Here we go...

Confirmation.

Irritation.

Betrayal.

When forced to choose a three words to represent my little piece of the last 20 years of futility, those are my choices.

Confirmation, because NU was a 1-win team walking into the 2006 tournament. The Huskies, "led" by netminder Doug Jewer, allowed three first period goals. Jewer was replaced with a mediocre Adam Geragosian for the rest of the game, but they mustered only two goals of offense and lost 5-2 to eventual national championship runner-ups Boston College. A miserable season, although it has to be the first time in history that a team managed to double their win total between tournament games. That Lowell game is actually one of my favorite games of all time, particularly since wins were so rare that season.

Irritation. John Curry was a walk-on goalie for the Rat Dogs of BU. He should never have been as good as he was. In 2007, we had made a marked improvement over the previous season and had a phenomenal freshman goalie in Brad Thiessen. NHL draft pick Mike Morris was back in the lineup. None of this mattered, as Curry made 27 saves and the Huskies lost 4-0. In a typical display of Northeastern hockey at the Garden, Thiessen misplayed a puck into his own net in the third period to give BU a 3-0 lead. That's Northeastern futility epitomized by a Canadian goalie with no emotional attachment to the tourney.

Finally, betrayal. The student population had been hoodwinked into thinking the 2008 team was good. Unbeaten streaks, overtime wins over BC, and an opening-night matchup with Harvard. NU has beaten Harvard far more than any other opponent. The once-every-four-years opportunity to play a middling team from the mediocre ECAC conference is generally seen as a ticket into the championship game. Northeastern, however, seized the opportunity to nap for the first 8 minutes of the first period, giving up three goals and getting only one of their own from Ryan Ginand.

Just as often as the tournament is called the "BU Invitational," the consolation game is typically referred to as the "NU Invitational." For once in my collegiate career, I'd like to win this thing, but if we can't win, I'd still like to see us playing a meaningful game come next Monday.

There should be some limited liveblogging this evening. The game starts at 8:00.

Go Huskies.

Ginand's hat trick leads to a season sweep

Recap can be found at the liveblog.

I'll cover #3's hat trick and the #5 Huskies' 6-3 win over Providence College tomorrow. Also forthcoming, a discussion on Ervin Santana and the rest of the supposed 2009 Angels starting rotation.

Huskies have their first home loss of the season

#3 Huskies 2, #7 University of Vermont 4

A weird game, to be sure. Vermont absolutely dominated most of the play, but there were some five minute portions in the second and third where Northeastern was unstoppable. They took almost all of their shots in those little spurts before falling out of an offensive rhythm. After their second goal, they had three or four chances in quick succession where Rob Madore was on his back and the puck was sitting in the crease. As the team matures, you'd expect them to finish those chances.

Overall, this was a game that NU never really got into. Thiessen had a bad night, even though he stopped 36 of 39 shots. He was leaving rebounds everywhere and doing things he hasn't done recently, like miss the puck with this glovehand or drop down too early on close shots. The guy is allowed to have bad nights, but it shows the glaring weaknesses of this team when he's off his game.

Below is the Twitter stream from the game. I'm on the fence with regards to doing it again, mostly because it's a lot of work for information you can find in several other places. Reverse chronological order, of course.

A turnover leads to the empty netter as Vermont wins 4-2. More analysis pending

51.7 seconds left with 31 seconds remaining on the VT PP. Thiessen is on the bench for a faceoff in the Vermont zone.

The bullshit chant begins as McNeely gets called for phantom goalie interference with just over 2 left to play

Thiessen's having a bad day. Lots of uncharacteristic rebounds

Vermont leads 3-2 on a goal by Lenes

A puck makes its way into the upper deck...ouch

Goal from McLaughlin, 2-2, and Mike's first collegiate goal

Beautiful Husky goal on a backdoor play just 9 seconds into the power play.

Too many men on the ice for VT...very important NU PP coming up

A crossbar from NU

Vermont has a goal waved off as it was kicked in.

Penalty on Guzior 28 seconds into the third. This is "wrong," as they say.

As the third begins, Northeastern's going to need a new offensive strategy to tie it up.

Also, the shot total is showing a 25-11 Catamount advantage. Like I said, the Huskies aren't shooting enough.

Strathman's goal was a whack-in, while the VT goal was an ugly dribbler that slipped inside the right post. Definitely a softie for Thiessen

NU goal from Strathman, VT goal from #6, 2-1 Vermont

And an ugly, ugly VT goal with 3.14 left

Husky goal, with 37 seconds left on the second half of the 5 on 3. 1-1, 3.25 left

36 seconds of 5 on 3 coming up for NU. Cronin's calling a timeout.

NU PP thanks to a roughing penalty with 6 left.

Vitale comes up big on the PK just before Donovan just misses an athletic shot off the ice.

Ginand to the box for high stick at 13.45

Second VT post of the night.

Net off moorings on the NU side...haven't seen that in a while.

The puck drops for the start of the second with the Huskies down 1-0.

Stalberg was the VT player credited with the goal and the player who had the tough angle, so assume a deflection off an NU player

So the Huskies have looked good on the PP so far tonight, although the shot total is still too low.

Vermont goal scored by Stalberg, who also had Vermont’s goal last night.

Vermont goal, looked like a bounce off an NU skate.

Another NU power play thanks to an interference call with 4.21 remaining.

Vitale gets called for elbowing at 7.02 in the first...looked a little ticky-tack to me

Pretty fluid thus far, couple good chances for both teams, including a LOUD Vermont post.

NU power play coming up, 2 minutes on Atkinson for interference at 14.18

And the puck hits the ice with a top line of Vitale centering MacLeod and Guzior.

The teams have taken the ice with 7 left to the start of the first.

22 left before the start of the game and student attendance looks roughly equivalent to last nights game. McLaughlin starting over Silva

Welcome to the IPNO liveblog from Northeastern's Matthews Arena. The game begins at 7:00 EST, stay tuned for Vermont/NU updates.

100

I started this blog 99 posts ago as a way to vent about the Red Sox while simultaneously covering God's team, the Angels, and several other teams of interest. I've found writing to be a comfortably cathartic procedure, and as I've continued, I've received support from Rob at 6-4-2, the Rev at Halos Heaven, and the community over at Diehard Dogs, and for that, I am exceedingly grateful.

Tonight, I'll be doing something I swore to never do. I'll be using Twitter. I'll be posting 140 character updates throughout tonight's Northeastern/Vermont men's hockey game at the following address:

http://twitter.com/ipnomarcus

Depending on the outcome of tonight's game, and perhaps also my relative enjoyment with the update process, this may become a frequent addition to In Play, No Outs.

Thanks again, both to my fellow bloggers and reader base.