NU will face Merrimack in a home-and-home starting Saturday at Matthews Arena.
The two top freshmen Sam Colangelo and goalie Devon Levi are not playing.
Colangelo may make the final World Juniors Tournament roster for Team USA. Levi has made the roster for Team Canada.
Here's an article in the Globe on the team...
Northeastern men’s hockey team eager to finally begin season
By Andrew Mahoney Globe Staff
After a few starts and stops, it appears the Northeastern men’s hockey team is ready to get its season underway this weekend when it faces Merrimack in a home-and-home series beginning Saturday at Matthews Arena.
“We’re ready to go. We’ve practiced a lot. Our kids are excited,” said Huskies coach
Jim Madigan.
Originally set to open Nov. 27 at UMass Lowell, Northeastern’s season was delayed on Nov. 23 after some members of the athletic community tested positive for COVID-19. Although the men’s hockey team was not affected, the decision was made to delay competition for all winter teams until Dec. 18.
“When I had to deliver the news, it was almost as bad delivering the news to the locker room on March 12,” said Madigan, equating the experience to when he had to tell last year’s team that the season was over. “The players were deflated. They were disappointed.”
A few days after the decision, as the thrice-weekly COVID-19 tests continued to come back negative, the team was allowed to return to practice, and last week the school announced that the program could return to play this weekend.
The Huskies will be without a pair of promising freshmen to start the season. Goalie
Devon Levi has been participating in Canada’s selection camp in Red Deer, Alberta, for the World Junior Championship, and was named to the team on Thursday. Forward
Sam Colangelo, a Stoneham native, is at the US camp in Plymouth, Mich. Should he also be selected to the final roster, both players will head to Edmonton on Sunday to prepare for the tournament, which will be Dec. 25-Jan. 1.
Even with Levi out of the picture, Northeastern has three goalies on the roster: senior
Curtis Frye, sophomore
Connor Murphy, and junior
Nick Scarpa from Andover. Frye and Murphy have been getting the most work in intrasquad games.
“One of those two will get the nod for Saturday,” said Madigan. “We’ll just keep evaluating like we do with all of our players, but I’m very happy with where all three of our goaltenders are to this point. It will be a tough decision that will have to be made.”
Senior captain
Zach Solow is back after putting up 13 goals and 18 assists last season, as is Milton native
Aidan McDonough, who had 11 goals and 16 assists in his freshman campaign. Juniors
Jordan Harris and
Julian Kislin anchor the defense.
Northeastern will be facing a Merrimack squad that opened its season last week with a split against UMass Amherst.
“It’s a typical Merrimack team. They play heavy. They’re physical and they finish their checks,” said Madigan. “I thought last year in the second half they were playing as well as anyone in our league.”
The Warriors dropped the opener in Amherst before returning to North Andover for a 3-2 win. Freshman Alex Jefferies had a goal and two assists on the weekend to take home conference rookie of the week honors.
Saturday’s game is at 6 p.m. and will air on NESN. The home-and-home shifts to Lawler Rink Sunday at 3:30 p.m.
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