By Eoghan Kelly, News Staff
For the first time since 2008, the men’s hockey team finished fourth in the Beanpot Championship after losing to Harvard University 3-2 in the consolation game Monday night at TD Garden.
Head coach Jim Madigan had one word for the Huskies’ performance: “embarrassing.”
“Unfortunately, we stunk the joint,” Madigan said. “I’m not thrilled with our effort for two games. Quite frankly, I’m embarrassed with our effort for two nights … Those were two bad performances in this tournament.”
The Huskies (11-14-3) mustered only three goals in this year’s Beanpot – a significant decrease from the 10 markers they put up in the 2011 tournament. Instead, Northeastern allowed 10 goals – seven of which came in its first-round shellacking at the hands of then-No. 5 Boston College Feb. 6 – the most of any of the four competing schools.
Northeastern lacked the contributions of its second- and sixth-leading scorers for the tournament, as junior forward Steve Quailer and sophomore forward Cody Ferriero were both out of the lineup with injuries. According to multiple Twitter reports, Quailer has an ACL/MCL strain, while Ferriero underwent season-ending knee surgery following a two-game series at the University of Vermont Jan. 27 and 28.
But sophomore defenseman Luke Eibler was quick to point out that the Huskies’ poor performance was attributable to various other flaws in their play.
“I thought our compete level was not to the standard that we hope for,” Eibler said. “We didn’t get the bounces tonight. Harvard competed and that’s why they won the game.”
Madigan made a number of lineup changes for the consolation game, most notably starting sophomore goaltender Clay Witt in place of junior Chris Rawlings. The start marked only Witt’s second of the season, the first in a 5-2 loss to the University of New Hampshire Oct. 29.
Freshman defenseman Ben Oskroba and junior winger Steve Morra both saw time on the ice, marking only the fifth game that each had played in this season.
Witt looked shaky early against Harvard, allowing two shots from the blue line to ring off the left post in the opening six minutes.
Senior center Alex Killorn finally broke through for the Crimson, patiently stickhandling around Witt and sliding the puck into an open net to give Harvard a 1-0 lead 11:44 into the game. The goal was Killorn’s team-leading 16th of the season.
Harvard’s lead extended into the second period until junior forward Robbie Vrolyk brought the Huskies level with his fifth goal in five games at 4:07. Vrolyk took a pass from junior linemate Alex Tuckerman and skated into the offensive zone before firing a shot that squirted through the pads of freshman goalie Steve Michalek to make the game 1-1.
“[Vrolyk is] so fast and so quick and agile that when he plays with the two guys he’s playing with, [Tuckerman] and [McLaughlin], they could be the fastest line in Hockey East,” Eibler said. “They have a lot of talent on that line and [Vrolyk is] scrappy. He gets in the corners, he’s not afraid to hit somebody. I think he’s a huge asset to our team.”
The Crimson regained the lead with 1:47 remaining in the second. Junior winger Alex Fallstrom took a neutral-zone pass from freshman linemate Tommy O’Regan and skated over the Northeastern blue line. Fallstrom ripped a wrister from the top of the left circle under the blocker of Witt for his 10th goal of the season and a 2-1 advantage.
“It was kind of a broken play in our zone and Tommy O’Regan picked it up on the boards,” Fallstrom said. “I came cutting across the middle and he hit me with a nice stretch pass and I cut across the ice and fired it low blocker.”
Northeastern’s penalty kill unit was only called to action once throughout the game, but the Huskies saw their deficit increase to two during their own power play. Harvard junior forward Luke Greiner skated into the Northeastern zone and beat Witt through the five hole for a shorthanded goal and 3-1 lead 13:44 into the third.
Only 23 seconds later, Eibler answered when his shot from the point deflected off the glove of Michalek and into the Harvard net to pull the Huskies to within one, but it was not enough to spark a comeback.
Witt finished the game with 36 saves on 39 shots.
“I thought Clay [Witt] did a good job,” Madigan said. “I liked the way he played and he competed well and he did a good job. He kept us in there early on some saves, ‘cause we didn’t give him a lot of help early in the game.”
Harvard head coach Ted Donato said he hopes the win will propel his team to a strong finish in Eastern College Atheltic Conference play. The Crimson face Brown University, Yale University, St. Lawrence University and Clarkson University in its final four games of the season.
“I do think this game can be used as a springboard,” he said. “I think last year it did emotionally [give] us a lift, and I think this year coming down the stretch we’ll go in with a positive feeling coming out of this game.”
United States College Hockey Online No. 3 BC beat No. 2 Boston University, 3-2, with 6.4 seconds remaining in overtime in the championship game Monday night. The Eagles have won three consecutive Beanpot titles (17 overall).
Northeastern will host Providence College for two games Friday and Saturday night before playing a two-game series against both No. 11 University of Maine and BU to finish their season.
“We’ve been a streaky team this year,” Eibler said. “We went out west and won some big games. Hopefully we can put that streak into Hockey East wins and climb back up the ladder, maybe get into sixth, seventh place so we can play a little easier team than BC or BU, but we’ll see.”
