Hockey Notes: Northeastern looks to regroup

Three-time reigning Beanpot champion Northeastern has hit hard times, falling to eighth place in the Hockey East standings heading into this weekend’s home-and-home series with Boston University. The Huskies are coming off a stunning sweep by Vermont over the weekend.

“Well, we lost the last two weekends, lost four games, which is collectively the most we’ve lost all season. Now, we just have to get back to Boston and have a good week of practice. We know next weekend is the last weekend of the season. If we don’t play well, the season ends. We have enough older guys that have played enough meaningful games that don’t want the season to end. We might be able to get a healthy body back, and if we can do that it will give us a little more juice in the lineup,” said NU coach Jim Madigan, referring to sophomore Tyler Madden (19 goals, 18 assists in 27 games), who injured his left hand blocking a shot at UMass-Lowell on Feb. 14 and has missed five games.

Speaking of NU’s road woes at Vermont, the Catamounts first win in league play represented the 300th of his career and No. 250 at UVM for Vermont coach Kevin Sneddon, who is leaving after the final game at UMass on Thursday. “Words cannot express my gratitude to the fans for providing a great weekend for our team,” said Sneddon. “Our seniors deserve this moment and I am beyond thrilled the weekend ended this way. One more to go!”

It also appears UVM senior goalie Stefanos Lekkas is going to come up shy of the UVM record for goaltender career saves, held by Bruins legend Tim Thomas with 3,950. Lekkas has 3,869 with one game left and sits No. 7 all-time in NCAA history. The top six: Michigan’s Robbie Moore (4,434 from 1973-76), Michigan State’s Jeff Lerg (3,996 from 2006-09), UVM’s Thomas, Western Michigan’s Glenn Healy (3,933 from 1982-85), Minnesota-Duluth’s Rick Heinze (3,899 from 1975-78) and UMD’s Brant Nicklin (3,880 from 1996-2000).

Quiz of the Week

This NHL great won eight Stanley Cups with Montreal and later won another Cup as an NHL coach. Yet, his American coaching debut came as an assistant to the late great Herbie Hammond at Plattsburgh State. Who is he? Answer below.

Trophy season

BC coach Jerry York coined the term ‘Trophy Season’ and winning the hardware never gets boring for the old Eagle. After dispatching rival, Boston University, 4-1, on Saturday amid a festive atmosphere, BC won a 17th regular season Hockey East title in 36 years and improved its mark at Agganis Arena to 14-4-2. “It’s not the rink,” said York. “You have to have good clubs to have success against good teams.”

BC senior captain David Cotton, who spurned overtures from the Carolina Hurricanes to return for a fourth season, drew praise from his coach. Cotton scored an insurance goal, to record the 127th point of his career and moved into the top 50 all-time at The Heights, bumping former pepperpot Ed Rauseo (126 points in 126 games). Cotton’s tally was No. 57, pulling him alongside Austin Cangelosi (2013-2017), Bob Reardon (1970-73), and Ben Smith (2006-2010) for No. 45. York believes he has it on good authority that his all-freshmen line of Mike Hardman, Alex Newhook and Matt Boldy will return intact next year. “In moms’ we trust,” quipped York.

Slapshots

Kudos to BU junior David Farrance, who picked up his 26th assist on senior captain Patrick Curry’s goal Saturday night and reached 40 points, the first Terriers defenseman to hit that plateau since all-time great Tom Poti had 42 back in 1996-97. .. UMass junior All-American John Leonard of hometown Amherst paces the NCAA with 27 goals, four ahead of his closest pursuer.

Harvard, which began the season at 6-0-0, but is 7-10-6 since, hosts St. Lawrence in a best-of-3 first round series, beginning on Friday. Look for Harvard to rely on its trio of 30-point scorers in Nick Abuzzese (13-26-39), Jack Dury (18-14-34) and Casey Dornbach (12-22-34) and defensemen Jack Rathbone of West Roxbury and Reilly Walsh. … Cornell women are a staggering 27-1-3 and wouldn’t be where they are without the superb play of junior Finley Frechette and sister Gillis, a sophomore, from Weston. Gillis has 16-13-29 while Finley has 5-3-8 totals.

UMass-Dartmouth twins Sean and Steve Leonard were outstanding in a 6-0 blanking of Worcester State with Sean erupting for a career-high five points (1-4-5) and Steve contributed three assists. UMD freshman Daniel Davidson stopped 24 shots and has four straight shutouts. … Norwich senior Tom Aubrun is having a season for the ages with a nation-best 22-2-2, .0.80 GAA and .965 SP to go with 12 shutouts. … Norwich skaters Amanda Conway (2-2-4), Julia Masotta of Tewksbury (0-4-4), and Ann-Frederique Guay (1-3-4) had big games against Plymouth State. Conway (28-26-54), a senior from Methuen, and Sophie McGovern (18-23-41) are the top-two in national scoring stats.

Salve Regina junior Danny Eruzione, son of ex-Holy Cross star Vinny and nephew of BU’s Mike, had 5-points (2-3-5) to beat Western New England. Yale center Charlotte Welch of Winchester bagged four points (3-1-4) at Harvard. Also, Westfield senior Daniel Backstrom scored all three goals to edge Salem State, 3-2, while Wentworth freshman Connor Carbo had 51 saves to stun Curry, 2-1.

Quiz Answer

Jacques Lemaire. Drop the puck!

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/3akHJpS