BOSTON -- The No. 12/11 Northeastern men's hockey team looks to get back to its winning ways on Friday night when the Huskies host Merrimack at the start of a home-and-home set. Three of Northeastern's next four games come against the Warriors. NU has won seven of the last eight regular season matchups with Merrimack, including each of the last four.
Friday's promotions
It's Red-Out Weekend on Huntington Avenue, with the Northeastern men's basketball, men's hockey and women's hockey teams all in action. Fans in attendance on Friday night will receive a free Northeastern hockey Santa hat, while supplies last. Fans are also encouraged to bring a stuffed animal to the game to participate in the annual Teddy Bear Toss during the first intermission. Teddy bears will also be for sale on the concourse before the game.
Tickets to the game, and all home games at Matthews Arena, are available by visiting tickets.GoNU.com and for students through myNortheastern. Use the code RedOut17 at checkout to receive 30% off your tickets to Friday's game! For the complete list of promotions for Red-Out Weekend, please
click here.
The all-time series with Merrimack
Northeastern has an edge over Merrimack in their all-time series with a record of 54-42-10. The Huskies are riding a four-game winning streak against the Warriors that dates back to Jan. 22, 2016 when NU beat MC 5-2 at Lawler Rink. In each of their last four wins over Merrimack, the Huskies have scored four goals or more.
NU has a chance to post its first five-game win streak over the Warriors for the first time since they rattled off five straight against Merrimack from Jan. 12, 2008 to Feb. 6, 2009. Last season, a five-point weekend from
Dylan Sikura helped the Huskies surge past the Warriors, 4-1 and 4-2, on consecutive nights.
Scouting the Warriors
Despite an overall mark of 2-7-3, Merrimack has started to find its game of late, going 1-1-1 in its last three games. The Warriors bested Bentley on Nov. 10, 5-2, before dropping a 2-1 decision to No. 10/9 Providence on the road on Nov. 17. The next night, Merrimack kept pace with the Friars in a 6-6 tie that gave the Warriors a much-needed point in the Hockey East standings.
Jace Hennig owns the team lead in scoring with 13 points with team-highs in goals (five) and assists (eight). Brett Seney (4-7-11), Jared Kolquist (3-8-11) and Ludvig Larsson (4-6-10) have topped the 10-point mark at this point in the year. Hennig, Seney and Sami Tavernier each have three points on the power play. Goalie Craig Pantano has earned both of Merrimack's wins this season, but has split time almost evenly with Drew Vogler.
Well balanced attack
While the Huskies boast some of the nation's most prolific offensive threats, Northeastern has received scoring from a variety of outlets early in the year. Twenty-one different skaters have already recorded a point, with all four classes contributing:
• Freshmen (six goals, 14 assists) - 15%
• Sophomore (12 goals, 31 assists) - 32%
• Juniors (14 goals, 18 assists) - 23%
• Seniors (15 goals, 27 assists) - 30%
Northeastern is one of seven teams in college hockey to have five players with at least 10 points through 13 games.
How you start is how you go
Northeastern is outscoring opponents 15-6 in the first period this season, and it's +9 first period goal differential is tied for second in the nation. The Huskies have allowed just two first period goals at home.
Gaud Is Good
Junior
Adam Gaudette is tied for 12th in the nation in scoring (18 points) and tied for 17th in goals (eight). His seven multi-point games are also tied for fourth in college hockey early in the season.
On Tuesday, Gaudette became the 51st player in team history to reach 100 career points, and just the 22nd to accomplish the feat in three seasons or less. He's the fifth Husky in the last three seasons (Kevin Roy, Zach Aston-Reese, John Stevens,
Dylan Sikura) to accomplish the feat. No Husky had done it in three seasons or fewer since Kevin Roy during his All-American season in 2014-15.
Gaudette's done a lot of damage when it matters most. He's either scored or assisted on nine of Northeastern's last 15 game winning goals (four goals, five assists), dating back to last season, including four of the team's seven wins this year (two goals, two assists).
He's Sik
Senior
Dylan Sikura is third among active players in the nation with 108 career points, and became the 50th player in team history to reach 100 career points on Oct. 20 against Quinnipiac.
What's most impressive about Sikura is his steady progression throughout his career at Northeastern. He went from a seven-point in 25-game freshman campaign where he was an occasional healthy scratch to 28 points as a sophomore before a breakout 57-point junior season. Seventy-three of Sikura's 108 career points (68%) have come in his last 49 games.
Sikura is currently tied for 22nd in the nation with 16 points (seven goals, nine assists) in just 11 games this season, which made him the only player in college hockey since 2012-13 to record a multi-point effort in each of his team's first six games, and one of two players in the nation to reach 14 points in that span since 2012-13.
