BOSTON – After a disappointing 5-3 loss on Friday against UNH, Northeastern and goaltender Cameron Whitehead looked to bounce back just 24-hours later in a non-conference tilt against Brown.
The Huskies jumped out to a 4-0 lead, before holding on to beat the Bears 4-3.
There have been multiple weekends this season where the Huskies came up just a bit short, and they left people asking for just a little more. And despite securing the regulation victory, after two home games against beatable opponents in UNH and Brown, it feels like this weekend follows the trend of being left wanting more.
To begin, for essentially the first time this season, goal scoring was not at a premium for Northeastern – scoring a combined seven goals across a weekend for the second time all season. Yet their strong suits, goaltending and defense, gave up eight goals across the two games.
The Huskies came out with good energy on Saturday, dominating the pace of play and scoring their first goal on the opening shot of the game from Vinny Borgesi at an odd angle that took a few weird bounces and ended up behind Brown sophomore netminder Lawton Zacher. The defender after the game was humble as ever, but did express how much he likes when he and the other defenders can find the back of the net, and how important contributions like that can be.
“I mean, I love it,” Borgesi said about the defensive group getting the goal scoring started. ”The more we can contribute offensively, the better chances we’re going to have, you know, to win games… I’m happy for our guys. And so we just got to keep playing.”
Northeastern continued their dominance, and found more scores, with a pair of goals in the second period from defender Jackson Dorrington and forward Jack Williams to extend the Huskies’ lead to 3-0.
The start of the third was like the prior two: All Huskies. Junior forward Cam Lund ripped on by Zacher – beating him with a zippy snapshot to the short-side top corner. But that was where the fun stopped for Northeastern, and Brown sucked the life out of a rocking Matthews Arena.
With 12:25 to go in the game, and the Huskies with a four goal lead, Northeastern took not one, but two penalties – sophomore Dylan Hryckowian for hooking, and Williams for unsportsmanlike conduct.
“It was awful, it almost cost us the game,” said Northeastern head coach Jerry Keefe about the concurrent calls.
However, he was not referring to the undisciplined nature of those penalties. In fact, Keefe did not find them to be undisciplined at all, rather he felt they were unwarranted from the referees, particularly the Williams unsportsmanlike call.
“So [Hryckowian] takes a penalty. I didn’t see the first penalty, I got to look at it on video. From what I was told, the misconduct penalty on Jack Williams was not warranted,” Keefe said. “[It] should have never been called, and it almost cost us the game. And that’s really disappointing. Jack Williams carries himself the right way. He didn’t say anything that should have given him that type of penalty. So [I am] very disappointed in that call.”
Regardless of how controversial a certain call is — and it very well could have been that Williams was wrongly punished — it’s on the Huskies to kill the penalties. Moveover, the Huskies were only one man down because the penalties occurred while Brown was killing off one of their own penalties. Even still, the Huskies could not kill either, and gave up two goals in a matter of a minute to cut their lead to 4-2.
This brings us to the biggest concern from the whole weekend – Cameron Whitehead. The miserable weekend began with this goal scored by UNH just two minutes into the first period:
The one thing you can never do as a goaltender – especially not a fourth round draft pick – is let up a five hole goal on a weak, completely unscreened shot from far out that had NO business going in.
Nevertheless, that’s how it started. He was then pulled from Friday’s game after letting in four goals, but he was put back out there for Saturday’s game. For the first 50 minutes he looked alright, but was not overly tested and did not need to make particularly exceptional saves.
That being said, with 10-minutes to go in the third period, it appeared Whitehead was on the way to a great rebound game, but now, one has to question his ability to bounce back after poor performances.
What’s more, I question if he was in his head after letting up the first goal midway through the third to Brown, and if that caused him to struggle as the period continued. As many know, but for those who do not, goalie is a physical position, but it is almost entirely mental and not being able to move past bad performances or mistakes is never encouraging.
Saturday Brown goal two:
Goal one on Saturday was not Whitehead’s fault, but this goal was. Cameron, why are you sliding four feet out of the net on a routine save. He had the post held and made the save, but he then lunged out of his net for no real apparent reason. Not to mention the rebound. Anyone with a knowledgeable eye about goaltending will say that’s a save made by an uncomfortable, unconfident goaltender.
Saturday Brown goal three – deja vu:
There is an odd similarity to goal one against UNH on Friday, from the third goal in Saturday’s contest. Same place on the ice, same type of weak shot on net, and what happens – the same inability to properly close the five-hole and it squeezes by.
Listen, Whitehead has been good for Northeastern over his time here, and a bounce back is imminent – hopefully. But something shook him. He simply did not look like himself, and the goals from this weekend’s games scream a lack of confidence. Maybe the game against Merrimack on Dec. 14 will be a stand out performance for Whitehead, but this weekend was rough and Whitehead did not look right.
So, moral of the story is no Husky fans, you are not wrong to feel sour about this weekend, and, no, you are not wrong to feel concerned about Cameron Whitehead. There are many concerns to be had – the goaltending, the penalty killing, and more. Maybe, I am a pessimist, but I am for sure upset and concerned, even with the win on Saturday. So, it will continue to be on the team to pile up wins, however they come, and the next test is the close of the first semester against Merrimack.
Northeastern will return to the ice on Saturday, Dec. 14 with a 6 p.m. contest against Merrimack in North Andover. Written coverage will be provided on our website following the game.