By Jared Shafran, News Staff

After trailing by a goal halfway through the third period, the men’s hockey team pulled out a 4-3 come-from-behind victory over Merrimack at Matthews Arena Friday.
The game-winning goal was scored by senior captain Joe Vitale with just 2:44 remaining in the game.
‘It showed a lot of character for the whole team,’ Vitale said. ‘I think we have a good veteran group and we were down and out but we came together in the third period and really showed our high maturity level.’
Eight minutes in, sophomore forward Wade MacLeod took a pass from freshman forward Steve Quailer and had the puck in the slot to goalie Joe Cannata’s right side. MacLeod faked a couple shots to get Cannata out of position and wristed a shot into the net for a goal to put the Huskies on top, 1-0, early.
With 2:40 left in the period, sophomore forward Steve Silva was called for interference, giving Merrimack a power play. The Warriors were able to capitalize on the man advantage and tie the game at one with a goal scored by forward Fraser Allan.
The Huskies started the second period on the power play, but with 22 seconds left in the man advantage, Vitale took a penalty for slashing that led to another Merrimack power play opportunity.
As the Huskies got the puck out of their zone, Cannata came out of his net to play the puck. Junior forward Chris Donovan swooped in behind the net, stole the puck from the netminder and wrapped it around a struggling Cannata for the goal.
The shorthanded goal was Donovan’s second of the season and reenergized the team, giving NU a 2-1 lead.
Later in the period, the Warriors made some nice passes to get into the Huskies’ zone and forward John Jamieson fed it to forward Pat Kimball, who put it past Northeastern junior’ goalie Brad Thiessen.
With five minutes left in the second, the game was tied at two and it would stay that way until the third period.
Halfway through the third, a penalty was handed to Husky freshman defenseman JP Maley for obstruction-interference. On Merrimack’s ensuing power play, forward Chris Barton scored to give the Warriors their first lead of the game at 3-2.
Less than two minutes later, Maley made up for the penalty he took by tying the game with his first collegiate goal. NU was on an odd man rush coming into the Warriors’ zone when Quailer took a quick shot that bounced to Maley, who hit it in.
The freshman was in the lineup’ replacing defenseman Denis Chisholm who got a game disqualification following a scuffle during the Huskies’ first round Beanpot win, and was suspended for one game.
Late in the period, NU got another odd man rush coming in on Merrimack’s zone. MacLeod made a perfect pass onto Vitale’s stick and the captain didn’t waste his chance. Vitale tipped it through the legs of Cannata to give the Huskies the lead for good.
‘I really just put my stick out,’ Vitale said. ‘I didn’t see the puck until the very last second and Wade just made a great pass. It was a good goal.’
Vitale’s goal helped NU pull out the come-from-behind win and they head into tonight’s Beanpot championship game on a winning note.
‘It was a good win for us,” said Husky head coach Greg Cronin ‘Any time you are down with 10 minutes to go in a game and you come back to win it’s a good character win.’
With the win, the Huskies improved their record to 19-6-2 on the season and held onto first place in’ Hockey East with a 14-4-1 conference record.
Merrimack (5-17-3 overall) stayed in the cellar of Hockey East with a 2-15-2′ conference record.
The’ No. 3 Huskies will play for the Beanpot championship tonight at 8 against’ No. 1 Boston University at’ the TD Banknorth Garden.