By Eoghan Kelly, News Staff

Coming into games against then-No. 6 Boston University and then-No. 4 Boston College last weekend, the men’s hockey team was poised for glory.

With No. 17 University of North Dakota, No. 19 Lake Superior State University and No. 20 Northern Michigan University all losing at least one of their two games this past weekend, two wins undoubtedly meant that, come Monday morning, the Huskies would be ranked in the United States College Hockey Organization’s Division I Men’s Poll for the first time since early in the 2009-10 season. Even if they had faltered in one of their match-ups, knocking off one top-six opponent would have, at the very least, put the team in the conversation to be named one of the top 20 squads in the country.

Instead, Northeastern dropped both of its contests, a 4-3 implosion to the hands of BU Friday night and a 2-1 heartbreaker to BC Saturday afternoon at Fenway Park, in the final installment of Sun Life’s Frozen Fenway 2012.

And the worst part: Both games were ones that the Huskies could have won.

Given this, what went wrong?

“We did some good things well, but we need to do a few more things better for an entire 60 minutes,” head coach Jim Madigan said following Saturday’s game.

That contest was a defensive showcase for the Hockey East-leading Eagles of Boston College (14-8-1, 10-5-1 Hockey East). For most of the game, the Huskies were largely incapable of creating quality scoring chances against a vaunted BC defense and in front of a crowd of 29,601 fans.

Madigan acknowledged the team was certainly feeling the effects of having sophomore forwards Braden Pimm and Cody Ferriero out of the line-up due to a team rules violation, but it was not a cause for their lack of offensive firepower.

“We try to have other guys step up,” Madigan said. “Certainly the two players that weren’t in the line-up are good players, and the balance of your lines is affected a little bit, and those two players have obviously put up some good numbers. But there’s not a nervousness, because the other guys step up and everyone’s worked hard all year long, so they deserve an opportunity to play when their number gets called.”

Junior forward Garrett Vermeersch attributed his team’s offensive troubles to the Huskies’ own play, rather than that of the Eagles’ defensemen.

“I don’t know if it was exactly anything that [BC] were doing in  particular,” Vermeersch said. “I just think that we weren’t getting as many pucks to the net as we would have liked to. But I thought we had a lot of good cycles and a lot of sustained pressure on them.”

On paper, Saturday’s outdoor matinée seemed very much like a game Northeastern could win. The Huskies had lost each of the first two meetings between the sides by a goal – 4-3 in overtime Oct. 22 and 2-1 Nov. 11 – and held the lead for sizable chunks of both of those games.

But the Eagles were eager to prove all thoughts wrong.

BC dominated the opening period, producing several quality scoring chances in front of the Northeastern net and in the slot cut forcing Rawlings to make 13 crucial saves. Sophomore forward Kevin Hayes nearly put the Eagles ahead when he rang a wrist shot off the crossbar and out of play midway through the period.

On the other side of the ice, however, the Huskies struggled to get the puck deep into the BC zone. After a strong opening possession, Northeastern looked hesitant to shoot the puck and instead tried to stickhandle its way through the Eagles’ defense.

By the end of the first period, Huskies had been outshot 13 to three.

“We got off to a slow first period. We thought we came back in the second and third period with more energy,” Madigan said. “They’re obviously a very good hockey club. They play the game fast and they limit our scoring opportunities. We didn’t have very many shots in the first period obviously and in the third period.”

Early in the second period, an untimely turnover once again led to Northeastern’s demise.

When Rawlings misplayed a puck behind his cage, BC junior forward Steven Whitney was first to retrieve it and quickly dished it to classmate forward Pat Mullane, who was left to tap the puck into the abandoned Northeastern net.

The Huskies once again put themselves in a position to win the game after Vermeersch tied the game with a backhand goal with under four minutes to play in the second period.

But that was as close as they would come to a victory. Just four minutes into the third period, BC junior standout Chris Kreider took a feed from freshman forward Danny Linell in the neutral zone and did the rest on his own, skating with speed to the net and putting a shot on goal that buzzed past Rawlings and freshman defenseman Dan Cornell.
Madigan said the goal was a product of a bounce that went the Eagles’ way.

“A couple good breaks for goals for them were the difference in the game,” Madigan said. “We gave up a shorthanded goal there where we just got a little caught to the outside and let their speed attack the net, which they have, and it was the game-winning goal.”

Kreider admitted that he was unsure what happened on the play after he drove to the net.

