Cronin's Huskies have been showing some teeth

Northeastern is coming off a weekend in which it won the Badger Showdown in Madison, Wis., beating Bowling Green in the first round and Colgate in the final.

The ninth-ranked Huskies are undefeated in their last 10 games (8-0-2) and sit atop Hockey East standings with New Hampshire, but Northeastern coach Greg Cronin is by no means doing cartwheels.

"I don't get too giddy or excited about anything," said Cronin. "We just take it one day at a time and I think that's a healthy way to look at it. All our games are tight games. BC turns it around and it's like, boom, there they go. It's like 6-3, 6-2, 5-1, they have a lot of weapons there and we're not blessed with that offensive explosion."

Cronin said he didn't know what to expect at the beginning of the season because there were so many new faces entering the mix.

"There were six freshmen in the lineup over the weekend so you've got six new skaters, which is a third of your team," he said. "So you don't know what they're going to represent when they get on campus and start playing in the meaningful games, but they've responded well. I'm surprised about that particularly.

"We're real methodical. If you look at us statistically, we don't really have any real dynamic players who are garnering national notoriety. Even [goalie Brad Thiessen], he's played well but he hasn't had to win games [by himself]. I just think we have a good team. What I mean by that is we just play well as a team and we've gotten contributions from everybody. We don't have to really rely on one particular line or one player."

The Huskies are hoping to get more offensive production out of sophomore forwards Chad Costello and Kyle Kraemer, whose contributions (a combined two goals) haven't approached what they were in the second half of last season. And the Huskies have no goals on the power play in the last four games and just nine all season on 81 opportunities (11 percent). That's ninth out of 10 teams in the league.

The Huskies were outplayed for the most part by Colgate, but junior forward Ryan Ginand broke a 1-1 tie with 1:22 remaining in regulation.

"The nice thing about it is we didn't play well but we found a way to win," said Cronin. "That's why [Thiessen] is such an important part of our success. It wasn't like they had unbelievable chances but he played well enough and he managed the puck well enough to ride through the first couple of periods when we weren't very sharp."

The Huskies are going to have to be better.

"This is where the real meat of the schedule picks up," said Cronin. "We've got all Hockey East and Beanpot games going forward here, so they all have significant value."

Lightning strike

UMass beat Notre Dame in the first round and Colorado College in overtime in the final to win the Lightning Classic last weekend in Tampa. Senior forward Matt Burto scored at 1:55 of OT in the final for the fifth-ranked Minutemen, who are unbeaten in their last five games (4-0-1) and are enjoying their highest ranking ever. Freshman forward James Marcou leads the squad in scoring with 18 points in 17 games. UMass gets back to work Jan. 11 and 12 with a home-and-home series against UNH.

Dodge ball

Coach Wayne Wilson's Rochester Institute of Technology team stayed with Boston College for two periods in the Dodge Holiday Classic final in Minneapolis last Sunday, but the Eagles erupted for five third-period goals on the way to a 6-0 victory. BC forward Nathan Gerbe, the tournament MVP, had a goal and two assists in the final. The dynamic, 5-foot-5-inch, 165-pound left wing has 19 points in the last five games, all BC wins. "He's been on fire," said Wilson. "He's just a hard guy to handle. There are a lot of smaller skill players out there but I don't know if they're as strong and competitive as he is." . . . North Dakota suspended junior forward T.J. Oshie, the team's leading scorer, after he was arrested over the weekend for disorderly conduct. Oshie will miss tomorrow's game at St. Cloud State for violating team rules. Senior forward Michael Radja of UNH also was arrested for disorderly conduct, Grand Forks, N.D., police said. The Sioux split a two-game series with the visiting Wildcats Saturday.

Material from the AP was used; Nancy Marrapese-Burrell can be reached at marrapese@globe.com.