The 2010-2011 Northeastern University men’s hockey team’s season started off like many a Husky hockey season. The team lost. A lot.
It began on Oct. 10, in an exhibition game at Northeastern’s historic Matthews Arena against Acadia University. The Huskies lost 3-2 to open the home season, another year likely to be filled with little hope for their postseason chances.
The losing continued throughout the month of October, into November and December. Providence College, Boston College, College of the Holy Cross, Bentley University, Niagara University, University of Maine, Merrimack College and Boston University can all thank Northeastern for early wins.
It took 20 days for NU to get a win – at University of Massachusetts-Lowell. Not exactly a signature win to impress the selection committee. The Huskies’ other two wins before 2010 turned into 2011 came against Merrimack and Providence, almost revenge victories against teams who had beaten NU previously.
So, another year, another waste of an effort for Northeastern. They were headed back to their usual home at the bottom of the Hockey East standings sheet, far, far away from the world of the other Boston colleges near the top. A typical performance from a simply bad team. It’s as if they were undressed and embarrassed in front of the hockey world.
It’s easy to dismiss Northeastern as a whole. They don’t have the lengthy tradition and history of Harvard, the vast knowledge of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the athletic success of BC or the research academics of BU. They are located on Huntington Avenue, out there with smaller schools, ones with niches and concentrations. The neighborhood surrounding campus is not exactly ideal: bordered by the poverty of Roxbury on one side, and the historically crime-infested Back Bay Fens on another.
They are even unique academically, with a five-year plan basically written into their graduation requirements, thanks to their co-op program. They are, much like BU, a research university, but they do not have nearly as large a reputation as the latter.
When it comes to athletic power, you can almost tell the same story about Huskies athletics as you can for the school as a whole. They are the ugly red-headed stepsister of their conference, the Colonial Athletic Association, mainly because of NU’s location far away from the conference core in the Mid-Atlantic.
The only NCAA Division I championship the Huskies can lay claim to is in the hammer throw in 1975. A noble achievement yes, but lacking the same pizzazz as a championship in something such as, say, hockey.
On the subject of hockey, their program has long been regarded as the weakest link among the four major Boston teams. In the five-decade existence of the Beanpot, Northeastern has only spent one decade being consistently competitive, the 1980’s. Most seasons, they make an early exit from playing meaningful games sometime in late November or early December.
Their coach Greg Cronin has only gotten close to the national spotlight once, when he was an assistant with University of Maine in the late 1980s and early 90s. Cronin was the interim head coach during the 1995-96 campaign, leading the Black Bears to the Hockey East championship game before losing to Providence College. Since joining Northeastern in 2005, Cronin has posted a record of 73-88-21. With the exception of the 2008-09 season, every team he has coached at NU has finished below .500.
This weekend, Northeastern will come to BU, and BU will go to Northeastern, for a home-and-home series to close out the season. Given the history of Northeastern, and their poor play at the start of the season, Terrier fans should be getting a free pass to two conference wins, four points and second place in Hockey East.
Newsflash: that’s wrong.
See, the funny thing about Northeastern is, they’ve come back from the dead. Since the start of 2011, the Huskies have posted a record of 8-4-4 in 16 games. Their most impressive work came in a week-long turnaround against BC in the middle of February.
The week started out with Northeastern dropping a heartbreaker, a 7-6 overtime loss in the Beanpot championship. Then on Friday, Cronin and his main assistant, Albie O’Connell were suspended indefinitely by the school for improper recruiting, specifically illegal phone calls and text messages with potential recruits.
But that weekend, NU played BC again, a home-and-home series that began on Friday night in Chestnut Hill. Northeastern hung on for a 7-7 tie that night, decent payback for that sad loss. The next night, the Huskies pulled a shocker, beating the Eagles 2-1 in front of the home crowd at Matthews Arena.
Even though they only had one win in those three games, Northeastern tied BC 15-15 in total goals. Let me repeat that: Northeastern, the sixth best team in the conference, on a turnaround from a horrid start, scored at an even rate with the then-No. 1 team in the entire country.
Wow.
With Northeastern and BU facing off this weekend, there is no reason to think the Huskies can’t perform the unpredictable again. Given that the Terriers aren’t playing at BC’s level this year, losing or tying one of the contests seems bound to happen, a threat that just a few months ago seemed highly unlikely.
While we may want to write off Northeastern as an opponent not worth of a member of the Dog Pound’s time, the reality is they are. When the Terriers cross over to Matthews Friday night, and the Huskies come into Agganis Arena Saturday night, there is a good chance the team with the better record could drop a game. A shocker? Historically, yes. Currently, no.
Update: This column has been edited to reflect the correct scores of stated games and records of stated teams.