It marks the second straight year that Sikura's started the season with a six-game point streak. Before then, it hadn't happened since Braden Pimm, Kevin Roy and Mike Szmatula all started the 2013-14 season with points in their first six games.
Dynamic duo
Junior
Adam Gaudette and senior
Dylan Sikura and have picked up right where they left off a season ago, recording 18 and 16 points apiece, respectively, through the team's first 13 games. Dating back to 1999, they are the only Huskies to record four straight multi-point games to open the year.
They make Northeastern the first team to have a pair of skaters with three straight multi-point games to start the season since Cornell (John McCarron and Joel Lowry) in 2013-14. In the last six seasons, only five players in the nation have recorded multi-point efforts in their teams' first four games.
Power up
The Northeastern power play has developed into one of the most lethal units in the nation in the last three years. NU led the nation with 55 power play strikes in 2016-17, tied for the most in team history. Northeastern has also led the nation with the power play goals over the last two (94) and three (128) seasons.
Junior
Adam Gaudette broke the school record for power play goals in a season (16) last year, and currently leads all active players in the NCAA with 25 career goals on the man advantage. He's six PPG away from tying the school record, held by J.F. Aube and Rod Isbister.
The Huskies, who draw an average of 4.54 power play per game, are tied for ninth in the NCAA with 15 conversions this season.
Points from the point
The Northeastern defense has been doing the job at both ends of the ice this season, allowing just 2.69 goals per game (fifth in Hockey East) while contributing 43 points in the offensive zone. It accounts for 32% of the Huskies' total points, and is the fifth most in the nation.
Jeremy Davies leads all NU blueliners with 13 points, followed closely by
Ryan Shea (nine points) and
Garret Cockerill (nine points).
Captain Comeback
Captain
Nolan Stevens is fifth on the team with 11 points (seven goals, four assists), and has goals in four of his last seven games. Since returning from injury last February, Stevens has points in 15 of his last 24 games (14 goals, 14 assists).
Prime'd for success
Freshman
Cayden Primeau has acclimated himself to the college game, earning starts in seven of Northeastern's 13 games and posting a 3-3-1 mark with a 2.39 goals against average. After a 6-4 loss to Quinnipiac on Oct. 21, Primeau bounced back in a big way last month.
In November, Primeau was 10th in the nation with a 1.94 goals against average and 13th with a .930 save percentage, highlighted by a season-high 33 save effort against No. 12/11 Boston University on Nov. 10.
Hands Solow
In just 13 collegiate games, freshman
Zach Solow has proven he belongs. The Naples, Fla. native has 13 points (three goals, 10 assists), which is tied for fifth in the nation among rookie skaters. His four multi-point games are tied for second in the nation among freshmen.
His six-point performance on opening weekend earned him Pro Ambitions Rookie of the Week honors when he became the first Husky to record a multi-point game in his collegiate debut since the 2013-14 season (Matt Benning, Dalen Hedges, Mike Szmatula), and the first Husky to log four points on opening night since Kevin Roy on Oct. 11, 2013 against Alabama-Huntsville.
Since 2012, he's one of three rookies to record seven points in his first three games: Mitchell Fossier (Maine) in 2016-17 and Austin Plevy (Massachusetts) in 2015-16.
Recapping Tuesday's loss at Connecticut
Connecticut scored three times in the first period and received 26 saves from Adam Huska to skate to a 4-1 victory over Northeastern at XL Center.
UConn struck twice in a span of 90 seconds midway through the first period on goals from Maxim Letunov and Johnny Austin before adding a third with 1:13 to play in the frame on Jesse Schwartz's sixth of the year.
Cayden Primeau (nine saves) replaced
Ryan Ruck (five saves) at the start of the second period, where Northeastern got one back on
Dylan Sikura's seventh of the year with 2:48 to go in the stanza. Connecticut, though, brought the lead back to three five minutes into the third when Alexander Payusov netted his seventh of the season to put the game out of reach.
The road ahead
Northeastern heads back out on the road next weekend when the Huskies travel across town to Conte Forum for a 7 p.m. matchup against No. 15 Boston College.
Parking changes for Matthews Arena events during 2017-18
Due to construction on the new Carter Playground, the Camden Lot is no longer available for parking. Moving forward, fans attending Matthews Arena events will be able to park in the Columbus Garage, located on Columbus Avenue.
The Columbus Garage will open to fans beginning one hour prior to game time and is available free of charge. The arena can then be reached by taking the foot bridge over the MBTA tracks via Camden Street. Northeastern will also provide shuttles to and from the arena from the Columbus Garage for those needing assistance in getting to Matthews Arena.
Parking is also available at the Gainsborough Garage, located on Gainsborough Street adjacent to Matthews Arena. Parking meters are also available around the arena. Please
click here to view the alternative parking map for garages around campus.
