Chris Rawlings notched his second consecutive shutout with 34 saves, and Northeastern skated away with a 3-0 win over Harvard on Wednesday in a Beanpot preview at in front of a crowd of 1,017 Matthews Arena.
It was Huskies coach Greg Cronin’s 100th career win, 80 of which have come with Northeastern.
“I honestly didn’t even know it was my 100th win until they gave me the puck after the game,” Cronin said. “It doesn’t feel like anything, to be quite frank. You can get humbled quickly when you look at Jack [Parker] and Jerry [York]’s records at BC and BU and realize how far you’ve got to go.”
Freshman Raphael Girard made 34 saves for the Crimson.
“I thought he [Girard] played well,” said Harvard coach Ted Donato. “I thought he battled in the first two periods and gave us a chance to be in the game. All in all, I’m pleased with his effort. He’s played well and he’s looked good in practice.”
The Huskies (7-10-4) were the first to strike in the first period. With just under a minute to go, Mike Hewkin passed to Steve Quailer, who took the puck into the zone. Skating around the left circle, Quailer sent a backhanded shot past Girard for his third goal of the season.
“I thought Quailer was good in spurts tonight and I wish he’d do more of that,” said Cronin. “If he can get going, then obviously he’s a big asset offensively. ”
After the first intermission both teams’ discipline started to dwindle. Harvard’s David Valek missed half of the second period after taking a 10-minute misconduct. Harvard (3-13) and NU picked up 10 and seven penalties, respectively, for a total of 42 penalty minutes on the evening.
“I thought the game was a little bit sloppy in general,” said Donato. “We didn’t take any penalties in the first period and it was our best period. I think our inability to establish much in the offensive zone kind of left us in our zone, which led us to a lot of penalties.”
The Huskies started the second period a man short thanks to a hooking call on Garrett Vermeersch just as time expired in the first, but the Crimson’s power play would be short-lived as Danny Biega was whistled for tripping just 54 seconds into their one-man advantage.
The Huskies’ second goal came from a pair of freshmen at 3:38 in the second period. Zak Stone handled the puck skating toward the Harvard net and then dropped back to Braden Pimm, who sent a shot from between the circles past Girard to extend the Huskies’ lead to 2-0. The goal was Pimm’s third of the season and the helper was Stone’s first career assist.
Ten minutes into the third period, Mike McLaughlin gave the Huskies a three-goal lead when he scored his sixth goal of the season. McLaughlin sent a quick pass through Girard’s legs, who inadvertently knocked the puck into his own net.
