By Eoghan Kelly, News Staff
The men’s hockey team lost again tonight, and again a poor second period was to blame.
The Huskies squandered a pair of goals in the middle frame that would prove to be the difference in a 5-2 loss to St. Lawrence University at Matthews Arena.
With the loss, Northeastern has lost three consecutive games and slump to 4-7-1 overall but remain 2-6-1 in Hockey East play.
“Credit to St. Lawrence – they played well,” head coach Jim Madigan said after the game. “Right now we’re just not a very good hockey club. We have to take stock in that locker room and which way we wanna go. We can continue feeling sorry for ourselves and have a little pity party or we can decide we want to be like men and answer the bell. Each and every one of those guys is challenged in that [locker] room tonight to see how they want to respond.”
After taking a 1-0 lead midway through the first, the Huskies gave up a goal with 53 seconds remaining in the opening period and allowed St. Lawrence (6-3-2) to carry momentum into the intermission.
The Saints came out flying in the second period and scored a pair of goals in four minutes and nine seconds to put the game out of Northeastern’s reach.
Northeastern has only scored two goals in the second period this season, both of which came in a 3-1 win over the University of Alabama-Huntsville on Nov. 11.
St. Lawrence beat the Huskies at their own game Friday, using a high-pressure forecheck to create turnovers and force Northeastern to run around in its own end. The Huskies surrendered 39 shots to the Saints, who averaged just 24.4 shots per contest coming into the game.
Senior goaltender Bryan Mountain made 34 saves in his fourth start of the season. St. Lawrence junior goalie Matt Weninger finished with 21 saves.
Northeastern got off to a slow start in the first period but managed to open the scoring 13:25 into the game when sophomore forward Ludwig Karlsson took a feed from sophomore defenseman Dan Cornell, skated out of the right corner and roofed a shot over Weninger for his fifth goal of the season.
But the Saints answered with time ticking down in the period. Following a turnover at the offensive blue line, the Saints rushed up ice and eventually found junior forward Greg Carey all alone in front of Mountain. Carey deked to his forehand and slid the puck past Mountain for his team-leading ninth goal of the season.
They picked up where they left off in the second period. After a cross-ice diving save by Mountain, sophomore winger Gunnar Hughes poked home a rebound to put St. Lawrence up 2-1 8:56 into the period.
Senior forward Kyle Flanagan made it 3-1 when he beat Mountain with a wide-open one-timer just over four minutes later.
A pair of odd-man rushes led to two goals in quick succession late in the third period.
Sophomore forward Chris Martin banked a shot off Northeastern sophomore defenseman Dax Lauwers on a four-on-two 15:44 into the third for his fourth goal of the season. Just 26 seconds later, junior defenseman Pat Raley finished off a three-on-two to make it a five-spot with his first goal of the year.
Sophomore defenseman Dax Lauwers added a consolation goal – his first ever as a Husky – with 1:07 remaining when he snuck a wrist shot from the blue line over the shoulder of Weninger.
Northeastern will face the University of Massachusetts-Amherst in a home-and-home series next weekend.
