BOSTON -- Good evening from Northeastern University's historic Matthews Arena where the Huskies (7-12-3, 4-10-3) look to shake off a lost Hockey East weekend against UMass-Lowell with their final contest of the season against the No. 3 New Hampshire Wildcats (15-6-2, 10-5-1).
UNH is coming off a 6-2 win against Merrimack last Saturday, but has won just once in the last three games and three times in six and will also have to deal with the return of NU sophomore Ludwig Karlsson to the top line.
The meeting is the first between the teams since a scoreless bout on Oct. 27, 2012 when NU senior Bryan Mountain and UNH sophomore Casey DeSmith combined to stop all 78 shots on goal in the contest. Northeastern has held the Wildcats scoreless in their last two trips to Boston, thanks to a 4-0 victory on Oct. 14, 2011 - the first win of Jim Madigan's head coaching career.
Tonight's game marks the last before the Huskies embark on the 61st Annual Beanpot Tournament on Monday night at TD Garden. In games directly before the Beanpot, Northeastern is 24-33-3 all-time. Current senior captain Vinny Saponari scored the overtime game winning to beat UMass in last season's contest on Feb. 3, 2012.
Here are the lineups:
NEW HAMPSHIRE
Dan Correale - Grayson Downing - Austin Block
Dalton Speelman - Kevin Goumas - John Henrion
Casey Thrush - Jay Camper - Matt Willows
Collin MacDonald - Scott Pavelski - Maxim Gaudreault
Brett Kostolansky - Connor Hardowa
Eric Knodel - Brett Pesce
Trevor van Reimsdyk - Justin Agosta
Casey DeSmith (14-4-2, 2.20, .924)
Jeff Wyer
NORTHEASTERN
Ludwig Karlsson - Garrett Vermeersch - Vinny Saponari
Kevin Roy - Braden Pimm - Cody Ferriero
Robbie Vrolyk - Mike McMurtry - Adam Reid
Steve Morra - Zak Stone - Ryan Belonger
Mike Gunn - Josh Manson
Dax Lauwers - Colton Saucerman
Jarrett Fennell - Dan Cornell
Chris Rawlings (7-7-1, 2.76, .916)
Bryan Mountain
Derick Roy
Joshua Kummins covers Hockey East for SB Nation. Follow him on Twitter @JoshuaKummins.