Saturday, November 18, 2000

  1 2 3 Final
Providence 2 0 2 4
Northeastern 0 1 1 2

versus

One night after the Providence College Friars beat the Northeastern Huskies at Schneider Arena, the Huskies would try to avenge the loss in the familiar confines of Historic Matthews Arena.  Northeastern had not lost two game in a row this season, and Matthews has been a good place to back to after a bad outing.  The Huskies followed the disappointing performance at Boston College with an impressive defensive game against Maine in a tie.  Thoughts of bouncing back against the Friars were foremost in the minds of all Huskydom.

Crap.  That is all I can say.  Crap.  How close can you come to bouncing back?  How close can you come to sending a game into sudden death overtime?  Sixteen seconds.  That's how close.

To review, the Huskies gave little defensive support to goal tender Jason Braun.  At 08:38 of the first period J.J. Picinic scored his second goal of the weekend against Braun with assists to Adam Lee and Marc Suderman.  Late in the period the defense would crumble again, and Braun would take one over his right shoulder at 19:17 as Picinic struck again from Suderman and Shawn Weiman.

The Huskies would strike back at 04:05 of the second period when Joe Mastronardi scored the hardest working unassisted goal of the season.  Providence goalie Boyd Ballard was behind his net handling the puck, but instead of a PC defenseman he found himself handing off to the Maestro.  Actually, it was grand larceny as Mastronardi swooped in from behind, checked the goalie, stole the puck, and wrapped it into the open net to send the disappointingly small crowd of 3,307 into a frenzy.  It wasn't so much that Mastronardi scored his second goal of the weekend, but that an NU forward got so aggressive around the opponent's net.  Coach Crowder should replay the team video of that goal endlessly on televisions throughout the locker room.

In the third period, at 05:58, Chris Lynch scored his seventh goal of the season from Scott Selig and Jim Fahey to tie the game.  The scrum in front of the net allowed the Lynch Mob to handle the puck past Ballard for the tying score.  Now, the Huskies needed to step up for the go ahead goal.  But defensive breakdowns would thwart any come from behind victory as Northeastern gave up 21-shots on net to their feeble 10.  The endless rushes that Friar forwards were able to take at Braun were matched by weak rushes by NU defensemen who get to the blue line and do not know what to do.  Jim Fahey and Rich Spiller are able to handle the puck up to the offensive zone, but then their lack of offensive instincts hamper what could be an effective rush.  providence on the other hand was allowed to move right in on Braun whose heroic attempts to keep his team in the game despite themselves failed at 19:44 of the final period.  Yep, 16-seconds remaining in the game when Suderman charged down the right-wing side and beat Braun for the game winner from Jon DiSalvatore and Picinic.  Not content to end the game on that note, Northeastern stood around after the subsequent face-off and allowed Suderman - you guessed it - to score (Picinic) again with only 3-seconds left in the game.  It wasn't even an empty net goal.  The exhausted Braun couldn't even react to the shot.  The game winner was disappointing, the insurance goal was disgusting.  J.J. Picinic ended the weekend with three goals and two assists.  Joe Mastronardi scored two goal over the series, but that just wasn't enough.

The Huskies next take on the Huskies.  Clarification?  Northeastern hosts St. Cloud State for the first ever match between these two teams.  The Huskies, St. Cloud State, are still ranked in the top ten while the Huskies, Northeastern, will slip dramatically after the two losses to Providence College.  Let's take this opportunity to make another impression on the WCHA.  A small turnout is expected as the game is being played on the day after Thanksgiving, but we here at the Unofficial Fan Page encourage you to go out of your way and attend.

Let's go Huskies!