The Northeastern Huskies snapped a four-game losing streak when they beat the No. 3 University of New Hampshire Wildcats 2-1 Saturday night at the Whittemore Center.
The win marked the first time the Huskies were able to defeat UNH in twenty games; Northeastern also snapped UNH’s unbeaten streak of three games. Junior Joe Vitale recorded a goal and an assist while goaltender Brad Thiessen had 23 saves.
UNH opened the scoring in the first period. Jerry Pollastrone passed to Bobby Butler and Butler found Peter LeBlanc open. Leblanc fired into a wide-open net.
Just nine seconds later, Huskies’ freshmen Wade MacLeod knocked in a rebound of Vitale’s initial shot to tie the game.
With the first period coming to an end, Northeastern took the lead. Vitale , standing at the right post, poked the puck past Kevin Regan.
“In any hockey game, you have to get big saves generate energy, score goals and get big hits,” said Huskies’ coach Greg Cronin. “That goal was able to get us a lot more comfortable in the environment.”
Neither team could generate offense the rest of game. Late in the third, UNH pulled Regan for an extra attacker, but Northeastern held strong to get a crucial win.
“Huge road win for us,” said Cronin. “We had lost 4 straight games. In all 4 games we lost, I thought we had a chance to win. Last night’s game was one that could have easily deflated us, and I told the guys learning how to win is a process and tonight was a huge step for us just to try and inject the team with some believability.”
“They outplayed us,” said UNH coach Dick Umile. “They won most of the battles and they out-competed us. They were tougher on the puck than we were. The loose pucks, they won those battles and that was the difference in the game. I commend them, and congratulate them.”
Regan stopped 27 shots and New Hampshire fell to 4-1-0, 2-1-0 in Hockey East, while Northeastern improved to 2-4-0, 2-3-0 in the conference.