“I tried to get to the net and to be honest, I don’t really know what happened after that,” Kreider said. “I just remember being on the ice. I thought Danny [Linell] scored it. I guess I kind of ran into the goalie and the puck just sort of squirted in.”

Friday night against BU (13-6-1, 10-4-1 Hockey East), apperances on paper were again proven wrong. Northeastern played a consistant first period before treating the live-NESN broadcast auidence and the sold-out crowd of 4,746 at Matthews Arena to six minor penalties, a major penalty and two game misconducts through the final two periods.

The Terriers converted on two of their six power play opportunities, with freshman forward Evan Rodrigues scoring the go-ahead goal at 11:51 of the second period and junior first-liner Wade Megan putting home what would prove to be the game-winner at 1:52 of the third.

But in the end, it was much more than penalty trouble that did the Huskies in.

In Friday night’s opening period, Northeastern was dominant. The Huskies’ breakouts out of the defensive zone were clean, their physical play was at a premium and they were winning almost every puck battle along the boards. Nearly every puck played out of the BU zone was intercepted in the neutral zone and controlled by a Northeastern player.

As a result, they amassed a whopping 19 shots on BU senior goaltender Kieran Millan by the time the first 20 minutes had expired. Two shots from junior Alex Tuckerman and freshman forward Ludwig Karlsson each found the back of the net within a minute of one another, just before the period ending-buzzer.

“It looked like men playing with boys at times,” BU head coach Jack Parker admitted after the game.

That ended almost as soon as the second period started.

The Terriers came out of the opening intermission with something to prove, and the Huskies weren’t entirely prepared. The two sides played an up-tempo, highly physical game similar to the first period, but Madigan’s squad wasn’t able to continue the good habits that had originally got it a two-goal lead.

BU began making cleaner break-outs from their end, allowing the team to gain speed through the middle of the ice and get the puck into the Northeastern zone with ease. The Huskies began losing puck battles behind their net and were forced to play prolonged defensive spells as a result.

The lost battles led to the Terriers’ first goal. Sophomore defenseman Adam Clendening made it a 2-1 game at 8:23 of the second period after junior forward Justin Courtnall and redshirt freshman forward Yasin Cisse won a tough fight for possession behind the Northeastern net.

“We let them back in the game on a couple of poor plays down low,” Madigan said following Friday night’s game.

The Huskies turned the puck over to junior winger Ryan Santana behind their own net, and Santana fed a wide-open Megan for his first of two pivotal goals on the evening for the game tying goal, only 57 seconds after Clendening’s.

Madigan said the Huskies were plagued by undisciplined play in the second and third periods and allowed BU back into the game. BC’s Rodrigues responded to the Terriors game tying goal by putting them ahead two and half minutes later.

“It gave them a little momentum,” Madigan said. “We tried to come back, but we took too many penalties in the second and third penalties for our liking. That’s a team that’s got a lot of skill on the power play and moved [the puck]. Two for six on the power play, that was the difference.”

Down two goals and two players – freshman defenseman Josh Manson and junior forward Steve Quailer recieved game misconducts for contact to the head and unsportsmanlike conduct, respectively – the Huskies still managed to put themselves in a position to tie or win the game in the second and third periods.

The Huskies had their chances, most notably a three-on-one breakaway that almost immediately followed BU’s second goal and a two-minute five-on-three power play in the third period.

But they failed to convert until Karlsson’s laser from the point found the upper corner of the BU net with just over three minutes remaining in regulation.

By then, it was too little too late, especially with Quailer and sophomore defenseman Anthony Bitetto serving penalties in the game’s final minutes.

“We still [had] a chance to tie the game late,” Madigan said. “You’re down by two, but if you get one, now you’ve got a chance to tie it. So you’ve got to be able to manage it. We had two of our better players in the penalty box …We’re trying to score to tie the game and two of our best players who are on the power play and on the ice in those situations aren’t on the ice.”

The good news for Northeastern fans is that all hope is not lost following the disappointing weekend. The Huskies now sit at No. 22 in the Men’s Division I PairWise Rankings, and with good showings this weekend against UMass-Lowell and next weekend in back-to-back games at the University of Vermont, Northeastern could rise up to five spots in the Hockey East standings.

To do so, Vermeersch said, the answer is simple.

“I think we just need to get back to basics,” Vermeersch said. “We had a good stretch of out-of-conference games and I think it’s just a coincidence that we’re not putting together wins in the league, but I think it’ll come soon. We did a lot of good things tonight, and I don’t want to take anything away from [BC], but I think we’re moving in a good direction. I think you’ll see things turn around soon.”