Northeastern Walks Over Union

BOSTON-Wins haven’t come easy for the Huskies since Greg Cronin took over last year. In the 2005-06 campaign the Huskies did not get a win until November, dropping the previous seven. This year however, things are different on Huntington Avenue. The Huskies (1-2-1) out shot and out play the Union Dutchmen (2-1-1) on the way to a 5-0 win at Matthews Arena in front of a crowd of 4,082. The Huskies scored three in the first and added two more in the third. The game was a penalty filled nightmare for both teams as Northeastern took a total of 21 penalties for 69 minutes and Union collecting 15 of their own for 41 minutes. This gamed was officiated under the new two referee experiment which lead to the outpour of penalties. “If someone had told be we would be the victims of that than I would have thought we would have lost the game,” Northeastern head coach Greg Cronin said, “The game was called just as I predicted, I just don’t like the [two referee] system”. Northeastern senior Ray Ortiz collected three points on the night, all assists, as NU had five different goal scorers.

Freshmen have been one of the major factors to Northeastern success in this game and on the season as a whole, “The key to our success this year will be how quickly we can develop [the freshmen].” Greg Cronin said. On the season four of the twelve of the goals have come from freshmen with an additional seven scored by sophomores.

Northeastern opened the scoring early as Joe Vitale scored a short-handed goal 2:37 into the game. Vitale came down on a 2-on-1 with Joe Santilli who fed Vitale the puck for the goal Louis Liotti also collected an assist on the play. Northeastern wasn’t done as Andrew Linard rifled a shot from the point to collect his first goal of the season. The play got started when Ray Ortiz passed to Chris Donovan who made a no look, between the legs, pass to Linard who skated across the blue-line and slapped it home. A little over a minute later the Huskies struck again as Ryan Ginand netted his first of the year on another 2-on-1 with Rob Rassey. Rassey fed the puck to Ginand who just had to tap it in. It was the first point of the season for both players. After the third goal Union pulled netminder Justin Mrazek who made only two saves on the night. Freshmen Rich Sillery entered the match and the freshmen made his collegiate debut.

Union found some fire coming into the second and played very solid hockey for most of the second. However not to be out done the Huskies defense was spot on. Adam Geragosian made his first start of the season and did not disappoint. Geragosian made save after save as the defense cleared out the middle and let him see every puck all the way in. Rebounds were practically non existent and Geragosian smother most shots towards him and those what weren’t were quickly cleared away by the defense. At the end of the second things got confusing. As the horn sounded an altercation between Scott Brady of Union and Dennis McCauley of Northeastern saw both men ejected. Brady got a major for spearing and a game misconduct and McCauley got both a 10 minute misconduct and a game misconduct.

Northeastern had a five minute power play to start the third and quickly were given an additional two minute of 5-on-3 play but the Dutchmen defense played superbly well not giving the Huskies very many opportunities. At 14:42 Bryan Esner netted his first of the year after streaking down the left side and firing off a rocket to beat Sillery top shelf on the glove hand side. Ray Ortiz collected his second assist on the play. Freshmen Chris Donovan had been all over the ice all night an already hit a post but at 15:35 found pay dirt and collected his first collegiate goal putting in his own rebound. Denis Chisholm and Ray Ortiz also collected assists on the play. “Donovan [generated points] and was very visable all night” NU head coach Cronin added.

The penalties would continue for the rest of the game as both teams found themselves short handed at many points. “It was an awful, goofy game I mean the penalties after penalties…it was just a sloppy game, it was just good to get the win,” Greg Cronin stated.

On the night Adam Geragosian made 32 saves for the shut out, Justin Mrazek made two saves for Union with Rich Sillery collecting the other 22. Northeastern was 1-10 on the power play and Union was 0-12. Next up for Union is the Capital District Classic in Albany, NY and they take on RPI on the first round. Northeastern has a pair with the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor starting Friday.