Three non-conference wins in December are no help to Vermont’s struggles in Hockey East play thus far. The Catamounts enter 2019 at the bottom of the standings with a 1-6-1 league record, but their current run ― though part of a stretch of six consecutive non-conference games ― is one that can generate momentum for the second half of the season.
Vermont broke for exams and the holidays after taking a 2-1 win at Colorado College back on Dec. 8 and then carried those good fortunes into this semester, defeating Alabama Huntsville and Rensselaer to claim the team’s first Catamount Cup championship since 2015-16.
Northeastern completed a sweep of the same opponents to run the nation’s longest winning streak to eight games, but the hosts’ plus-5 goal differential over the 4-1 and 4-2 wins gave them their own tournament title for the seventh time under 16th-year head coach Kevin Sneddon.
Junior Stefanos Lekkas continued his stellar season in net with a nod to the Catamount Cup All-Tournament Team after making 46 saves over the weekend. He surpassed the 30-save mark for the eighth time this season with 32 against RPI. The Illinois native is tied for third in the country with his .936 save percentage and now ranks fifth in UVM history with 2,413 stops.
The Catamounts would surely be in an even deeper hole if not for Lekkas, but they were able to break out for one of their best offensive showings of the season after scoring more than three goals just twice through their first 14 games.
Senior Craig Puffer (New Canaan, Conn.) was a key part of the Vermont attack, registering two assists in each of the wins. Puffer reached the 50-point mark for his career with that effort and now stands in a tie for the team lead with 10 points on the season, matching a Kent School product in sophomore Max Kaufman.
Coaching congrats
As mentioned in the lead to yesterday’s Top 10, two New England coaches reached career coaching milestones on Saturday. Quinnipiac’s Rand Pecknold earned his 500th victory as the Bobcats defeated Colgate, 6-0, while Providence’s 3-1 win over Brown marked Nate Leaman’s 300th behind the bench.
The Bedford, N.H., native Pecknold joins Boston College’s Jerry York and Mercyhurst’s Rick Gotkin as the only active Division 1 coaches with 500 or more victories. A 19-save effort from junior Andrew Shortridge helped Pecknold become the 17th-ever coach to reach that career mark, doing so over 24-plus seasons at the same school.
Leaman is the 46th coach in Division 1 history to reach the 300-win mark. Each of his last five Friar teams have won at least 20 games, and this year’s has already banked 11 wins.
Also that night, Chase Priskie became the fourth-ever defenseman to record 100 points in a Quinnipiac career, while Hayden Hawkey won his 100th career appearance in the Friars net.
Meet the new guys
Mid-season additions to local Division 1 rosters continue as the second half gets underway…
Cam Boudreau (Salem, N.H.) made his first appearance on the Quinnipiac blue line against Colgate. He becomes the fourth former Boston Junior Bruins captain to play for the Bobcats, joining current freshman Guus van Nes, 2018 graduate Kevin McKernan (Millbury, Mass.), and 2015 graduate Danny Federico (Acton, Mass.).
On Wednesday, UMass announced the addition of defenseman Ryan Bliss (Chelmsford, Mass.) as a graduate transfer. Bliss spent the 2014-16 seasons at Cornell before being injured and will be eligible to compete immediately in Amherst. He is a product of USA Hockey’s National Team Development Program.
Additionally, former St. Lawrence defenseman Ben Finkelstein (South Burlington, Vt.) has officially been added to the Boston College roster. He will be eligible to take the ice on Jan. 11 against Providence.
Hello, old friend
The Catamount Cup featured a unique reunion as Alabama Huntsville goaltender Jake Theut got the start against his former Northeastern team on Saturday. Theut made 41 saves in UAH’s 2-0 loss to former teammate Ryan Ruck and the Huskies, including 18 in the third period.
After completing his junior career with the EHL’s New Hampshire Junior Monarchs, the Washington, Mich., native spent 2014-18 with the Huskies before using his final year of NCAA eligibility as a graduate student in Huntsville. He was a member of Northeastern’s Hockey East and Beanpot title-winning clubs in 2016 and 2018, respectively.
Theut, who appeared in four games at Northeastern, made 21 saves for his first collegiate victory on Dec. 8 at Bemidji State. He has tended goal seven times for the Chargers this season, making at least 40 stops in four of them.
Loose pucks
― Northeastern’s two World Junior Championship representatives played a big role in Team USA’s final game of the preliminary round in Victoria, B.C., which was a 4-1 win over Finland. Freshman Tyler Madden was named Player of the Game after scoring two goals, while sophomore Cayden Primeau made 27 saves in his second start of the tournament.
― UConn snapped a seven-game losing streak with the Huskies’ first win in 14 all-time meetings with Yale, 3-1. Junior Adam Huska tied his career-high with 39 saves in the Monday affair, while classmate Benjamin Freeman (Falmouth, Maine) scored the game-winning goal with 10:08 remaining in regulation.
― On the flip side, New Hampshire made it three straight wins, 4-1-2 in its last seven games, and denied Bentley its second triumph against a Hockey East foe this season in a 4-3 Sunday game at Whittemore Center. Angus Crookshank had a goal and an assist en route to his second Hockey East Rookie of the Week honor this winter.
― American International set a new program record with its fifth consecutive win on Saturday before splitting a home series with Robert Morris. Sophomore Blake Christensen had three assists in the 4-3 triumph, tying Bentley’s Luke Santerno for the Atlantic Hockey lead with 12 helpers in league games.
― Dartmouth senior Alex Jasiek doubled his point total for the season with three during this past weekend’s Ledyard National Bank Classic. The St. Louis native scored against Army West Point and Providence in addition to assisting on sophomore Quin Foreman’s (Needham, Mass.) game-winning goal in the opening contest.
