BOSTON — The reigning NCAA Champions returned to the ice Saturday night on the road at Matthews Arena and faced a 3-1 loss at the hands of Northeastern. At the helm of Northeastern’s offensive surge were three freshmen, and mixed with stellar goaltending from Chris Rawlings the Huskies were able to fend off a BC comeback to start the season off 2-0.

Ryan Belonger got things started with his first collegiate goal when he swatted at a Cam Darcy shot that bobbled right in front of the net and got one past Parker Milner’s shoulder. Kevin Roy was the next Husky freshman to hit the back of the net when he took a pass from Cody Ferriero across the crease and shot from just in front of the left pole.

The Northeastern lead was tested by Steven Whitney in the final minutes of the first period when he got past Rawlings with an assist from Johnny Gaudreau just eight seconds into an Eagles power play. (more…)

BOSTON — A goal and two assists from Cason Hohmann helped Boston University defeat Providence, 4-2, at Agganis Arena Saturday night. Hohmann, a sophomore, scored the game-winning goal at 18 minutes, 57 seconds of the second period, fewer than 3 minutes after setting up Garrett Noonan’s game-tying goal.

BU goaltender Matt O’Connor, making his collegiate debut, stopped 26 shots, while PC’s Jon Gillies made 30 saves in the loss. PC defeated Sacred Heart, 8-2, on Friday night to open its season, but Saturday’s defeat makes the Friars 0-1-0 in Hockey East play.

What I Saw

• The improvements Nate Leaman has made to Providence’s talent level in fewer than two years are visible at every position. The Friars don’t sit back, waiting for opponents to make mistakes. They dictate long portions of games and make teams play PC hockey. Throughout Saturday’s game, PC carried extended stretches, and only some quality blocked shots and saves kept them from more goals. When BU turned it on, Jon Gillies bailed them out frequently. The presence of Gillies in the Friars’ lineup is just one example of improved talent. Freshmen like Mark Jankowski, Paul de Jersey and John Gilmour all have diverse skill sets. (more…)

Durham, NH.-  New Hampshire and St. Cloud  played an even first period on goals by John Henrion and Kevin Gravel.  UNH never trailed in the game and would use a key second period goal by Austin Block with 1 minute, 9 seconds to go in the period to take the lead for good.

Nick Sorkin led UNH offensively with a goal and an assist, while Dalton Speelman continued his early season emergence with an assist on Sorkin’s goal, seven minutes into the second period. Trevor van Riemsdyk scored the insurance goal with 14:38 remaining in the third period to ice the game at 4-2 in favor of the Wildcats. UNH improves its record to 2-0-0 on the season in completing a series sweep of St Cloud. (more…)

Minneapolis, MN- A slow start by Michigan State ended up haunting the Spartans Friday night as three goals by the Gophers in the season’s first 13:38 fueled the #1/2 team in the country to a 5-1 win that was as close as the final score.

WCHA preseason player of the year Nick Bjugstad scored a goal and added an assist while freshman Mike Reilly and redshirt junior captain Zach Budish each had two assists. Tanner Sorenson scored the lone Spartan goal with 4:01 left as Minnesota goaltender Michael Shibrowski made 25 saves en route to his first win as a Gopher.

Ben Marshall, Christian Isackson, Erik Haula and Travis Boyd also scored for Minnesota. MSU goalie Will Yanakeff made 37 saves in defeat.

What I saw:

-The Spartans were one of two teams last year (Denver was the other) to hold Minnesota without a win in a two-game series and much of it was thanks to their defense containing the Gophers’ potent offense.  This year, however, it was the Gophers who used their speed advantage over the Spartans to beat them to pucks, out-muscle their defense and spend entire shifts in the MSU zone. While the top line of Bjugstad, Kyle Rau and Christian Isackson ran wild, the Spartans’ top line of Kevin Walrod, Lee Reimer and Greg Wolfe could not get anything going. (more…)

DURHAM, N.H. — Dick Umile recorded his 500th career win Friday night as New Hampshire beat St. Cloud State 5-3 in its season opener. Umile becomes the 12th coach, sixth active, to reach the milestone at the Division-I level. He also becomes just the seventh coach to win 500 games at one school.

“The guys gave me the game puck,” Umile said, “and I said, ‘It’s all about having a lot of good hockey players.’ If you last long enough coaching good hockey players, they win hockey games. I just happen to be fortunate enough to be coaching this program with a lot of good hockey players.”

