FIRST PLACE WILDCATS CONTINUE QUEST FOR CHAMPIONSHIP
The Wildcats continue their quest for the Hockey East regular season title this weekend with a home-and-home series with Northeastern. On Friday the teams face off at the always hard to play at Matthews Arena, then travel to the Whittemore Center for the Saturday night tilt. Both games start at 7:00 PM.
After Boston College’s 7-0 thrashing of Merrimack on Tuesday, the ‘Cats are just two points ahead of the Eagles, but now with a game in hand. With a season ending series against BC looming next week, the Wildcat’s simplest road to the championship is to win their last four, starting this weekend.
However, it won’t be easy for UNH to get by the red-hot Huskies. As late as 
February 11, NU was mired in eighth place, an especially embarrassing position considering that last season they held first place until the last weekend, finished second, and secured their first bid to the NCAA tournament in 15 years. But beginning with a split at Vermont in mid-January, Northeastern has reeled off 8 wins in their last 11 games and have climbed up to fifth, just a point behind fourth place Boston University.
The Huskies are led up front by their first line of senior Kyle Kraemer (right) (13-11-24), junior Tyler McNeely (11-13-24), and freshman Justin Daniels (6-4-10), which has scored 13 goals in the last 11 games. If it wasn’t for Merrimack sensation Stephane Da Costa, freshman Garrett Vermeersch (5-15-20) would no doubt be in line for the Hockey East Rookie of the Year Award.
Senior David Strathman (4-7-11) anchors the defense, aided this year by freshman Jake Newton (7-11-18), who is the fifth leading scorer on the team. Another freshman, Chris Rawlings, has started most of the games in goal and sports a more than respectable 15-11-1 record, 2.70 goals against average, and .917 save percentage.
UNH owns an 85-57-11 all-time record against Northeastern, with Coach Umile holding a 40-15-9 advantage in his 20 year career. In their only meeting this season, the Wildcats took a 4-2 victory over the Huskies on October 23 at the Whittemore Center. In that game Dalton Speelman scored the first two goals of his UNH career and Blake Kessel added three assists as the ‘Cats limited NU to 16 shots. Captains Bobby Butler (left) (2 goals, 7 assists) and Peter LeBlanc (3 goals, 5 assists) are UNH’s leading career scorers vs. the Huskies. Brian Foster is 2-1-0 against Northeastern, with a 2.34 goals against average and .913 save percentage.
Photos courtesy of Josh Gibney & Northeastern Media Relations
