It took four years, 10 months, 22 days and, oh, say 22 hours, but New Hampshire finally notched its 27th all-time road victory over the Northeastern Huskies.<\/p>\n
Powered by three second-period goals, all scored by freshmen, the fourth-ranked Wildcats earned a 3-2 victory in front of 3,826 rambunctious fans at NU’s Matthews Arena Friday night, erasing a six-game winless streak at the 93-year-old grounds.<\/p>\n
“It’s just another hockey game,” said All-American netminder Michael Ayers (34 saves). “It’s obviously a tough building to play in, and we haven’t had much success here, but we were bound to overcome it at some point.”<\/p>\n
Freshman Jacob Micflikier, who potted the winning goal at the 10:24 mark of the second frame, opened his collegiate career with something it took Ayers four years to do: win at Matthews Arena.<\/p>\n
“I was talking to [Patrick Foley] about where I was in ’99,” he said of the last UNH victory at Matthews — on Jan. 29, 1999. “I was trying to figure out if I was in eighth or ninth grade, it was something like that. It was a few years ago, but this was big for us.<\/p>\n
“We [the freshmen] didn’t talk about [the streak] too much, I heard rumors here and there, but it’s not something you want to bring up too much because then it gets in your heads,” he added.<\/p>\n
Micflikier’s tally came on a Kodak-worthy feed from junior Sean Collins. The left wing shot a pass from the right boards to a crashing and untouched Micflikier, whose one-timer easily beat Husky goalie Keni Gibson (27 saves) on his backside.<\/p>\n
“We came off a quick change,” the 5-8, 175-pound Micflikier said. “Mick Mounsey got it up to Sean, and Sean got it into the zone. I just went to the net hard and he put a perfect pass on my stick. I didn’t have to do too much. It was pretty easy for me, I could’ve skated it right into the net. He makes it easy.”<\/p>\n
For Northeastern, the loss continues an ugly streak of its own. NU is now winless in each of its nine contests this year, going 0-7-2 to further the worst start in the 72-year history of the program.<\/p>\n
“These guys aren’t getting a whole lot of positives for their effort, but my thing for them is to keep telling them that they’re a good hockey team,” NU coach Bruce Crowder said. “They’re getting a little sick of hearing us say that, but right now, we’re a good hockey team and we look good, we just have to keep battling the battle and fighting the fight.”<\/p>\n
Wildcat coach Dick Umile wasn’t surprised at how tough it was to earn the victory.<\/p>\n
“It’s a good win for us, Bruce has his team playing well,” he said. “There’s a real fine line between winning and losing in this league. Those guys play as hard as anyone in the league. That’s a good hockey team.”<\/p>\n
After giving up the first score for the fourth consecutive game and entering the first intermission staring at a two-goal deficit, UNH (7-2-1, 4-1-1) rattled off three goals in the opening ten minutes of the second period.<\/p>\n
“We didn’t play great in the first period, but the guys came back in the second,” Umile said. “I think our guys battled back and found a way to win the hockey game. We couldn’t match them [in intensity] in the first period, you’ve got to give them credit.”<\/p>\n
Freshman Daniel Winnik opened the second period scoring just a minute and a half into the frame, taking a power-play pass from Tim Horst and burying a wrist shot over Gibson’s right shoulder from 10 feet out.<\/p>\n
Three minutes later, freshman Brett Hemingway knocked a Justin Aikins pass between the legs of Gibson to knot the score at two.<\/p>\n
They were the first collegiate goals for both Winnik and Hemingway, and two of nine UNH shots in the middle period.<\/p>\n
Northeastern began scoring 11 minutes into the contest, when junior Jaron Herriman notched his first goal of the year after a scrum in front of Ayers on the power play.<\/p>\n
Three minutes later, sophomore Brian Swiniarski allotted the Huskies a two-goal lead by deflecting a Tim Judy shot past a helpless Ayers for his team-leading sixth goal of the year.<\/p>\n
Northeastern recorded 15 shots in the third period, in part thanks to two power plays in the final five minutes of the game, which included a 17-second span in which the Huskies had a two-man advantage.<\/p>\n
“I thought that we came out of the chute extremely well,” Crowder said. “I’d be disappointed if we didn’t come out that hard, given the circumstances, and I think the second period kind of took us out of it a little bit. I thought we came back and played extremely well in the third period, and had some great chances at the end.”<\/p>\n
Chippy play led to a total of 21 penalties, including three separate instances in which matching minors were dished out. The teams will meet again on Saturday in Durham, N.H.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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