MVP Bruce Racine makes the save for the 1988 Hockey East Men’s Champions!
Northeastern’s first hockey team (1929-1930 season), led by coach H. Nelson Raymond.
On Saturday night the Northeastern Huskies, led by head coach and alum Jim Madigan, won the Hockey East Championship by beating the UMass Lowell River Hawks in a 3-2 thriller at TD Garden. The winning goal was scored on a 3rd period power play by junior forward Zach Aston-Reese. Sophomore forward Nolan Stevens and freshman forward Adam Gaudette contributed the other two Husky goals.
The win ended a 28-year drought since the Northeastern men’s last Hockey East Championship in 1988, when they beat the Maine Black Bears 4-3. That year Northeastern goaltender Bruce Racine was named the tournament’s MVP. Racine and head coach Ferny Flaman were later inducted into the NU Athletics Varsity Club Hall of Fame (2001 and 1989, respectively). One of the assistant coaches for that championship team? Jim Madigan!
The current season marks 87 years of hockey at Northeastern. The Huskies have been playing in Matthews Arena since their inaugural 1929-1930 season. At that time the arena was known as Boston Arena, and also served as home ice for other Hockey East teams Boston College and Boston University. In fact, until the year before the Boston Arena had been home to the Boston Bruins, whose current home, TD Garden, is the site of Saturday’s triumph.
Now on to the NCAA’s Final 16, where we play No. 1 North Dakota (30-6-4) on March 25!