BOSTON -- Entering this Hockey East season, there were doubters.
“How would Northeastern replace Adam Gaudette, Dylan Sikura, and Nolan Stevens?”
It’s a question that eighth-year head coach Jim Madigan had to answer quite a bit when the puck dropped back in October. It was a valid one as Gaudette and Sikura have seen significant time in the National Hockey League since Michigan ended the Huskies’ season in Worcester, Mass., last March.
All the Huskies have done since is set a single-season program record with 27 victories, including Saturday’s 3-2 triumph over Boston College at TD Garden that propelled them to a Hockey East championship for the third time ever and second in four years.
Though the roster was constructed a bit differently at season’s beginning, the results were there almost all the way through. The Huskies were 12-3-1 at the turn of the calendar and overcame a 2-5 stretch to win their second consecutive Beanpot.
Northeastern will enter the NCAA tournament with 11 wins in its last 12 games since downing the Eagles for its first of, so far, two championship victories on Feb. 11.
“We started the season with everyone questioning whether or not we were going to have a good team,” Madigan said. “These young men just worked hard each and every day. They came to the rink wanting to get better. … For them to go out there tonight and compete for a championship, my hat’s off to them. I’m so proud.”
One thing that hasn’t changed? Sophomore Cayden Primeau has been the rock all year long. Saturday’s 38-save effort moved the Voorhees, N.J., native’s save percentage to a sparkling .936 for the season and gave him Most Valuable Player honors for the tournament. For this postseason run, Primeau’s .966 mark is tied for the fifth-highest in Hockey East history.
The gaudy offensive numbers that Gaudette, Sikura, and Stevens put up last season were nearly unmatched in all of college hockey, but the Huskies had plenty of returning talent that probably got undervalued with that “Big Three” present.
Juniors Jeremy Davies quarterbacked the Huskies defense en route to a second consecutive All-Hockey East First Team honor, while Milton, Mass., native Ryan Shea blossomed into another one of the league’s top defensemen. Shea finished the weekend with a plus-24 rating that ranks behind only the UMass pair of sophomore Cale Makar and freshman Marc Del Gaizo for best among Hockey East blueliners.
Whether or not the pro careers of those players will begin following this postseason run remains to be seen, but among others the Huskies also have a rising star back there in Haverhill, Mass., native Jordan Harris, whose responsible two-way game has allowed him to make an immediate impact in the lineup.
Six players have scored 10 or more goals. Senior Brandon Hawkins eclipsed that mark with two goals (and three total points) in the first period of Saturday’s title win, while sophomore Zach Solow lifted his team-leading mark to 15 with the game-winner in the semifinal against Boston University. In total, 13 different Huskies have at least 12 points to their name.
The description of a “one-line team” often fit for the the Huskies a year ago, but that has turned right around this year.
“The two guys to my left (Hawkins and Primeau) had a great game and were big parts of tonight’s win,” Madigan said, “but so weren’t 20 other guys in that locker room. …
“We are a different team, but we still had good players. We were returning a First Team All-Hockey East and a First Team All-American in Primeau and Davies, Shea, and (captain Eric) Williams. We knew our offense was going to be spread out and we did that. There were times this year when we didn’t score as much as we’d like, but we have a goalie who can keep us in every game and five or six defensemen who know how to defend. There’s just a confidence with this group. They don’t really get rattled.”
Confidence goes a long way at this time of the year, and the Huskies’ ability to rise to the occasion — as evidenced by winning twice in overtime during the postseason and having scored 57 of their 114 goals this season in either the third or overtime — plays a key role in their continued success as well.
Before 2016, the Huskies had not won a Hockey East title (or Beanpot) since 1988. The trophies are returning Huntington Avenue in fast and furious fashion now as Madigan’s club has won two of the last four Hockey East titles and back-to-back Beanpots. Northeastern will now play in the national tournament for the third time in four years.
New-look roster or not, that was all part of the plan entering this year.
“We put a set of goals in front of us when the season started — the Beanpot, Hockey East, and then a national title,” said Hawkins, a Bowling Green transfer from Macomb Township, Mich. “When we bring home hardware like that, it just a showing of how good our club is and how much we've come together in the past year.”
There is plenty to like about how the Huskies have played and the roll on which they enter the tournament, but Madigan believes there are still rungs on the ladder for this team to climb. BC took control of Saturday’s second period and pinned the Huskies in their own zone for stretches, though Primeau held the fort for a third-period shutout.
Leaders from the Huskies’ recent past like the aforementioned “Big Three,” Anaheim Ducks teammates Kevin Roy and Josh Manson, Pittsburgh Penguin Zach Aston-Reese, and others have helped to elevate this program. There’s another step to make.
“I think we all thought we left something on the table last year, quite frankly,” Madigan said. “We’ve got to win games in the tournament to bring our program to the next level.”
“I still think we can be cleaner in our own zone and sustain the forecheck a little bit more consistently. That’s a good thing for our club. We’re still going to push them more to get to that point. … We’re all striving for that perfect game, and I think we can get better in those areas.”
