Thursday, November 6, 2025

Men’s Notes: Net Gains Have Northeastern Off to Fast Start

Junior Goalie Zacher Stands Tall for Huskies

The final week of October was one to remember for Northeastern junior goalie Lawton Zacher.

Zacher backstopped Northeastern to a 1-0 win over No. 7 Denver on Oct. 25, then keyed a home-and-home sweep of Hockey East rival and 10th-ranked Boston College last weekend, winning 4-1 and 3-0.

When all was said and done, Zacher had stopped a mind-bending 107 of 108 shots (.991) during his three-game heater, including 72 of 73 (.986) in the BC series alone.

Needless to say, the Buffalo, N.Y., native was named Hockey East Player of the Week on Monday.

“He’s off to a good start, and we need him to be,” Northeastern head coach Jerry Keefe (Providence ’00) told College Hockey News. “If you want to have a chance at going deep in college hockey, you need a great goaltender. And we feel like we have one.”

The numbers certainly back up Keefe’s assertion.

Through his first six starts as a Huskie – Zacher spent his first two collegiate seasons at Brown – the netminder boasts a 1.51 goals against average and .952 save percentage, the latter leading all NCAA goalies with more than three appearances. Additionally, his two shutouts last week matched his career total from his first two seasons combined.

If his early-season performance is any indication, Zacher has Northeastern (5-1-0, 3-0-0) well-positioned in the uber-competitive Hockey East.

Hockey East Team SV% Leaders:
.952 – Northeastern
.926 – Vermont
.917 – UConn
.914 – Merrimack
.909 – New Hampshire

The Huskies are out of conference this weekend for a home series against Stonehill but will jump back into the Hockey East fray the following two weeks with home-and-home series against No. 10/11 UConn and No. 12/13 Boston University.

Daily Scoreboard | Weekly Schedule | Scoring Leaders | Goaltending Leaders

Beaver Balance:

Through the first 10 games of the season, 18 different skaters have already scored at least one goal for Bemidji State, the most goal scorers of any team in the nation:

Most Players with at Least 1 Goal:
18 – Bemidji State
16 – Michigan, St. Cloud State
15 – Boston University, Michigan Tech, RIT
14 – Maine, North Dakota, St. Thomas

Junior F Oliver Peer (Burlington, Ontario) leads BSU with five goals in 10 games, while graduate F Reilly Funk (Portage, Manitoba) is right behind with four tallies.

Chasing 100:

St. Thomas senior F Lucas Wahlin (Woodbury, Minn.) is closing in on becoming just the third active NCAA Division I men’s hockey player with 100 or more career points:

Career NCAA Points Leaders (active)
134 – T.J. Hughes, Michigan
117 – Jeremy Wilmer, Quinnipiac
97 – Lucas Wahlin, St. Thomas
96 – Aiden Fink, Penn State
92 – Andre Gasseau, Boston College
92 – Owen McLaughlin, Boston University

Wahlin and the Tommies are idle this weekend but will return to action Tuesday against in-state foe St. Cloud State.

The next-closest player on the list, Penn State junior F Aiden Fink (Calgary, Alberta), suffered an injury Thursday at Ohio State and will be sidelined indefinitely.

Fifty is Nifty:

Staying with milestones, Minnesota State’s Alex Tracy (Sr., Chicago) and Providence’s Philip Svedebäck (Sr., Stockholm, Sweden) have a chance this weekend to join Colorado College’s Kaidan Mbereko (Sr., West Bloomfield, Mich.) as the only active goalies in the country with at least 50 career victories:

Career NCAA Wins Leaders (active)
50 – Kaiden Mbereko, Colorado College
49 – Alex Tracy, Minnesota State
48 – Philip Svedebäck, Providence
47 – Simon Latkoczy, Omaha
46 – Trey Augustine, Michigan State

Tracy and No. 16/18 Minnesota State host CCHA rival Bowling Green this weekend, while Svedebäck and the 15th-ranked Friars have a Hockey East home-and-home with No. 10/11 UConn.

Short End of the Stick:

RPI junior F Ethan Bono (Port McNeill, British Columbia) scored a pair of short-handed goals in Friday’s 5-2 win over Route 7 rival Union, becoming the first player in the nation this season to tally two SHG in the same game.

Not only were they the first goals of the season for Bono, who spent his first two NCAA seasons at Merrimack, but they were also the first two career SHG of his career.

