Northeastern University Athletics

Jason Smith begins his sixth season at Northeastern, and fifth as assistant coach. Smith served as the director of hockey operations during the 2013-14 season before being promoted to assistant coach on Sept. 3, 2014. Smith oversees the Huskies’ defense and penalty-killing unit, and works with NU’s student-athletes as their academic liaison. 
 
The Huskies are coming off an historic 2017-18 season in which the Huskies captured their first Beanpot title in 30 years and returned to the NCAA tournament. Hobey Baker Award winner Adam Gaudette led the nation in scoring with 60 points (30 goals, 30 assists), earning CCM/ACHA First Team All-American, Hockey East Player of the Year, Walter Brown Award and Beanpot MVP honors, among many others. Dylan Sikura (54 points) and Jeremy Davies (35 points) also earned First Team All-American honors, leading the Huskies to a 23-10-5 record, good for the third most victories in team history and a school record 14 wins at Matthews Arena.
 
The Huskies stole the hearts of Northeastern fans around the globe and es­tablished itself as the best team in Boston when the Huskies captured the elusive Beanpot championship for the first time since 1988. With tournament MVP Gaudette supplying the offense and Eberly Award winner Cayden Primeau providing a steady presence in goal, Northeastern used the Beanpot win as a springboard to seven consecutive victories down the stretch to earn an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament and shine the national spotlight on the program for the second time in the last three seasons.
 
Smith’s defense and Primeau held opponents to just 2.13 goals per game, good for eighth in the nation, and blocked 541 shots (12th in the NCAA). The penalty killing corps, led by Davies and Ryan Shea, finished the year with an 82.4% success rate.
 
The 2016-17 season saw Northeastern go 18-15-5, marking the first time since 1943 that Northeastern has had four straight seasons with a record of .500 or above. Senior Zach Aston-Reese had one of the most impressive individual seasons in team history with 63 points in 38 games, the most for a Husky in more than 30 years en route to Hockey East Player of the Year, CCM/ACHA First Team All-American and Hobey Baker Hat Trick Finalist honors. He finished the year either tied for or owning the nation's lead in five categories. Sikura (57 points) and Gaudette (52 points) also finished in the top-ten in scoring nationally, with Gaudette leading the NCAA and breaking the school record for power play goals in a season (16).
 
Smith’s penalty killing corps went 134-of-162 (82.7%) on the year, finishing 30th in the country, 18 spots higher than the season before.
 
The 2015-16 season was an unprecedented campaign in which the team began the year 1-11-2 before a trip to Belfast turned the season around as NU finished the season 21-3-3, including a 13-game winning streak that was the longest in program history and a 14-game unbeaten streak (13-0-1) that was also the longest in team history, culminating in the program's first Hockey East Championship since 1988. During the stretch of success, the Huskies went 10-0-1 in conference games, which was the longest unbeaten streak in league play since Northeastern joined Hockey East at the start of the 1984-85 season, and catapulted the Huskies from 12th place to sixth place in the league standings.
 
Northeastern's 19 wins from January to the end of the year were the most in the nation and tied for the most in team history (19 wins in 1981-82). The Huskies finished the 2015-16 season with 22 victories, the third most in a single-season in team history.
 
NU went 16-16-4 overall in 2014-15, including a seven-game winning streak that was tied for the second longest in team history. The Huskies advanced to the Beanpot championship for the fourth time in five years, and hosted a playoff series at Matthews Arena for the first time since 2009. Over the final 27 games of the season, Northeastern went 16-8-3, tied for the eighth best winning percentage in the nation in that span. 
 
With one of the youngest rosters in college hockey consisting of 19 underclassmen, including 12 freshmen, Smith helped guide the 2013-14 Huskies to one of their best seasons in program history. NU was 19-14-4, which was tied for the sixth most wins in team history as well as tied for the fourth largest turnaround in the NCAA. The squad reached the Beanpot championship game for the third time in the last four years and returned to the playoffs for the first time since 2011.
 
Northeastern finished the 2013-14 campaign ranked 19th in the USCHO.com poll, and was ranked as high as ninth on two occasions, NU’s highest ranking since the end of the 2008-09 season. The Huskies were also 18th in the final PairWise ranking, narrowly missing an at-large bid to the national tournament.
 
In his previous post with the Huskies, Smith was responsible for the team’s digital video analysis system, including all video breakdown and management of video databases for coach and player use, as well as maintaining statistical databases. He also coordinated the pre-scouting of opponents, scouting reports and video exchange.
 
Smith spent six years as an assistant coach at Holy Cross from 2007 to 2013, where he served as the recruiting coordinator and worked with all positions with an emphasis on forwards. He also coordinated team video and pre-scout video of opponents.
 
Smith arrived at Holy Cross from Babson College, where he was as an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator for four seasons. Babson won the ECAC East Championship in 2007 and earned its first NCAA tournament appearance since 1993. In total, Babson reached the ECAC East finals in three of the four seasons Smith was a part of the program. He previously served as an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator for Salem State College for four years.
 
A native of West Yarmouth, Massachusetts, Smith graduated from Salem State in 1998 where he was a three-year member of the hockey team and was a captain as a junior and senior. Smith led the team in scoring in the 1996-97 season. He previously played at Massachusetts during the 1993-94 season.
 
Smith and his wife, Karen, reside in Assonet, Massachusetts, with their daughters Allyson and Ashley.