Northeastern Edges BU

MacLeod nets game-winner, Rawlings saves 43 for Huskies
By Chris Aliano


The Boston University men's ice hockey team had not dropped a decision against Northeastern at Matthews Arena since November of 2007.  That came to an end Friday night.

With both teams scoreless in the third period, Northeastern junior Wade MacLeod took a pass from Mike Hewkin found the back of the net with 7:29 to play, propelling the Huskies (3-3-0, 1-2-0 HEA) to a hard-fought 1-0 victory in front of a sold out crowd at the newly renovated Matthews Arena.  On the other end, freshman goaltender Chris Rawlings stopped a remarkable 43 shots in preserving the Huskies' win, their first against Boston University (2-4-0, 1-3-0 HEA) since February of 2007.

At 11:37 in the third period, freshman forward Alex Chiasson was sent to the box for a controversial interference call.  Exactly one minute later, MacLeod got the puck by sophomore netminder Kieran Millan, giving the Northeastern the only goal it would need to secure the win.

"From the opening faceoff to the last second I thought it was an unbelievably great college hockey game," BU head coach Jack Parker said afterward.  "I thought we played as well as we did all year."

Despite the array of injuries that have plagued the Terriers early on this season, they were able to fire off 43 shots on net and limited the Huskies to just 20.  Freshman defenseman Ben Rosen made his first career start, filling in for reigning Hockey East Player of the Week David Warsofsky, who missed the contest with a hip-flexor injury.

Parker took pride in the play of the defense afterward.

"I thought he played well, poised with the puck, well defensively," he said.  "I thought [Kevin] Shattenkirk and [Colby] Cohen played their best games in the year.  Colby made a couple unbelievable passes, I don’t know how people didn’t put it in for him.  He made some unreal passes to set guys up right at the doorstep."

Still, the story of the night was Rawlings, who recorded NU's first shutout against the Terriers since former Huskies phenom Brad Thiessen kept BU off the board two years ago.

"I thought he played cool, calm and collectively," Parker said.  "He played real well, that’s the reason why they won."

The culmination of Rawlings' efforts came with under five minutes to play in the game.  Northeastern's Mike Hewkin was sent off with a game misconduct after delivering a big hit from behind to Chiasson.  Facing a five-minute major penalty that would have the Terriers up a man through the remainder of regulation, Rawlings was at his best.  The Terriers peppered him with shot after shot, but the freshman stood tall--even when a loose puck trickled behind Rawlings undetected, sitting precariously close to the goal line--to preserve the win.

"He’s starting to get into a rhythm psychologically," Northeastern head coach Greg Cronin said afterward.  "I thought he did a terrific job."

Rawlings made his collegiate debut a month ago in Colorado Springs against the Tigers of Colorado College.  According to Cronin after that game, Rawlings was so nervous that his teammates had to turn him around to face the right direction when the national anthem was being played.  As if things could get any worse, Rawlings proceeded to let the first shot on goal get by him--a hapless slapper from well beyond the blue line, 60 feet away according to Cronin.

Despite that effort, Rawlings went on to make 33 saves while allowing four goals in the season-opening loss, but picked up his first win the next night against the same team.  He continued to build his confidence in a win against Bentley, but saw his progress go by the wayside in a 4-2 drubbing at New Hampshire.  Rawlings allowed four goals for the second time of the young season despite stopping 30 shots.  After losing one night later to UMass-Lowell, Rawlings and the rest of the team were idle Halloween weekend.  That extra time off proved to be beneficial, as Rawlings came away with the biggest outing of his young career.

"He doesn’t get too high, he doesn’t get too low, which is perfect for a goalie," Cronin said.  "He keeps it even the whole time, and the more games he gets he’s going to get better and better and better."

“I’ve never experienced anything like this in my life," Rawlings said afterward.  "It’s an unbelievable feeling."

"The challenge going forward now is getting some identity out of our skaters," he said.

That outstanding effort proved to be too much for the Terriers to overcome.  Despite numerous chances, including 19 shots in the second period, BU was unable to get one by Rawlings.  The Terriers played well on the power play, amassing 19 shots in seven extra-man opportunities, but were stymied each time.  Still, Parker took pride in his team's effort, saying if his team "come ready to play like that every night, we’ll be happy."

We came with a lot of focus, a lot of intensity…all of the things we measure our team by," Parker said.  "I’ll be very happy if we continue playing [the way we did tonight]."

Playing in front of the sold out, overflow crowd inside the hostile confines of Matthews, the Terriers appeared more poised than the home team, something that Cronin was puzzled at but attributed to the youth in his team's lineup.

"We looked nervous [in front of our crowd]," Cronin said.  "We had a lot of veterans last year and they fed off the energy.  Some of these guys aren’t used to that."

"BU played the game on their toes and we played on our heels for the most part," Cronin said.

The Terriers next take to the ice Sunday afternoon on the road against Maine.  Puck drop is set for 4 p.m.  Stay tuned to WTBU Sports for continuing coverage of everything BU hockey all season long.

Notes and Notables
The Terriers bounced back from an abysmal showing in the faceoff category, when they went 19-41 on the draw against UML last Saturday in a 3-2 loss; BU went 39-30 in faceoffs Friday night...Chris Connolly led BU with eight shots on goal...

Tristan Hobbes contributed to this article.