The recipe to Northeastern’s success in last weekend’s Hockey East quarterfinal series sweep of Maine was rather simple.
“Opportunistic scoring and excellent goaltending won today and in the series,” Huskies head coach Jim Madigan said after his Huskies earned a second consecutive 2-1 victory over the Black Bears to advance to TD Garden and the league semifinals for the third time in four years.
While it took Reading, Mass., native Austin Goldstein’s first goal of the season to win Friday night’s game in overtime and two goals on only 17 shots the following night, the Huskies’ true most important player to date this postseason has been goaltender Cayden Primeau.
The sophomore from Voorhees, N.J., stopped 74 of the 76 shots he faced against the Black Bears, which is good for the second-best postseason save percentage (.974) in the country and tops in Hockey East. Only Notre Dame’s Cale Morris ranks higher nationally as he has allowed only one goal through three Big Ten playoff games.
“I feel really good, but that obviously comes from the confidence that I get from the team,” said Primeau, whose team blocked 53 shots in front of him over the course of the two games last weekend, Northeastern’s two highest totals of the season. “When everyone is blocking shots, buying in, and doing the little things in the defensive zone, it's huge and makes stopping the puck a little bit easier for me.”
Primeau stopped 41 shots during Friday’s series opener, including five in overtime, and then finished the series with a 33-save effort. Two of Primeau’s four 40-save efforts have come in the last four games, and his 23 wins in 33 decisions (23-9-1) put him second in Northeastern’s single-season ranks.
It’s hard for the Huskies not to have confidence with No. 31 between the pipes, especially at this critical juncture of the season.
“We play the game knowing that we can take some chances because we have a guy who is going to stop the puck back there,” said Madigan. “I think any team that has a good goalie does that. Maine does that because they have a very good goaltender (in Bruins prospect Jeremy Swayman). Boston College, Boston University have that (with Joseph Woll and Jake Oettinger). I think all of us do it because we know if we mess up, he can cover for us.”
Primeau put Most Valuable Player honors on his resume after the Huskies won their second straight Beanpot title last month, and he hopes to add even more milestones as the Huskies play at TD Garden this weekend and likely beyond. But every game feels the same.
“I try not to look at bigger games as if it’s a bigger game. I try to approach every game the same,” said Primeau, whose Friday save total was four off his season-high mark. “I just try to go out here and do my job, which is give the team the best opportunity to win.”
The locals
Only four of the top-30 scorers in Hockey East play this season hail from Massachusetts.
That mark continues a downward trend that has spanned for the last few seasons as there were five last season and seven in 2016-17. Only Northeastern’s Adam Gaudette (Braintree, Mass.) ranked that high in both seasons before signing with the Vancouver Canucks following his Hobey Baker Award-winning junior campaign.
As NEHJ’s Jeff Cox tweeted on Monday, the league’s top four scorers from Massachusetts this winter ― UMass sophomore John Leonard (Amherst), New Hampshire senior Ara Nazarian (Boxford), UMass Lowell sophomore Connor Sodergren (Tewksbury), and Northeastern senior Liam Pecararo (Canton) ― exemplify the varying youth hockey paths to the college level:
Leonard, the No. 3 scorer in the entire league with 29 points in 23 games, and Nazarian played high school hockey at Springfield Cathedral and Malden Catholic, respectively. Sodergren had a four-year prep career at St. Paul’s, and Pecararo played midget hockey with Boston Advantage. In addition, all four played at least two years in the USHL or BCHL.
In the ECAC, defenseman Jack Rathbone (West Roxbury) played at Dexter School prior to his freshman year at Harvard, and Dartmouth sophomore Quin Foreman (Needham) also played for Boston Advantage. Army West Point senior defenseman Dalton MacAfee of Needham and St. Sebastian’s School is the lone Bay State native among Atlantic Hockey’s top-30 scorers.
Upset special
For the first time since 2012-13, Brown will be among the final four ECAC teams alive in Lake Placid, N.Y., after improving to 4-0 on the postseason. The Bears pulled a road upset of then-No. 5 Quinnipiac in sweeping fashion, 2-1 and 4-3. Quinnipiac is locked into an NCAA tournament spot, but three of their nine overall losses have come against the Bears.
