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Kraemer shines, Huskies split weekend series

Friday - Kyle Kraemer scored his first of the year on his 23rd birthday, snapping a season long drought and sending the Matthews Arena crowd into a frenzy. Congrats Kraemer, get a couple more from here on out! Along with his goal, Kraemer put a game-high six shots on net after being placed on the wing with Wade MacLeod and Joe Vitale (assist). He was robbed a few times prior to his goal but being on the first line seemed to rejuvenate him and he showed it with his performance.

Brad Thiessen earned his fourteenth win of the season with twenty-eight saves despite giving up a ’soft’ goal to Marc Concannon. David Strathman tied the game 1-1 with a well-deserved goal. Strathman received a pass from Daniel Nycholat (two assists) and deked past a UMass player that had lost his stick. After getting by the defender, Strathman unleashed a wrister that blew past goaltender Paul Dainton (33 saves) for his second goal of the year.

Strathman proceeded to celebrate his goal in typical Strathman-fashion: he pointed to the crowd and then threw himself onto the boards with his arms outstretched. The defense really started this game well. They came out shooting and tested Dainton early. I can’t remember the last time I saw our D-men firing the puck on goal that often, if ever.

It was great to see Northeastern come out on top against Massachusetts for the second consecutive game. These Hockey East points are going to come in handy as the season winds down. By winning the last three Hockey East matchups, Northeastern has put themselves in good position compared to recent seasons. After the Friday win, NU currently sits in a three-way tie for 2nd place with Boston College and Providence.

Saturday - Well, another no effort game for the Huskies but thankfully we didn’t suffer in the standings as the teams right behind Northeastern didn’t fare too well either. The Huskies dropped to third place with just six games to go before the playoffs. The race for home ice is on!

Back at their Mullins Center home (a tough place for opponents to play), the Minutemen came out strong and put the game’s first seven shots on net and came away with an early 2-0 lead behind two goals from Alex Berry. Berry let one rip from the right hand circle that beat Thiessen glove side (Thiessen needs to work on his angles because he keeps getting beat on the sides) and chipped in a powerplay goal from the top of the crease later in the period for his second goal of the game.

In the third period, P.J. Fenton extended the Mass Attack lead to three goals when he received a nifty pass from James Marcou on a 2-on-1 and fired it top shelf past Brad Thiessen. Thiessen- despite giving up three goals- came away with thirty saves while his counterpart, Paul Dainton, stopped thirty out of thirty-one shots.

Northeastern did cut the deficit to two goals late in the third period behind Kyle Kraemer’s second goal of the weekend. Kraemer recovered from allowing the puck to leave the offensive zone by gathering the puck and taking it to the top of the circle to beat Paul Dainton.

Several close calls came for Northeastern in the third period but they were unable to capitalize on the opportunities. The biggest scoring opportunities came when Tyler McNeely was unable to score on a penalty shot and Dennis McCauley came a half-inch from scoring. McCauley had fired the puck on net and after Dainton made the intial save, the puck trickled through his legs towards the goal line. A heads-up last-ditch effort from Dainton prevented the disc from crossing the goal line.

If one penalty shot wasn’t rare enough for the crowd to witness, Cory Quirk from UMass-Amherst was awarded the second penalty shot of the game but failed to score as well.

It was a disappointing loss tonight but if our recent track record proves correct, then Northeastern ought to win their next game. The No. 15 Huskies have alternated wins and losses since beating Massachusetts back on February 1st.

Congratulations to the Northeastern Men’s basketball team for earning their fifth straight win of the season. The win over Hofstra brought Northeastern back to .500 overall at 12-12. The hoops Huskies sport a CAA conference record of 8-6, good enough for fifth place and four games out of first.

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 17th, 2008 at 12:04 am and is filed under David Strathman, Paul Dainton, The Doghouse, Massachusetts Minutemen, Mullins Center, CAA, NU Men's Basketball, Marc Concannon, Alex Berry, James Marcou, Hofstra, Colonial Athletic Association, Daniel Nycholat, Northeastern Huskies, Matthews Arena, 2007-2008, Hockey East, Northeastern Hockey, General Links, Wade Macleod, Tyler McNeely, Joe Vitale, Kyle Kraemer, Brad Thiessen, NCAA Hockey, Doghouse Articles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.