By Matt Noonan 

BOSTON, MA –  Entering Wednesday’s Hockey East season opener against Merrimack College, Northeastern University second-year head coach Jim Madigan had some questions about his team, especially after their one-goal defeat three days ago.

However, those preseason concerns and worries must have vanished, especially after the Huskies notched three goals off 16 shots in the opening period, which provided Northeastern with a 3-0 lead.

Garrett Vermeersch, Joseph Manno and Kevin Roy each netted one goal, while Chris Rawlings recorded five saves between the pipes.

Merrimack concluded the opening frame with just five shots and two trips to the penalty box. Northeastern capitalized on their second power play with a goal from Roy, which was assisted by Vinny Saponari.

The Warriors scored four goals in their first non-conference match this past weekend against Union College, so it’ll be interesting to see if they can rally to make this a game, especially since it’ll count toward their conference standings.

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