From the first period of the first game in October to the last nine seconds of the final game on Saturday, Aidan McDonough has delivered big goals for Northeastern.
The junior winger with the lethal shot scored the Huskies’ first goal in their season opener against Bentley. His dramatic tally with nine seconds left before a big crowd at Merrimack gave Northeastern a 1-0 victory and the top seed in this week’s Hockey East tournament. It will go down as one of the biggest goals in school history.
As the clock ran out in a scoreless game, Northeastern knew that the regular-season title was within reach after Boston College swept UMass. “At that point it was up to us,’’ McDonough said on Tuesday.
With 15 seconds left, there was a draw in Merrimack’s end after an icing.
“We lined up for a quick faceoff play, trying to get it back to me to get one on net as quick as possible. We lost the draw, but Jack Hughes had an unbelievable second effort getting to the puck, lifting a stick. Sam Colangelo got in there, and Jack just did something that he does a lot, which is make a really high-end play, a no-look, backhand pass right to the slot,’’ said McDonough.
“I’m assuming (Merrimack) lined up for a quick rim out of the zone, so there was no one really in the middle of the ice. That left me open and I just tried to get it on net as quick as possible, and it went in.’’
The goal was the high point so far in a breakout season for McDonough. Drafted in the seventh round (No. 195) by the Vancouver Canucks in 2019, he was good in his first two years, going 11-16-27 in 31 games as a freshman and 10-10-20 in 21 games as a sophomore.
But he’s taken it to the next level. He leads the Huskies and Hockey East in goals and is third in the country with 23 tucks in 35 games.
At 6-foot-2, 200 pounds, McDonough has come a long way from his early days at Thayer Academy.
“I hit a pretty big growth spurt my freshman year. I was 5-8, then midway through my sophomore year I was 5-11/6 foot. I kind of grew gradually since then. I had to take some time for my body to get used to skating and playing at that size and filling out my frame a little bit. The work in the weight room has really helped,’’ said McDonough, a native of Milton, Mass.
Skating was not a strong suit earlier in his career, but it’s now much improved.
“This summer I started working with a skating coach for the first time, Dena Taylor. She’s been tremendous with me. This is the first year I’ve noticed a big difference, a jump in my skating, because of her,’’ he said.
McDonough is a sniper with the puck on his stick. He’s honed his shooting skills by ripping pucks in his backyard and at Stop It Goaltending at the Foxboro Sports Center.
“I’ve been working there probably since freshman year of high school. Shooting on goalies and getting paid for it – can’t really complain about that,” he said.
“It’s something I love to work on. When I was younger I kind of figured if there was anything I could control it was going to be my shot. My skating wasn’t there and my speed wasn’t there, I wasn’t big, so I tried to work on it and kind of just fell in love with working on it.”
While McDonough’s linemates on Saturday were Colangelo and Hughes, who is the youngest player in college hockey and a highly touted NHL draft prospect this year, he’s skated with a variety of teammates.
“I think I’ve played with just about everyone in our lineup. I played with Justin Hryckowian for a while, but he’s been out (with an injury). I played with Ty Jackson, Gunnar Fontaine. I’ve played with pretty much everyone. We were just kind of put together this weekend. That was the first time I played with Jack and Sam together. We have a lot of a really good players, a lot of depth. It doesn’t really matter who we’re with at this point,” he said.
Hughes has made a very positive impression on McDonough.
“He’s so smart and skilled. I’m really impressed with his work ethic. For a young kid, he works so hard on pucks, he stays on pucks, he battles. Sometimes he tries to do a little too much with his skill because he has so much, but he knows when to put a puck in deep or when to chip a puck in or lift a stick in the D zone.
“For an 18-year-old freshman to play the minutes that he plays and be a center at this level is really impressive. To be a centerman and be counted on a lot on faceoffs, power play faceoffs. You kind of forget that he’s so young.’’
Development was a big factor for McDonough when he was choosing a school.
“Development of the program, but also development of the players that were going through there. I saw so many guys come in (to Northeastern) kind of unheralded, like (Zach) Aston Reese or even guys like (Dylan) Sikura, who was drafted his freshman year, put up small numbers and then every year continually got better. That’s kind of the way the program has been, too,’’ he said.
“We’re starting to get some more high-profile players and starting to have more success. You want to come to a school that’s in contention every year. That’s something that really stuck out to me.”
The Huskies will host a game on Saturday in the Hockey East quarterfinals. McDonough believes the best is yet to come.
“I have confidence in our team. We’ve been through a lot this year with injuries. Then losing the Beanpot, that’s pretty big, all the guys were pretty down about that. So I think we’ve been through adversity and have learned how to manage ourselves.
“At this point it’s win or go home, one and done, anything can happen. I think there are going to be upsets and we just want to be on the right side of that. We’re going to be prepared for anything. We’ve had our backs up against the wall a few times this year, Saturday night being one of them. We’ve been able to keep on finding a way.”
