Graig Mischler's first collegiate two-goal effort, combined with a stellar 34-save effort by netminder Jason Braun, steered the Northeastern hockey team to a 4-1 Hockey East victory over Boston University last night at Matthews Arena.
"The weren't the prettiest goals I've scored, but they came from hard work and two guys on my line (Mike Ryan and Scott Selig) that worked their butts off and tonight I was getting the bounces," said Mischler, a senior who led the Huskies in scoring with 23 points last year. He has nearly half that total (11) already in eight games this season.
There were plenty of heroes for NU, including Mischler, Braun, and junior defenseman Joe Mancuso of Westwood, who entered the game with only two career points (both on assists). Mancuso drew helpers on three of the Huskies' four tallies.
And then there was a senior center Sean MacDonald, whose last goal came two years and 51 games ago, way back on Nov. 13, 1998, against Boston College. MacDonald ended the drought last night against the Terriers.
"It's been a little frustrating," admitted MacDonald, who has eight goals in 98 career outings. "I keep on playing and hope for the best."
NU coach Bruce Crowder, whose skaters blocked 18 BU shots, has been waiting for the Huskies (5-2-1, 2-1-1 Hockey East) to step up.
"I think it's a little bit maturity and I think it's a little bit of the kids wanting to make some noise this year," Crowder said.
BU (2-4-1, 1-3-1) took a 1-0 lead on the lone goal of the first period. While on a power play, junior center Dan Cavanaugh stickhandled clear and fed the puck across the slot of junior left wing Mike Pandolfo, who hit the open side of the NU net just over four minutes into the game. It was Pandolfo's third goal in his last three games.
BU, which outshot the Huskies 13-4 in the first, suffered a meltdown in the second stanza with NU holding a wide territorial edge and a 14-7 shots advantage.
NU tied the game at 1 when Mischler banged home his first goal from the right post at 2:15. The Huskies grabbed a 2-1 lead at 11:00 from an unlikely source when MacDonald redirected a shot from the left circle by junior Willie Levesque.
"I like how we played in the first period. I liked how we came back and played in the third period," said BU coach Jack Parker. "I was real disappointed in that we seemed to revert back to the way we played against Lowell (1 4-2 Terriers loss Friday night) in the second period. We were back on our heels the entire second period."
Mischler made it 3-1 at 13:36 of the third period, connecting off a rebound. Junior center Chris Lynch added to the Huskies' final goal at 15:38 of the third off a scramble in front of BU goalie Jason Tapp.
BU tried to rally in the third, outshooting NU 15-8, but couldn't put one past Braun, much to the delight of the Matthews Arena crowd of 4,152, which was the second largest of the season.
"That's a good team," Parker said of the Huskies. "They're going to win a lot of hockey games."