Dalton Speelman led the way Friday night with two goals and an assist in his first game since last November. Connor Hardowa (3 assists), Trevor van Riemsdyk (1 goal, 1 assist), Kevin Goumas (2 assists) and Grayson Downing (2 assists) all registered multi-point games for UNH (1-0-0). Ben Hanowski had a goal and an assist for St. Cloud (0-1-0), and Nic Dowd had two assists.

Hardowa and Speelman both said after the game that it was an honor to be part of Umile’s milestone night.

“We’ve been waiting pretty much all summer for that one,” Hardowa said. “We couldn’t get him that last one last year at BU. It’s nice to see him get that 500th. Not too many people have done it. It’s an honor to be a part of the program when he gets that one. A lot of guys put in a lot of effort to get those 500. We’re just a small piece of it.” (more…)

Lowell, MASS.- Vermont entered the Tsongas Center as the easy underdog against Massachusetts-Lowell but hung around the River Hawks for large portions of the game and went back to Burlington with a key point in Hockey East play. Lowell was able to use a porous turnover late in the first period to take a 1-0 lead on the Catamounts, but the score would not hold as Vermont would score a goal off the stick of Colin Markison with 8:43 remaining in the third to tie the game.

Vermont would control the latter portions of the game but the score would remain tied and both teams would come out with a point in both teams’ Hockey East opener.  The game was hard fought on both sides and a great College Hockey game to watch for the 6711 that attended, which was a UMass-Lowell record for a home opener. The crowd was also the second largest  in River Hawk history. (more…)

BOSTON — A three-goal first period lead Wednesday looked like it might turn into the same old story for Northeastern when Merrimack battled back in the second period and left the Huskies fighting for the win in the game’s final minutes. An empty netter from assistant captain Robbie Vrolyk sealed it for Northeastern with a 4-2 victory over the Warriors.

After missing the postseason by a point last season, the Huskies began this year’s conference play with a big first period offensively. Fifty three seconds into play, freshman defenseman Colton Saucerman passed to senior forward Garrett Vermeersch from the right point and Vermeersch deflected it over the shoulder of Merrimack goaltender Rasmus Tirronen. Northeastern struck again within five minutes of puck drop when forward Joseph Manno took a feed from freshman Kevin Roy to make it 2-0.

The offensive contribution from Roy continued in the first period, this time with a goal of his own on the power play. With that the Huskies ended the first period with a 3-0 lead, but the Warriors answered in the second period. First, sophomore forward Quinn Gould beat senior goaltender Chris Rawlings on a bouncing puck in front of the net to put Merrimack on the board. Justin Mansfield made it 3-2 with just under five minutes to play in the second.

Northeastern managed to hold on throughout the third period, picking up their first two extremely valuable Hockey East points of the season.

(more…)

Minneapolis, MN – Minnesota’s return to the rink went according to plan Saturday night as the Golden Gophers defeated the University of Lethbridge 7-0 in an exhibition game at Mariucci Arena.

The defending WCHA champions, who led college hockey last year in goals per game, didn’t take long to get going. A five minute major to Lethbridge forward Mark Hall for checking Zach Budish from behind 4:17 into the game proved to be the catalyst for two of sophomore Christian Isackson’s three goals. He completed the hat trick 1:08 into the second period while fellow sophomore Sam Warning added another goal 25 seconds later to make it 4-0 Minnesota.

Not to be outdone, the Gopher defense got involved in the scoring five minutes later. Freshman Mike Reilly set up junior Mark Alt at the top of the point and the Carolina Hurricane prospect slapped a one-timer past Lethbridge goalie Dylan Tait. The third period saw emotions escalate on both sides, amounting to 31 minutes in penalties between the two teams. It didn’t change Minnesota’s momentum, however, and two goals by Ben Marshall and Seth Ambroz completed the scoring barrage.

What I saw

-With everyone except for defenseman Blake Thompson (who the team is thinking about redshirting) and backup goalies Ryan Coyne and Matt LaPrade dressing, University of Minnesota head coach Don Lucia unveiled new line combinations. Isackson, who was pointless in 11 games last year, was on the first line right wing alongside Kyle Rau and Nick Bjugstad. Last year’s top right winger, Zach Budish, was instead slotted into the second line with Sam Warning and Erik Haula.

On defense, all three pairs from 2011-2012 were split up while Lucia tries to figure out how to fit eight defensemen into six spots. Freshmen Brady Skjei, a 2012 first round pick by the New York Rangers, and Mike Reilly, who led all BCHL defensemen in points last year, join the six defensemen from last year’s squad.

The power play, meanwhile, looked similar to last year with Bjugstad, Rau and Budish reunited and Haula once again finding himself on the point.

