http://www.nunews.neu.edu/nu-news/Issues/011200/s3.html
Crowder exorcises demons
Jozefowicz’s overtime goal gives coach victory over ex-team
By Mike Trocchi
News Staff
01/12/00
The Huskies proved on Friday night that if you knock on the door hard and long
enough, it will come crashing down.
With a 2-1 overtime win over UMass-Lowell, the Northeastern men’s hockey team
exorcised some 2-year-old demons against the RiverHawks. The Huskies were 1-8-1
against Lowell since the 1998 Hockey East quarterfinals.
But when junior Mike Jozefowicz fired the winning goal home with 1:11 left in
overtime, Northeastern (9-8-2, 5-4-2 Hockey East) started a crucial stretch in
fine fashion.
“This is like the meat and potatoes of the season,” co-captain Roger Holeczy
said.
NU came into the game without its top scorer Todd Barclay, who is sidelined six
to eight weeks with a broken shoulder blade. And the lack of offensive punch
showed early.
Lowell held the Huskies scoreless into the third period before forward Graig
Mischler ended a scoreless streak that started against Ferris State and lasted
more than 105 minutes. Mischler’s was an improbable goal off a feed from
Jozefowicz that Mischler dove for and tapped past Lowell goalie Cam McCormick at
5:35 of the third.
“It was a broken-up play. It was going slow enough that I could dive for it,”
Mischler said.
Northeastern then proceeded to dominate Lowell, peppering McCormack and
outshooting the RiverHawks in the third period by a 25-8 margin.
Both teams traded chances back and forth in the overtime before senior Billy
Newson found Jozefowicz for the game-winner.
“I liked our effort,” Northeastern coach Bruce Crowder said. “We’re a team that
needs to get a lot of shots on the net to score one or two.”
Crowder, a former Lowell coach before signing with NU in the summer of 1996, is
4-10-1 against his former team. That has made these two teams somewhat hot
rivals the past few seasons and that was evident as sophomore Willie Levesque
and Lowell’s Chris Bertram mixed it up in two heated scuffles on Friday.
For a change, the rivalry ended with a Northeastern KO.
“It’s just like typical Hockey East,” Crowder said. “It could have been
anybody’s game.”
But the experience and improved talent puts NU in the upper echelon of the
conference and in a battle for third place behind New Hampshire and Boston
University.
“We have a tough time with Lowell,” Jozefowicz said. “But it was great to do it
at home.”
The Huskies are 8-1 at Matthews Arena this season. They’re currently ranked No.
16 in the latest US College Hockey Online Poll and are eyeing the top 10.
“We try not to [think about rankings],” Mischler said. “We know where we want to
be, where we should be. We definitely want to be in the top 10.”
After the win, Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” played in the locker room, a
tradition that is building among players, even though some admit it’s not their
favorite tune.
“It’s good luck,” Jozefowicz said.
The Huskies play a home-and-home series with UMass-Amherst this weekend. The
Minuteman currently reside in eighth place in Hockey East, but are coming off
two wins over Providence last weekend. NU hosts Amherst on Friday and heads to
western Massachusetts on Saturday.
Mischler hopes the team keeps up the momentum from the overtime against Lowell.
“We had a no-die attitude,” he said.
It’s an attitude that will be needed if the Huskies want to see themselves in
the national polls.
