HAMDEN, Conn. — Though the scores won’t count for real until next weekend, Northeastern coach Jerry Keefe said his goal for Sunday’s exhibition was for the Huskies to ”get challenged.”
And for the most part, Northeastern got exactly what they came for. With six transfers and nine freshmen in the lineup, the No. 20 Huskies secured an encouraging 4-2 win over No. 9 Quinnipiac at a lively M&T Bank Arena.
Northeastern worked through some early offensive miscues and struggled to counter the Bobcats’ swarming forecheck, but received excellent production from the top forward line, and saw promising flashes of the roster’s improved depth.
“Quinnipiac plays a hard, fast, and heavy game, and that’s good for us to face. That’s what we wanted,” Keefe said. “We had to settle in, but there were a lot of things from today that we liked as a staff.”
Northeastern opens their regular season next Saturday against Stonehill, who posted a 2-34 record last season, and then will play their next six games against No. 1 Denver, No. 12 Maine, and No. 13 Providence — so the Huskies will have little margin to work through early-season kinks.
Here are four takeaways about what we learned from the Huskies’ debut on the ice:
1. The first line of Christophe Tellier, Jack Williams, and Dylan Hryckowian is already jelling
By teaming junior Jack Williams and sophomore Dylan Hryckowian with Tellier, a senior transfer from Quinnipiac, it brings together three smart, poised, and detail-oriented players — much like last season’s top line of Alex Campbell, Justin Hryckowian, and Dylan Hryckowian, which was among the NCAA’s very best.
Each player hunts the puck in all three zones, finishes their checks, and has the ability to quickly turn defense into scoring opportunities by using their vision and ability to drive hard moving north to south. And while Northeastern’s other lines had trouble finding consistency early on Sunday, the top unit generated chances right from the start.
Facing his former team, Tellier scored the game’s opening goal on a rebound putback in the first period. His elite playmaking ability was also on display with terrific passes to set up Williams and Hryckowian in the high slot, both when Tellier was working from low-to-high in the offensive zone and carrying the puck in on zone entries.
“I’ve loved playing with those two so far,” Tellier said. “[Williams] and [Hryckowian] go hard downhill, and I thought they were so heavy and so hard to play against. It just gives me a lot of room on the ice.”
Lastly, this line potentially offers a better fit for Williams than the second half of last season, when he primarily centered Cam Lund and Gunnarwolfe Fontaine on the second line. While Williams had a breakout 17-goal sophomore campaign, he scored just two even strength goals in his final 22 games.
Much of Williams’ best 5v5 production last season was during the late November-December stretch when he played alongside Dylan Hryckowian. And already on Sunday, Williams was fed crisp passes by both linemates which positioned him to score in front of the net and at the circles — providing optimism that he can raise his even-strength game to another level to compliment his excellence on special teams.
2. The second line of Joe Connor, Ryan McGuire, and Cam Lund showed some flashes, but is a work-in-progress
While the top line brings together three reliable and battle-tested players, the second line offers potential to be just as strong, but also has far more question marks.
On paper, McGuire, a senior transfer from Colgate who plays both ways and can crash the net, is the perfect complement to the junior Lund and freshman Connor — two fast wings who like to bust out in transition and float high in the offensive zone.
But on Sunday, the trio spent a lot of time hemmed into their defensive zone and struggled to find much of a rhythm offensively. Lund and Connor each were sprung free into open ice with the puck on a couple occasions, but failed to cleanly beat the defenseman and drive the net.
“McGuire is an honest player, and I like how he forechecks, he’s physical, and he plays on both sides of the puck,” Keefe said. “And I like the fact that Connor and Lund have speed on the wings where they can turn turnovers into scoring chances right away.”
Expectations are high for Connor in his freshman season, and while he did score off a rebound in the second period, he had up and down moments while adjusting to the game’s speed and physicality — all perfectly natural in his first game.
