Vermont Shuts Out Northeastern

Catamounts Win Season Series

By: Keith Lavon

For the second straight night the University of Vermont Catamounts scored a goal with less than a minute left in a period, this time however, it proved to be the game winner. Vermont notches a 3-point weekend at Matthews Arena and widens the gap between Northeastern University and Vermont in the Hockey East standings. Vermont goaltender Joe Fallon notched his 16^th career shutout, his fourth against Northeastern in his carrer.

“I thought we were excellent from the net out, Joe [Fallon] played extremely tough in there for us tonight, they had a lot of scoring opportunities on second and third chances and he certainly was a wall back there for us.” Vermont head coach Kevin Sneddon said after the game.

The first period started off where last night left of, that being very physical and neither team getting a ton of quality chances to score. As the second period continued the physicality of the game seemed to dwindle away but the scoring chances were still few and far between.

Northeastern almost escaped the second with a scoreless tie in tact, but on a clearing miscue UVM opened up the scoring with only 40 seconds left in the second period. After Northeastern netminder Brad Thieseen made the first save on a shot from the slot, the rebound came to Torry Mitchell who then banged the puck into the open net. Brayden Irwin and Arthur Femenella also got assists.

“It was good [to get that goal], they did such a nice job of preventing us from really mounting any sort of offensive attack when we had sustained possession in their zone. They made is really difficult for us to get shots through, it came down to a shot and a rebound,they aren't always going to be pretty goals when you play a team that does such a good job defensively.” UVM coach Kevin Sneddon said after the game.

With Joe Fallon's shut out in tact going into the third, Vermont seemed to switch to defensive mode. “It should have been a 0-0 game going into the third period, instead its 1-0, and they are a team thats really difficult to come back on when they have the lead.” Northeastern head coach Greg Cronin said after the game.

UVM was able to add on an insurance tally at 16:04 when Jonathan Higgins took a pass from Jay Anctil and backhanded it in. Northeastern goalie Brad Thieseen got caught a little off guard as it seemed him along with his defense was anticipating a pass and instead Higgins took the shot. Reese Wisnowski also collected an assist on the play.

Torrey Mitchell sealed the deal with an empty net goal at 18:38. Mitchell's shot came from near the red line and was deflected by the Northeastern defense and went soaring in the air before finally landing in the back of the net. Kenny Macaulay and Dean strong both collected their 10^th assists of the season.

Joe Fallon collected his fourth shutout against Northeastern in six starts against the team. Fallon ended the night with 23 saves. Northeastern goalie Brad Thieseen made 23 saves. Both teams had a good night on the penalty kill with UVM going 0-4 a man up and NU going 0-5.

Northeastern (6-11-4, 3-9-4) has a home and home with UMass Lowell next Friday and Saturday starting in Lowell on Saturday. Vermont (12-8-2, 7-4-2) will travel back to Boston for a pair at Boston College on Friday and Saturday night.