A lot has gone right for the men’s hockey programs at Providence and Northeastern in the last month.
No. 13 Providence (12-5-0, 6-3-0 Hockey East) has won six straight games and 16th-ranked Northeastern (11-4-1, 5-3-1) ran through the November portion of its schedule without a regulation loss.
Something has to give this weekend as the two clubs prepare for a home-and-home series, starting Friday night in Providence (7 p.m.).
The Friars have twice come back from 3-0 deficits during its current winning streak (and rallied from down three goals for a 6-5 win over Denver on Oct. 22). While coach Nate Leaman was pleased with his team’s resilience, he’d like to see a stronger start this weekend vs. the Huskies.
“Not a great recipe,” Leaman said. “I think we can dial it in. Our starts need to be a little bit better, and in particular our Friday starts.”
The second game of the series is set for 7 p.m. Saturday night at Matthews Arena. Huskies coach Jerry Keefe praised his team’s ability to win despite some key injuries.
“We’ve been banged up, no question,” Keefe said. “The group has come together, played for each other, and found different ways to win.”
Both coaches noted the play of Northeastern rookie goalie Devon Levi, who has started all 16 games for the Huskies and sports a 1.43 goals-against average and a .950 save percentage.
“He’s challenge No. 1,” Leaman said. “He’s very capable of winning games for them. We realize it’s probably going to be a low-scoring game and we have to be dialed in all weekend.”
Keefe said Levi’s value goes beyond his gaudy stats, which also include four shutouts so far this season.
“He’s a big-time goaltender,” Keefe said. “Our guys play with a lot of confidence in front of him. They know he has their back. He does an unbelievable job preparing, and our guys see that.”
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In the weekend’s other league matchup between two ranked teams, a banged-up No. 14 Massachusetts faces intrastate rival No. 15 UMass Lowell for a pair of games. The puck drops Friday night at 7:05 p.m. in Lowell (and televised on NESN) and Saturday at 7:30 p.m. in Amherst.
It will be a rematch of last year’s Hockey East championship game, won by UMass-Amherst 1-0.
UMass coach Greg Carvel said his team won’t be able to fill out a full lineup, with five of its nine forwards on the injured list. He said a pair of defensemen — senior Ty Farmer and sophomore Linden Alger — will both be skating as forwards, with no extra skater available.
“We’re really banged up, and it’s not getting any better,” Carvel said. “We need those guys in the back to be extremely good. We can still win without all these forwards if our goalie and our defensemen play a lot. (We) just don’t have enough bodies up front for forwards.”
It will be another matchup of hot teams — UMass (7-4-1, 5-2-1) hasn’t lost in regulation since its opening weekend when it dropped a pair to now-No. 2 Minnesota State, while the River Hawks (8-2-2, 6-1-0) have earned at least a point in 11 of their last 12 games.
Despite their streak, Carvel said the defending NCAA champion Minutemen have had a harder go of it this season as compared to last.
“We haven’t won in dominant fashion — we’re just getting by in wins, which is fine,” Carvel said. “But it’s been a very uneven year. (We’re) holding our head above water. I’m proud of the group that we’re finding ways to stay in games and win some games while we’re extremely short handed.
“I have very high hopes for this team, once we get healthy.”
