Saturday, January 27, 2001

  1 2 3 OT Final
Northeastern 0 2 0 0 2
UMass-Amherst 1 0 1 0 2

The last time the Huskies went out to Pioneer Valley, they fell asleep and didn't wake up until they returned to Boston.  This time around they were able to shake the cobwebs out for the second period, and didn't start dazing until the end of the third.  The ones who were asleep this time were the arena crew at the Taxpayer Financed Mullins Center.  More on that later.

At 5:25 into the first period, and a lackluster Husky attack, Brad Nizwantowski (Jay Shaw, Kris Wallis) put UMass up on the scoreboard first on a soft shot that went between Arik Engbrecht's legs and then through Mike Gilhooly's 5-hole.

In the second period of the game, Northeastern came back fired up, and probably rested after the 1-mile walk to the arena that Crowder used as a motivational tool.  At 4:56 Joe Mastronardi (Mike Jozefowicz, Sean MacDonald) tied the game in another NU four-on-four goal.  The Huskies went up 2-1 at 13:20 on a goal by Kevin Welch (Brian Cummings, Matt Keating).  UMass players thought that they had tied the game when a shot bounced off the side of the net behind Gilhooly, but the puck never came close to going into the net.  The Minuteman players and fans celebrated the non-goal with music blaring in the background, but Jeff Bunyon wasn't going to change the score.

In the third period, the non-scoring faux pas would repeat itself.  Mike Gilhooly snagged a UMass shot out of mid air at the goal line.  While the goal judge did turn on the red light, Bunyon waived off the goal much to the dismay of celebrating UMass fans.  However, UMass would even things at 12:25 of the third period on a goal by Jay Shaw (Brad Nizwantowski, Toni Soderholm).

There was no scoring in the overtime, but UMass goalie Mike Johnson gave us all an example of "Big Johnson" goaltending when he took a shot away with just over a minute left in the extra period.  The play was the most impressive of the game, earned the respect of the NU DogHouse, and was the deciding factor in Johnson being given the number one star of the game.

Most entertaining phrase of the game, "Why would you want a Minuteman when you can have Husky love?" yelled to the gorgeous chick in the red sweater in the first period.  Least entertaining phrase of the game, "F@#$ you, Northeastern!" by the angry bald student yelling into the glass behind the UMass bench every five minutes.  This game was played in front of a crowd of 1,731.

Let's Go Huskies!