Joe Santilli went off for two goals and goalie Keni Gibson stopped 41 Black Bear shots as the Northeastern Huskies defeated Maine, 4-2, on Friday night at Matthews Arena before 2,849 fans.<\/p>\n
It was NU’s Hockey East opener and it picked up two league points. Last season, the Huskies got off to a slow start and didn’t get their second Hockey East point until they beat Boston College Jan. 3. NU improved to 4-3-1 overall as Maine dropped to 6-6-0 and 2-3-0 in Hockey East.<\/p>\n
“To start off Hockey East like that, it doesn’t get any better,” said Santilli. “They’re an excellent team and they’ll get better.”<\/p>\n
Mike Morris dominated the first period with a goal and an assist. In the 16th minute, he fired two shots in a row at Maine goalie Jimmy Howard and Joe Santilli tipped in the second for a goal at 16:16.<\/p>\n
Two minutes later, Morris stole the puck from a Maine defender and got the puck past Howard to make it 2-0 in favor of NU at 18:33. Both of the teams came up empty on power-plays in the first.<\/p>\n
The Huskies kept their momentum going as the second period began. Steve Sanders scored an unassisted goal at 2:41. He took a shot that Howard stopped, but Howard didn’t clear it and the goal slid in. It was Sanders’ first goal of the season.<\/p>\n
Santilli scored his second goal of the game when he took a pass from Morris and got a shot past Howard at 4:28 in the second. Maine head coach Tim Whitehead then pulled Howard in favor of backup Matt Lundin.<\/p>\n
After Gibson stopped five shots to help kill a Maine power-play, the Black Bears got on the board. Maine junior Derek Damon notched his seventh goal of the season when he rocketed a shot from the far right past Gibson at 8:46 in the second. The Keni Gibson show wasn’t over, however, as he went on to make five saves during another successful penalty-kill and totalled 17 saves in the second period.<\/p>\n
“The game got off to a slow start but after 10 minutes they came back at us,” said Gibson. “I got to see the first few shots and when you see the first few it’s a little easier to make the saves.”<\/p>\n
Maine kept the pressure on in the third period, outshooting the Huskies 15-6. Greg Moore potted Maine’s second goal 6:08 into the final set with assists from Billy Ryan and Damon.<\/p>\n
Lundin stopped all 10 Husky shots that he faced after he entered the game. The Huskies allowed one goal on six Maine power-plays and came up empty on four power-plays of their own.<\/p>\n
The Huskies last defeated Maine Jan. 11, 2002 when NU prevailed, 2-1, in overtime.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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