By Eoghan Kelly, News Staff
Though they failed to make the playoffs, the men’s hockey team’s season ended on a high note when the Huskies beat No. 4 Boston University, 5-4, in overtime at Matthews Arena Saturday night.
“[I’m] really pleased the way our guys battled and competed and played with passion,” head coach Jim Madigan said. “The guys came in, they were focused, they battled and it meant something to them.”
The Terriers ousted Northeastern 5-2 Friday night at Agganis Arena, eliminating the Huskies from playoff contention. It is the second time in three years that Northeastern has missed the Hockey East Tournament.
The Huskies needed at least a tie Friday night to keep pace with University of Massachusetts-Amherst in the race for the eighth and final playoff spot. The Minutemen’s 4-1 home win over Merrimack College, combined with Boston College’s 5-1 victory over last place University of Vermont, left Northeastern in ninth place and outside the postseason.
A tiebreaker of wins verus No. 1 BC sent UMass into the playoffs. The tiebreaker was called upon as the Huskies and Minutemen remained tied in regular season points and conference wins.
With nothing to play for but “pride” Saturday night, Madigan said, as the Huskies went punch-for-punch with BU.
The two sides traded goals through the first three periods of regulation. The Huskies only trailed for 99 seconds total in the game.
Northeastern junior forward Vinny Saponari, a former Terrier who won a national championship and a Beanpot title with BU in the 2008-09 season and transferred to Northeastern this year, scored the game-winner at 2:35 in the extra frame when he backhanded home the rebound of a shot by sophomore defenseman Luke Eibler.
“This game was all about pride for us,” Saponari said. “We had nothing to play for, we’re out of the season. It’s always fun playing BU for everyone, especially for me … In overtime, it’s just a lot of fun. It feels good because we wanted to go out with a win.”
Senior forward Mike McLaughlin and redshirt junior forwards Steve Quailer andAlex Tuckerman were honored in a pre-game ceremony before the game. Both missed a full season with injuries. Madigan said honoring Quailer and Tuckerman was not indicative of whether the two would return next season. Both have a year of eligibility remaining.
Sophomore Clay Witt was the starting goaltender in place of junior Chris Rawlings, stopping 36 of the 40 BU shots he faced.
Sophomore forward Braden Pimm opened the scoring with his 10th goal of the year just 6:15 into the first period. He added an assist on Tuckerman’s fifth of the year to tie the score, 2-2, 2:16 into the second.
Junior forward Garrett Vermeersch topped off his career-best season with his 10th goal, his third on the power play, to put Northeastern on top, 4-3, with 1:54 remaining in the second, after the lines combined for three goals earlier in the period.
Terrier sophomre defenseman Garrett Noonan added his second score of the game and 14th of the season 3:14 into the third period to tie it, forcing overtime.
“It’s a tough game to play. As most of you know, our season’s over last night for a playoff spot,” Madigan said. “I just liked our resiliency and our determination out there in the game, and pleased that we got the win.”
Friday night at BU, Vermeersch put the Huskies up 1-0 just 38 seconds into the game, but the Terriers scored four unanswered goals in the second to take a 4-1 lead into the third period.
Sophomore forward Matt Nieto and junior forward Wade Megan scored two goals in a 19-second span to give BU the lead for good.
Witt started the third period and stopped all six BU shots.
Freshman winger Ludwig Karlsson made it 4-2 when he beat BU senior goaltender Kieran Millan (25 saves) on the power play for his 10th goal of the season at 7:22 of the third.
Madigan elected to pull Witt with nearly five minutes remaining in regulation, and Connolly added an empty-netter with 4:18 remaining to seal the win for the Terriers.
Despite missing the postseason, Saponari said that the team will regroup next week and immediately start looking toward the off-season.
“We had ups and downs, we had injuries, we had guys missing games for off-ice reasons,” Saponari said. “We know that we got to change some things and change our discipline. But we’re excited with what we have and what we have coming back. There was a ton of positives this year and with a new coaching staff, it can only get better, so we’re excited.”
