By Jared Shafran, News Staff

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich.’- Northeastern’s first trip to the NCAA tournament in 15 years had a familiar feeling to it.
Eight days after the Huskies bowed out of the Hockey East tournament in overtime to UMass-Lowell by blowing a 2-0 lead late in the third period, another 2-0 lead proved insufficient as NU lost its first round matchup with Cornell Saturday, 3-2.
This time NU could not even get to the extra frame, as Cornell dominated the third period, outshooting the Huskies 14-4.
In the first period, it took both teams a while to get settled and there was no’ early scoring, as both goaltenders stood strong in net.
During his first shift of the game, sophomore forward Wade MacLeod, the Huskies’ leading scorer, pulled a groin muscle and was only able to play limited minutes for the rest of the game.
‘It was a little different,’ senior captain Joe Vitale said. ‘ I’ve played with Wade, I think, every game for the last two years and we really feed off each other really well. We just know where each other is on the ice at all times. That was definitely hard for us, on the first shift of the game.’
Just when it seemed like the Huskies would go scoreless in the first period, senior defenseman Louis Liotti took a shot from the point. It hit a couple of’ bodies in front and deflected in with 39.9 seconds left in the opening period to give NU a 1-0 lead.
Sophomore forward Steve Silva and freshman defenseman J.P. Maley were credited with assists on the play.
Moving to the second period, the Huskies took control of the game when Cornell committed a few penalties early on.
Halfway through, junior forward Chris Donovan made a great pass through neutral ice to find Silva alone for a breakaway. He moved in on Cornell goalie Ben Scrivens and scored, going to the top right side of the net above the glove to give the Huskies a 2-0 lead with 10 minutes left in the second.
But NU couldn’t score on the next couple of power play opportunities, Cornell got on the board late in the second when the puck was shot and deflected off a player’s chest in front, going past junior goalie Brad Thiessen.
The goal was scored by forward’ Blake Gallagher and moved the Big Red’ within one with 2:02 left in the second.
In the third period, Cornell had numerous opportunities in the Huskies’ end. NU could not seem to get any pressure going the other way to try and add some insurance to their lead.
As time ticked down on the Big Red, they played with even more urgency. On every play, they were crashing the net, looking for any way to tie the game.
With 5:11 left, freshman forward Alex Tuckerman was called for hitting from behind and sat for two minutes.
On the ensuing power play, a blast from the point deflected through Thiessen and the game was tied at two with 3:56 to play.
The credit for the goal was given to forward Colin Greening and the assists went to forward Evan Barlow and defenseman Brandon Nash.
Although the Huskies had a push in the next couple minutes when they tried to get the lead back, the momentum had shifted toward the Big Red.
Just like in the Hockey East playoffs, the Huskies failed to close the game and left the door open for their opponents to take advantage.
In the last minute of regulation, Barlow made a move to get past the defense and created some room for a shot.
He put one through Thiessen’s legs, winning the game and moving his team on to the second round.
‘That’s a tough loss no matter how you slice it up,’ said’ head coach Greg Cronin. ‘All season we have been very consistent but our power play has been our Achilles’ heel all year. ‘hellip; We’ve never been able to create a gap between ourselves and our opponent.’
In the other game in the Midwest Regional at Van Andel Arena, the No. 4 seeded Bemidji State Beavers upset the No. 1 seeded Notre Dame Fighting Irish, beating them by a score of 5-1. They were one of three No. 4 seeds to win in the first round of the NCAA tournament.
Bemidjii State beat Cornell 4-1 last night to advance to the Frozen Four for the first time in school history.
As for the Huskies, their season comes to a sudden end after losing a game that once looked promising.
‘We accomplished a lot of things as a team that hadn’t been done before at Northeastern but we put ourselves in a lot of opportunities to win big games and just never seemed to be able to pull those out so I think that’s kind of what will stick with us after this,’ Thiessen said.
NU finished the season with a 25-12-4 record, tying the school record for most wins in a single campaign and made their first appearance in the NCAA tournament since 1994.
The loss marked the final NU game for six seniors:’ Vitale, Liotti, forwards Ryan Ginand, Dennis McCauley, Rob Rassey and defenseman Denis Chisolm.