Northeastern is in uncharted territory. With Thursday night’s thrilling 2-1 victory over visiting Providence, the Huskies earned something they hadn’t seen all season.<\/p>\n
A winning streak.<\/p>\n
Northeastern, which snapped an 18-game losing streak with a 6-4 triumph over Massachusetts-Lowell last Friday, won its second straight Hockey East game, improving to 3-20-6 overall, 3-13-6 in Hockey East. The team now sits three points behind Lowell and four points behind Massachusetts for the final conference playoff spot, having played one more game than both teams.<\/p>\n
“We got behind the eight-ball when we had that string of ties … tie, tie, tie and then we lost to these guys in overtime,” Husky coach Greg Cronin said of a stretch in December during which his team tied New Hampshire once, and Merrimack twice.<\/p>\n
“We’ve had so many games that we reflect back on that we lost points. We’re in a desperation mode. We just gotta keep scratching and clawing to get back in the picture. We’re gonna need some help, big time.”<\/p>\n
Junior goalie Adam Geragosian outdueled Friar goalie Tyler Sims, making 37 saves to the sophomore’s 24. The NU goalie was instrumental in keeping the score 0-0 after a first period in which a buzzing PC team outshot its hosts, 12-4.<\/p>\n
“Your goaltender is the most important guy on the ice,” Cronin said. “He’s a difference maker in the game. It’s like a pitcher in baseball, a quarterback in football … he can change the dynamic of a game, and Geragosian did it because Providence deserved to be up two- or three-nothing in the first period, and they weren’t.<\/p>\n
“When you stay close in those games you gotta keep scratching and clawing and maybe get a bounce here and there. That’s what happened to us. It was a great team win, but I think Geragosian was the difference-maker.”<\/p>\n
He’s right about that bounce thing, too.<\/p>\n
With six minutes left in the game, PC (15-10-2, 12-8-2) seemed in total control. Northeastern had just taken two penalties in a span of 14 seconds. On the first power play, it took exactly seven seconds for the Friars to strike. Sophomore Jon Rheault wheeled around the left faceoff circle and snapped a wrist shot past Geragosian.<\/p>\n
On the second power play, however, everything changed.<\/p>\n
Seven seconds after PC’s goal, NU junior Brian Deeth was whistled for a tripping penalty. While on the man-advantage, a pass to the NU blue line skipped over the stick of a Friar defender and gave the Huskies a two-on-one. On the break, freshman Rob Rassey’s pass deflected off a PC defender and sat near the goal for classmate Joe Vitale to swat home.<\/p>\n
Six minutes later, with just 1:35 to play, freshman Dennis McCauley culminated the comeback with a goal oddly similar to his strike in the Beanpot two weeks ago. The 6-3, 205-pounder took a pass from sophomore Josh Robertson and used his long reach to slip the puck around Sims and force it over the line.<\/p>\n
Not bad, for a couple of rookies.<\/p>\n
“It shows a lot of maturity from the younger guys,” Geragosian said of the comeback. “Dennis McCauley and Joe Vitale got the goals and in the beginning of the year I don’t know if they would have done that with that much time left down 1-nothing after a hard-fought game. For them to come back shows a lot of maturity. They’ve developed so much over the year.”<\/p>\n
PC lost a chance to leapfrog UNH and climb within a point of second-place Boston University with the loss, its third in five games.<\/p>\n
“We had good chances, (Geragosian) made some good saves,” PC coach Tim Army said. “We did some good things. After you look at the tape, I’m sure we played pretty well … but we didn’t see it through when we needed to. We didn’t see it through. If you’re gonna be a good team, if you’re gonna compete in the playoffs, you’re going to have to see those games through. We didn’t see it through tonight. That’s frustrating to me.”<\/p>\n
The teams finish their regular-season series Friday with a 7 p.m. tilt in Providence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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