– Skjei had a “welcome to college hockey” moment after getting caught looking at a pass by Lethbridge’s Kyle Mclachlan that he could have gotten away on the USNTDP. He also wasn’t afraid to dish it out and the 6’2”, 197 lbs freshman came to the defense of Nick Bjugstad in the third period.

What I thought

-Lucia mentioned after the game that he believed to the key to this season would be a few of the sophomores stepping up and specifically named Christian Isackson, Travis Boyd and Seth Ambroz. All three did that Saturday but no one more than Isackson. Although the Buffalo Sabres prospect was given a great opportunity playing on the first line, Isackson proved to hold his own. Each of his first two goals was set up Boyd and Ben Marshall rather than Bjugstad and Rau. He had two more great chances to score in the first that were stopped by Tait; however, like Boyd at the end of last year and Nate Schmidt (who went from 1 point as a freshman to 41 as a sophomore) it looks like the sophomore may have turned a corner in his development.

-While Gopher goalies Mike Shibrowski and Adam Wilcox combined for a shutout, neither was tested much. Lethbridge struggled to create offense when they were at even strength and ended up being out-shot 65-16. Shibrowski, a junior who played twenty minutes last season behind the departed Kent Patterson, and freshman Wilcox each made eight saves in their 30 minute stints although Shibrowski faced the tougher chances of the two. It was only an exhibition but having two goalies stand tall and not give Lethbridge rebounds in their few scoring opportunities is big for a team whose biggest question mark coming into the season was goaltending.

What they said

-Christian Isackson on his summer between freshman and sophomore year: “I talked to (Nate Schmidt) a lot. I worked hard. I really put my head to the grindstone over the summer and came in trying to be as positive as I can.

-Nate Schmidt on Mike Reilly: “He’s an ‘Alex Goligoski-type’ player.”

What else you should know

-Minnesota’s 7 goals were scored by five players who combined last year to score 20 goals or five less than Nick Bjugstad. On the other end of the spectrum, the top 5 returning scorers (Erik Haula, Bjugstad, Kyle Rau, Nate Schmidt and Zach Budish) from 2011-2012 combined for four assists Saturday.

-Saturday’s game was the first time someone other than Kent Patterson started for Minnesota in goal since December 3, 2010.

-Defenseman Justin Holl took a vicious hit at the end of the game but appeared to be fine and in good spirits after the game.

-Mariucci Arena received a few cosmetic changes in the offseason with a new HD scoreboard and sound system.

-Attendance was announced as 7,283.

Orono, ME. – Maine needed a rebound game after the disappointment last night, instead they managed a tie against a team that was handled by Boston College 6-0 on Saturday night. New Brunswick drew first blood at the seven minute mark of the first period as Cam Critchlow sniped one past Maine goaltender, Martin Ouellette. Maine would score the equalizer seven minutes later as Beattie took a pass from Devin Shore and buried it past the Varsity Reds netminder to tie the game at one.

The second period was controlled territorially by Maine but was an evenly played period by both teams. Devin Shore gave the Black Bears a 2-1 lead 1:11 into the second and the lead would stand for 20 minutes. Chad Denny would score for the Reds two minutes into the third to tie the game and that’s where the game would end, not without a little drama at the end. At the end of the overtime it appeared that the Varsity Reds had scored but it came 0.2 seconds after the final horn and thus the game ended in a draw. (more…)

BOSTON — Boston University beat the University of Toronto 5-0 in an exhibition game Sunday. The Terriers outshot the Varsity Blues 50-17 and completely dominated the game from start to finish. All five goals came on the power play, as the Terriers amassed 23 shots on 12 man-up chances. Alexx Privitera (3 assists), Cason Hohmann (1 goal, 1 assist), Matt Grzelcyk (2 assists) and Ahti Oksanen (2 assists) all posted multi-point games. BU opens the regular season against Providence on Saturday.

What I saw
-The Terriers scored five power-play goals and generated a ton of chances on the man advantage. Their entries were smooth, their passes were crisp, and they consistently had traffic in front of the net. The first goal came when Grzelcyk fed Matt Nieto for a one-timer, with Sahir Gill setting a screen in front. The second came off another Grzelcyk feed, this one to Oksanen. Gill and Evan Rodrigues were both at the top of the crease, and Rodrigues ended up with the deflection goal. Yasin Cisse added a third when he poked home a loose puck following a Privitera shot. Mike Moran scored on a rebound as well, and Hohmann’s came on a nice pass from Oksanen. The Terriers certainly have the weapons to have a strong power play, but it was a little surprising to see things clicking so well after just one full practice. Toronto’s penalty kill wasn’t good at all, but BU’s power play still deserves a lot of credit. (more…)