And for Lund, the talent is there to be an elite player, but finding consistency from shift to shift and game to game remains the biggest question mark. Here is what Keefe said about Lund last week in my preseason interview with him:
“Cam Lund has the ability to be the best player on the ice every time he steps on the ice. So now it’s maturing as a player and just finding that consistency in your game and in practice. And he’s done it. He’s taken a step, there’s no question,” Keefe said. “For me, this is where you’re going to see Cam Lund. He’s been very good for over two years. This is where we’re looking for him to really pop, and he’s ready for it.”
Sunday was just a preseason game, but his play in all three zones still looked closer to a player with flashes of that takeover ability, but one still putting all the pieces together. But for the Huskies to reach their ceiling as a team, Lund must be the primary driver of offense on that line and be more assertive in all three zones.
3. The roster’s improved depth was on full display
When I asked Keefe last week about how the team could avoid another poor start — last year, the Huskies began 0-7 in Hockey East play — his answer was by supplementing the team’s depth with the offseason transfer and freshman additions.
On Sunday, the Huskies showed off that depth in a variety of ways.
Freshman defenseman Jack Henry had a stellar debut, and looked nothing like a player in his first NCAA game. Because star junior Vinny Borgesi was out of the exhibition lineup — Keefe said he’ll be back for the opener — it paved the way for Henry to play huge minutes on Sunday alongside Jo Lemay, a junior transfer from Omaha.
Henry was impressive working laterally at the blue line and pushing up into the attacking end, but also remained poised and steady against Quinnipiac’s forecheck and made a handful of crafty plays to turn the Bobcats over in the defensive end.
“I thought he was excellent,” Keefe said of Henry’s play. “He’s got a lot of composure, defends well with his feet. I thought Hank did a heck of a job for his first game. It was probably the best situation for him to get thrown right in the fire like that, and I thought he handled it really well.”
With an opening-night third pairing of Henry and Jake Higgins, a grad transfer from Holy Cross, it should give Keefe improved trust in the bottom of his defensive corps.
Likewise, the Huskies’ fourth forward line equated themselves well, with an all-freshman group of James Fisher, Griffin Erdman, and Ethan Fredericks making the most of their ice time by finishing their checks in the corners and using Erdman’s shiftiness to ignite rushes.
Fredricks even broke loose in the second period on a one-on-zero rush, which forced Quinnipiac to take a penalty — leading to NU’s score at 6v5 with the goalie pulled. And while these freshmen will take time to develop, there’s huge potential for each to make an impact this season.
4. There were plenty of teachable moments, but great goaltending helps ease the burden
Perhaps above any individual player evaluation, the biggest value in a competitive preseason game for Northeastern is getting film to watch over the next week.
As an entire team on Sunday, breakouts along the half wall and in the corners were a constant issue. Northeastern was routinely struggling to find outlet options when they’d get to a puck along the back wall and were overwhelmed by Quinnipiac’s forecheck, leading to turnovers and prolonged offensive shifts for the Bobcats.
Those are all valuable lessons to learn against a fast and physical Quinnipiac squad — one of the nation’s best forechecking teams, after all — but things will not get any easier against Denver in two weeks’ time.
“We got to do a better job sweeping things out of the corners, we left a couple guys open at the net front” Keefe said. “But we’ve got to be better on the walls. Simple as that. A lot of their offense came off of our turnovers, and we had chances to get pucks out and we didn’t.”
And lastly, Northeastern can survive many of those defensive issues simply thanks to the presence of Cameron Whitehead in net.
While there is little new to learn about Whitehead from an exhibition, he appeared business-as-usual with 16 saves and two goals allowed over two periods, including stopping some difficult rebound chances. He was pulled in the third for freshman Quinton Sigurdson, who saved all nine shots he faced in a stellar debut.
So while the Huskies can walk out of Hamden content with their performance, there will also be plenty to work on this coming week to get ready for when it really matters.
WRBB Sports will have live coverage of Northeastern’s opener against Stonehill on Saturday at 7:00 p.m. Matty Wasserman, Breanna Adel, and Armaan Vij will have the call.