The Huskies went 2-0 over the weekend, playing some excellent ice hockey Saturday and Sunday. The Northwood Junior team hosted Quebec-based Stanstead College for their first two home seasons games of the season.
The home opener was Saturday night at 8pm, in the Herb Brooks Arena. Going into the game, the Huskies we’re looking to continue their winning streak against Stansted, whom they beat once last season. The Huskies came to play as soon as the puck dropped. It only took Shane McGrath (2018, Defense) 13 seconds to net the first goal of many to come in the game. Following the goal with high intensity, physical play and speed, the Huskies netted 5 more goals to win the game 6-2. Santeri Hartikainen (2018, Forward) neted his 5th goal of the year, Cody Monds (2020, Forward) tallied his first, Matt Shanklin (2019, Forward), Cole Leal (2020, Forward) and Stephen Panico (2019, Forward) also found the back of the net. The Huskies dominated the majority of play only giving up 2 goals in 54 minutes of play. Jacob Mucitelli ‘19 was in the pipes for another win under his belt.
Hartikainen said after the first game, “It was a really fun game to play in and win, but we can only enjoy this win for so long. We have another huge game tomorrow and the preparation for that game starts when we leave this locker room tonight.”
The Huskies savored the victory for a short time period after the game, but quickly shifted their focus to the following afternoon when they had a rematch against Stanstead College.
Sunday’s game was a war the Huskies overcame. Coming out with the momentum from the night before was not an issue for the Huskies. The team ran into penalty problems throughout the game. Stanstead took the lead at the start of the game, but it did not take long for the Huskies to answer on the penalty kill when forward Jerkko Ramo (2019) netted his first goal of the season. Lots of energy and momentum came out of this huge shorthanded goal from the young Fin, and the team managed to overcome adversity and fight through being down a man for much of the game. Through tough play, Sam DiBitetto (Forward, 2018) scored and put up his 8th of the season, giving the Huskies a huge lead in the second period. Stanstead scored halfway through the third period with an unfortunate bounce and tied up the game at 2 with 10 minutes to go. With continuous high intensity and pressure, Monds came in clutch with 6.7 seconds left in the game to score his second goal of the weekend and to secure the 3-2 win.
The Huskies came out of the weekend with two big wins because of Jacob Mucitelli’s stellar and consistent performance throughout the weekend.
The Junior Team travels to Marlborough Wednesday to compete in the annual Beantown invitational tournament where more than 50 teams from all over the country will be playing. They hope to top the team’s performance last season, when they lost in the semi-finals to the New England Prep Selects 1-0.
