Braintree, Mass. native had a five-game goal scoring streak snapped on Nov. 5 at Boston University, the longest of his career.
DaDaDa, DaDaDa
Northeastern has been a fixture on SportsCenter's 'Top Ten Plays' over the last two weeks as highlight reel goals from
Dylan Sikura and
Adam Gaudette caught the attention of the nation.
Sikura made headlines on Oct. 30 against Vermont when he buried his second goal of the year that's sure to be an early candidate for goal of the year. With UVM trying to wrap the puck around the boards and out of the zone,
Garret Cockerill won a puck battle along the wall and chipped it down to Sikura. The junior then smoothly maneuvered his way around the zone, and past two defensemen, before firing a shot top shelf for a goal.
Just five days later, Gaudette did the same thing with his sixth goal of the year. After the Huskies collected the puck behind their own goal, Cockerill dished to Gaudette. Gaudette then used his speed to race through the defense before snapping a shot from the right dot over the blocker for his sixth goal of the season.
Killing it on the PK
The Northeastern penalty killing unit has been hard at work early in the year, going 55-of-63 early in the season. Its 87.3% success rate is ninth in the nation among teams that have played at least 10 games this season.
At this point last year, the Huskies were 44th in the nation in penalty killing percentage (32-of-41; 78%).
Shots, shots, shots
Northeastern hasn't had trouble putting the puck on net during its opening 11 games, averaging 31shots per game. Individually, sophomore
Adam Gaudette is second in the nation with 5.45 shots on goal per game, including a career-high 10 at Quinnipiac on Oct. 8.
Get in front of it
A contributing factor to Northeastern's low shots against total has been the shot blocking abilities of the skaters in front of
Ryan Ruck. NU has blocked 158 shots in 11 games, while freshman
Jeremy Davies leads the team, and is 11th in the nation, with 26 blocks. No other freshman has more.
The road ahead
After a brief Thanksgiving break, Northeastern will get back to work next Friday night when the Huskies host No. 7/7 Minnesota at 7 p.m. It will be just the fifth time that the Golden Gophers have visited Matthews Arena.
