By Eoghan Kelly, News Staff
On two consecutive nights, the men’s hockey team played on two of the biggest stages they will see all season.
And, on both occasions, they came up just short.
The Huskies squandered a two-goal lead en route to a 4-3 loss to No. 6 Boston University on NESN and in front of a sold-out crowd of 4,746 at Matthews Arena Friday night. The following afternoon, Northeastern dropped a 2-1 heartbreaker to No. 4 Boston College in the team’s first-ever outdoor game at Fenway Park, with 29,601 fans in attendance.
The losses snapped the Huskies’ eight-game unbeaten streak and dropped their record to 8-9-3 overall and 4-9-2 in Hockey East.
“They’re obviously a very good hockey club,” head coach Jim Madigan said following Saturday’s game at Fenway. “A couple good breaks for goals for [BC] were the difference in the game.”
The Huskies landed only 15 shots on senior goaltender Chris Venti, who was making his first collegiate start for Boston College and playing in only his seventh career game.
After a scoreless first period, the Eagles (14-8-1, 10-5-1 Hockey East) opened the game’s scoring when they capitalized on a Northeastern miscue early in the second frame.
When junior goalie Chris Rawlings fanned on a clearing attempt behind the goal line, BC’s junior forward Steven Whitney pick up the loose puck and fed classmate forward Pat Mullane, who tapped it into a wide-open net for a 1-0 lead at 4:55.
The Huskies answered before the second intermission. Following a face-off in the Eagles’ defensive zone, junior forward Garrett Vermeersch backhanded the rebound from a shot by freshman forward Ludwig Karlsson shot past Venti to knot the game, 1-1, with less than four minutes to play before the buzzer.
The third period was a bit unconventional because of a steady wind blowing across the playing surface. The teams agreed to split the third period into two 10-minute half-periods and trade ends between them.
The game-winning goal came four minutes into the opening half of the third period. BC junior forward Chris Kreider carried the puck up the left wing and cut in towards the Northeastern goal. The puck deflected over the goal line after Kreider made contact with Rawlings and freshman defenseman Dan Cornell, giving the Eagles a 2-1 lead on a shorthanded goal.
The remainder of the third played out scoreless. The Eagles had a third goal overturned by review when referees determined that the net was knocked off its moorings before the puck crossed the goal line.
Friday night’s match-up against BU was decided by a single goal keeping with the weekend’s fashion.
For the first meeting of the season between the crosstown rivals, Northeastern and BU (12-6-1, 10-4-1 Hockey East) came out flying. The teams combined for 32 shots on goal in the opening 20 minutes and played a stretch of nearly 10 minutes without any stoppages in play.
The Huskies were the ones who came out of the first period on top.
With less than 90 seconds left on the clock in the opening period, junior forward Alex Tuckerman found the rebound of a deflected shot and backhanded the puck over a sprawling BU senior goaltender Kieran Millan for his second goal of the season and a 1-0 lead at 18:38.
Quailer’s assist on the goal extended his career-best point streak to 10 games.
Only 55 seconds later, Northeastern struck again. Vermeersch deflected a BU clearing attempt and the puck fell to Karlsson in the high slot. Karlsson whistled a puck over the glove of Millan and into the top corner to give the Huskies a 2-0 lead going into the first intermission.
“I thought they dominated us down low” in the first period, BU head coach Jack Parker said. “Whenever they got the puck below our dots, they possessed it a lot in that first period. We had trouble containing them. It looked like men playing with boys at times.”
BU opened the second period aggressively with goals from sophomore defenseman Adam Clendening and junior forward Wade Megan less than a minute apart to tie the game at 2-2 before the second stanza had even reached its midpoint.
From there, it went from bad to worse for the Huskies. Freshman defensemanJosh Manson was assessed a major penalty and game misconduct for a hit to the head on BU sophomore forward Matt Nieto in the Northeastern zone at 10:41. The penalty gave the Terriers a five-minute power play.
BU needed little more than a minute to cash in on the man-advantage opportunity. Freshman forward Evan Rodrigues scored his first-ever collegiate goal when he tipped a shot by freshman defenseman Alexx Privitera to give the Terriers the lead for good at 3-2.
Megan added what proved to be the game-winner less than two minutes into the third period when he one-timed a pass from classmate Alex Chiasson past Rawlings for his second goal of the game and a 4-2 lead.
Northeastern failed to convert on a two-minute five-on-three midway through the third period, but Karlsson added a consolation goal with Rawlings pulled and less than four minutes to go to bring the Huskies to within one.
“I think any time Northeastern plays BU there’s a lot of emotion that goes out there,” Madigan said. “We want our players to play with emotion. It brings out the best in kids, but you’ve got to be able to manage emotions…You’ve just got to be able to manage that for 60 minutes.”
The Huskies will face BU in their final regular season weekend of the season when they play a home-and-home series March 2 and 3. Saturday’s outdoor affair was the final Hockey East match-up between Northeastern and BC, but the two sides will face off again in the Beanpot semifinals Feb. 6.
