By Eoghan Kelly, News Staff
DURHAM, N.H. – The No. 15 Northeastern men’s hockey team fell 4-3 to the No. 12 University of New Hampshire in Durham, N.H., on Friday night.
John Henrion popped home a rebound in front of the Northeastern net with 52.1 seconds remaining in regulation to break a 3-3 tied and give the Wildcats the game-winner.
The Huskies have now lost two consecutive games and fell to 2-2-0 in Hockey East play. UNH improved to 4-0-0 and 2-0-0 in Hockey East.
“I was pleased with our effort – thought our kids played hard,” head coach Jim Madigan said after the game. “Just a tough break on the winning goal. We misplayed a puck at their blue line and [UNH] came back, our defensemen came back and hustled to try to even it out and [UNH] were able to find the back of the twine with less than a minute to play.”
Madigan shuffled up the Northeastern lines after last weekend’s 3-0 loss to Boston College.
The changes paid early dividends when Northeastern opened the scoring after only 33 seconds. Junior forward Cody Ferriero found classmate Braden Pimm with a cross-ice pass, leaving Pimm to walk in alone and beat UNH sophomore goaltender Casey DeSmith over the blocker. The goal was Pimm’s first of the season.
UNH equalized less than six minutes later after a tripping penalty on senior defenseman Drew Ellement. Wildcats sophomore defenseman Trevor van Riemsdyk beat senior goaltender Chris Rawlings through a screen on the power play from the left point for his third goal in four games.
But the Huskies responded immediately. Sophomore forward Joe Manno beat DeSmith five-hole off a faceoff 20 seconds later to make it 2-1, and sophomore defenseman Ben Oskroba tallied his first collegiate goal at 11:45, giving the Huskies a two-goal cushion going into the first intermission.
The Wildcats dominated the second period.
Following a penalty to sophomore forward Ludwig Karlsson 59 seconds into the middle frame, UNH junior forward Austin Block took a feed from classmate Kevin Goumas and ripped a wrist shot over the right shoulder of Rawlings to cut the lead to a goal. Block has four goals in his last three games against Northeastern.
Block returned the favor later in the period when he assisted on Goumas’ tying goal from behind the goal line at 6:40.
Madigan pulled Rawlings immediately after the goal and replaced him with senior goaltender Bryan Mountain. Rawlings finished with 20 saves on 23 shots through 26:40 of play.
Northeastern controlled the tempo for most of the third period but failed to finish their scoring chances. DeSmith came up with a huge save on Ferriero in the crease late in the third to keep the game tied.
Northeastern and UNH will meet again tomorrow night at Matthews Arena at 7 p.m.
