Three Up, Three Down
Posted by: Jill SaftelThree Up
Ludwig Karlsson, Freshman, Forward, Northeastern
After a winless month, Northeastern finally found their groove with a Homecoming sweep of Providence and Vermont, leaving the Huskies with 4 points on the weekend. Karlsson has been hot in the last three games for Northeastern with a three game scoring streak and a pair of goals in the team’s 4-1 victory over Vermont Saturday. This week’s Hockey East Player of the Week, he currently leads the Husky offense with 6 goals and 4 assists, and if he can keep up this pace he could have a huge impact on his team’s success.
Garrett Noonan, Sophomore, Defenseman, Boston University
Boston University came out of this weekend with a pair of wins, 4-3 against Vermont and then 4-1 against New Hampshire, bringing the Terriers to 6-4-1 on the season. Noonan showed up both defensively and offensively for BU, especially on Friday against Vermont netting a power play goal. He’s one of the reasons BU sits in third place in Hockey East rankings right now, and the fact that he’s still relatively young means his play will probably only get better.
Karl Stollery/Ryan Flanigan, Senior Captains, Merrimack
This nod really goes to the entire Merrimack hockey program, but we’ll give credit to the team’s two senior captains, Stollery and Flanigan. For the first time in program history Merrimack was voted the national No. 1 hockey team in the USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine’s Men’s Poll. With an 8-0-1 record, the Warriors are nearly perfect on the season and it’s at least partially due to the team’s veteran leadership. Flanigan and Stollery lead the Merrimack offense with 10 and eight points, respectively, and are surely due credit for garnering the program national recognition.
Three Down
Rob Madore, Senior, Goaltender, Vermont
Hate to pin Vermont’s misfortunes on any one player, but if their last weekend of play is broken down, Madore allowed eight goals in just two games. With a .856 save percentage, and an average of 4.6 goals against, Madore just isn’t playing up to D-1 Hockey East veteran goaltender standards. Madore’s goaltending isn’t the reason the Catamounts have yet to see a Hockey East win, but it’s a piece.
Joey Diamond, Junior, Forward, Maine
Getting benched for reckless, selfish play usually teaches a player a lesson. Apparently not so for Maine’s Diamond, who even after being forced to sit out a Fighting Sioux game by coach Tim Whitehead garnered penalties for grabbing a face mask and hitting from behind, the latter coming in Maine’s only game this weekend against Massachusetts. It’s a simple and common problem, when your best offensive players take stupid penalties; they’re not on the ice making great offensive plays. Diamond needs to get his play under control so that he can contribute as much as possible rather than wasting minutes sitting in the box, but with Diamond’s recent play, it looks like that might not happen without another nudge from Whitehead in the form of more bench time.
Steve Mastalerz, Freshman, Goaltender, Massachusetts
Again, this is more of a group problem than an individual one, but the young Massachusetts goaltending is looking just that right now – young. Mastalerz has a save percentage of just. 872 and has a win and a loss. You’d think his fellow goaltenders, Kevin Boyle and Jeff Teglia might be fairing better, but at 3-2-2, Boyle has the best record of UMass’s three young goaltenders, but a save percentage of .833. Teglia has the best save percentage with .903, but at on the season 0-2-1, he hasn’t seen a win. If the Minutemen’s goaltending shapes up a bit more, the chances of them seeing more success again, like beating Boston College, is likely.