Rank and File:

There are five series this weekend in which both teams are currently ranked inside the top 20 in the national polls. Three of those five are clashes between top-five programs:

#1 Michigan State vs. #3 Penn State (FRI/SAT)
#2 Michigan vs. #9/10 Wisconsin (FRI/SAT)
#4 Western Michigan vs. #9/11 Denver (FRI/SAT)
#6 Maine at #12/13 UMass (THU/FRI)
#10/11 UConn vs. #15 Providence (FRI/SAT)

Click HERE to view the entire schedule for the week.

Notebook Quotebook:

“Any time you get a win against the winningest program in college hockey it’s a big moment for our program. Denver is an incredible team with the best coaching staff in college hockey. We appreciate the opportunity to compete against them and look forward to more battles in the future.”

— Alaska Anchorage head coach Matt Shasby (UAA ‘08) following the Seawolves’ 4-3 overtime win at No. 6 Denver on Friday (source: Anchorage Daily News).

Dimitry Kebreau (So., Silver Spring, Md.) scored the OT winner, while Tyler Krivtsov (So., Santa Clarita, Calif.) stopped a career-high 46 shots for UAA.

NHL Note of the Week:

San Jose second-year F Macklin Celebrini (Boston University, 2023-24) enters the night tied with Edmonton’s Connor McDavid for the NHL scoring lead with 21 points in 14 games. Celebrini is coming off a three-point effort in Wednesday’s 6-1 win at Seattle, reaching the scoresheet for the eighth time in his last nine contests.

Celebrini won the 2023-24 Hobey Baker Memorial Award in his lone NCAA season at Boston University.

Fries at the Bottom of the Bag:

Bowling Green’s Jaden Grant (Sr., White Lake, Mich.) won 22 faceoffs in Friday’s overtime 4-4 tie with CCHA rival Bemidji State, the most by any player in the country this season. He went 22-9 in the circle and then won 16 more draws (on 31 attempts) the next night in a 3-2 loss … Union kept the Capital Skates Trophy after defeating Route 7 rival RPI 3-0 on Saturday afternoon … Colorado College freshman Brandon Lisowsky (Port Coquitlam, British Columbia) registered an NCAA season-high 11 shots on goal during the Tigers’ 3-2 loss to Omaha on Friday … Cornell’s 3-1 win at UMass on Saturday was Casey Jones’ (Cornell ’90) first win at the helm of his alma mater … Boston University blocked 27 shots in Saturday’s loss at Maine, tying Northern Michigan (Oct. 17 vs. Colorado College) and New Hampshire (Oct. 10 at Michigan State) for this year’s NCAA single-game high.

Longest Active Team Winning Streaks:

7 games, Penn State (began Oct. 10 vs. Clarkson)
5 games, Michigan State (began Oct. 10 vs. New Hampshire)
5 games, RIT (began Oct. 18 vs. Clarkson)
4 games, Northeastern (began Oct. 17 at UMass)
4 games, Wisconsin (began Oct. 24 vs. Alaska)

Longest Active Point Streaks:

9 games, F Austin Burnevik (St. Cloud State)
- 10-4—14, began Oct. 4 vs. St. Thomas
9 games, F Tyson Gross (St. Cloud State)
- 3-10—13, began Oct. 4 vs. St. Thomas
8 games F Kocha Delic (Miami)
- 5-6—11, began Oct. 3 vs. Ferris State
7 games, F Luca Benincasa (Minnesota State)
- 3-6—9, began Oct. 11 at Omaha
7 games, F John Mustard (Providence)
- 5-3—8, began Oct. 10 vs. Michigan
7 games, F Stiven Sardarian (Michigan Tech)
- 0-11—11, began Oct. 4 at Minnesota

Longest Active Goal Streaks:

5 games, F Austin Burnevik (St. Cloud State)
- 7-3—10, began Oct. 18
5 games, F JJ Wiebusch (Penn State)
- 5-3—8, began Oct. 18 vs. LIU
4 games, Tyler Mahan (RIT)
- 5-1—6, began Oct. 24 vs. Air Force
4 games, Justin Poirier (Maine)
- 5-3—8, began Oct. 24 vs. Colgate
4 games, Klavs Veinbergs (Colorado College)
- 4-2—6, began Oct. 17 at Northern Michigan

Conference Websites

College Hockey Inc. Resources:

Did you know? 93% of NCAA Division I men’s hockey players earn their degree!