DURHAM, N.H. – Two goals, 15 seconds apart, were all the University of New Hampshire would need to catapult itself into the semifinals of the Hockey East tournament, beating Northeastern 4-0 Friday at the Whittemore Center.
The Wildcats, who beat the Huskies 6-1 on Thursday by scoring six unanswered goals in the second and third period, started their work again in the second period on Friday.
Justin Aikins scored at the 4:28 mark, and before the UNH crowd could quiet down, Preston Callander put another past the NU defense and goalie Keni Gibson, 15 seconds later at 4:43.
“It’s hard to do it anytime, but we almost had to come in here and play mistake-free hockey,” said Huskies coach Bruce Crowder. “Obviously it didn’t happen [Thursday] and [Friday] it didn’t happen again.
“UNH all year long has been an opportunistic team. They make the most of some turnovers in neutral zones and different things of that nature. They make you pay.”
The shot totals were nearly even at 30-29 in the Wildcats’ favor on Friday, but NU never got the clear looks that UNH benefited from.
“Anytime you give up two goals 15 seconds apart, it’s going to hurt you,” Crowder said. “We always talked about if you get scored on one way or the other, you make sure the next shift is a pretty good shift. You don’t double your frustrations or take away the momentum.
“When they scored those quick goals, 15 seconds apart, that puts us on our heels a little bit. But you have to give credit where credit’s due, UNH is a very good hockey team.”
Aikins added his second goal of the night and his team’s third just over four minutes later when he stood left of the slot and shot one past Gibson to the right. The puck clanged off the post and went into the net.
“Justin is one of the most talented players we’ve had here,” said UNH coach Dick Umile. “I told him tonight, ‘You’re a goal-scorer.’ He tries to pass too much sometimes.”
The Huskies had a great opportunity late in the second, when a Jason Guerriero shot led to a loose puck near the UNH net. Jimmy Russo rushed forward but was not able to get it off.
Four minutes into the third, Josh Ciocco passed the puck from the corner in front, where Matt Fornataro slapped a one-timer into the net for the fourth and final goal.
Junior goalie Jeff Pietrasiak started for the Wildcats and turned away all Husky opportunities, including NU’s usual assortment of passing between Guerriero and Mike Morris.
“[Pietrasiak] played great in net for UNH,” Crowder said. “Any chance we got, he kind of stifled us with the shots being pretty even.”
In Thursday’s opening matchup, Bryan Esner combined with Jason Blain to set up a Steve Sanders score 5:34 into the contest, but the Wildcats scored four in the second and two in the third to storm to a 6-1 victory.
Brett Heminway scored twice for UNH, while also recording an assist, while Callander added three points as well in scoring a goal and helping out on two others.
Kevin Regan got the start in net for UNH, turning away 23 shots for the Huskies.