Junior Brent Beaudoin (Londonderry, N.H.) extended his career-high point total to 19 after scoring goals in both of this past weekend’s games, while Gavin Nieto stopped 53 of the 57 shots he faced. Beaudoin has netted six of his eight goals and added eight assists in a 15-game span since Jan. 25. A team-leading five points have come during the ongoing postseason run.
Current Calgary Flames forward Garnet Hathaway (Kennebunkport, Maine) was a junior on Brown’s last team to qualify for the ECAC semifinals. Then-sophomore Matt Lorito led that team with 37 points in 36 games, including 22 goals to rank second in the ECAC.
Yellow Jacket first
American International advanced to the Atlantic Hockey semifinals for the first time in program history after earning a three-game series victory over Army West Point over the weekend at MassMutual Center. Also the first-time regular-season champions, the Yellow Jackets moved onto Buffalo thanks to a 4-1 win in the series finale.
Junior Zackarias Skog made 33 saves in Sunday’s win, becoming the winningest goaltender over a single season in program history. Skog passed Mark Buckley’s mark set in 1987-88 with his 17th victory of the season, four of which have come against the Cadets.
Blake Christensen continued his record-setting offensive season with a pair of goals in the series-clinching game. The junior from Coral Springs, Fla., now has 44 points on the year, which extends his program-record mark over a Division 1 season.
Going the distance
Boston College and Boston University needed three games to win their respective Hockey East series at Providence and UMass Lowell last weekend, marking the first time since 2015 that more than one set in the quarterfinals went the distance. That year was also the last time two lower-seeded teams ― No. 7 Vermont and No. 8 New Hampshire ― won series and played in the semifinals at TD Garden.
In contrast, the entirety of last season’s quarterfinal round was completed without the need for a third game in any of the four sets. The top four seeds all advanced to the Garden where the No. 4 Terriers beat No. 3 Providence to win the title.
Needing overtime
Three of the four Hockey East quarterfinal series needed overtime to decide at least one game for the first time since 2010. That feat was achieved on Friday night as UMass, Providence, and Northeastern ― the top three seeds ― all played beyond regulation in victories.
The Minutemen played 5:52 into a second extra session before sophomore Mitchell Chaffee scored the team’s fifth and deciding goal against the Wildcats. Chaffee’s goal ended the first double-overtime Hockey East quarterfinal contest since current Edmonton Oilers winger Alex Chiasson scored in then-No. 3 BU’s deciding 5-4 victory back in 2012, also against UNH.
UMass is set to play at the Garden for the first time since 2007 and only the fourth time in program history. Like neighbor AIC, the Minutemen won the conference regular-season title for the first time ever.
Loose pucks
— BU will be playing in the Hockey East semis for the 15th time in 18 years and becomes the first program in league history to do so 25 times. In addition, Albie O’Connell is the first first-year head coach to take his team to the Garden since UMass Lowell’s Tim Whitehead in 1997.
— Behind consecutive game-winning goals from sophomore Logan Hutsko this past weekend at Providence, BC joins the Friars (2012) and Vermont (2015) as the only No. 7 seeds to compete as Hockey East semifinalists. Senior defenseman Michael Kim and freshman Marc McLaughlin (North Billerica, Mass.) also scored twice apiece during the set.
— Junior defenseman Adam Fox leads Harvard with 46 points, matching Mark Fusco’s single-season record for points by a Crimson defenseman set back in 1983. The Jericho, N.Y., native has 13 multi-point games this season, including both in last weekend’s sweep for a 1-5-6 total line against Dartmouth.
— Yale’s hockey history of well over a century in length includes only one player to lead the Bulldogs in scoring for four consecutive seasons: senior Joe Snively. The Herndon, Va., native signed a two-year, entry-level contract beginning next season with the Washington Capitals after his 36-point campaign ended this past weekend at Clarkson.
— Bentley ended one of its best Atlantic Hockey seasons ever with a three-game series loss to Robert Morris in Waltham, Mass., with all three games decided by a single goal. Freshman Jakov Novak scored three goals in the series, including two in Friday’s 3-2 win, but the Colonials scored 16:04 into overtime to earn a 3-2 win and clinch the series on Sunday.
