by Christian Skroce
ORONO, Maine – The Northeastern Men’s Hockey Team brought themselves within one point of the top spot in Hockey East after securing the weekend sweep of Maine with a 4-0 win on Saturday night.
The game started slow, as the teams skated to a 0-0 tie after the first period. Zach Solow opened up the scoring for the Huskies just 17 seconds into the second period, and they never looked back. Northeastern increased their lead to 3-0 just four minutes later, as Pecararo and Hawkins added one each in quick succession. Hawkins would go on to complete the scoring for Northeastern in the third period, as he finished off a fantastic sequence, started by a diagonal, cross-ice pass from defenseman Ryan Shea.
“I thought both games we played a complete game. Our guys worked hard, we played smart, and I thought we showed great patience throughout both games,” said Madigan after the game. “It’s tough to come up here and sweep, but our kids showed great discipline to win both games.”
Perhaps the most important storyline for the Huskies in this one was the tremendous performance by sophomore net-minder Cayden Primeau. After a less than stellar start last night, Primeau came out tonight on fire, recording a 33 save shutout, the seventh of his young career. Madigan praised his goalie postgame, “We faced a lot of shots tonight, and he came up huge for us.”
Northeastern will face arguably its toughest test of the season when the team heads to Amherst next Friday (1/18) to begin a home-and-home series with UMASS. An anticipation of this upcoming weekend, Madigan noted, “Every team is this league is a good team. We’re gonna take the week to prepare for a good UMASS side, knowing we certainly have a chance to get the job done.” Puck drop is scheduled for 7:00pm.