By Chris Judd, News Staff
The Northeastern men’s hockey team advanced to the Beanpot finals for the second consecutive year and the third time in the last four years on Monday with a 6-0 win over Harvard University.
The Huskies started the scoring six minutes in after an offensive zone faceoff. There was a scrum behind the net, the puck went to freshman Dalen Hedges and he took the puck out to the right dot. He fired a shot that beat Harvard goaltender Raphael Girard high on the right side.
The Huskies extended their lead seven minutes later by capitalizing on a 5-on-3 opportunity. Freshman forward John Stevens came off the bench and received a pass from Hedges near the top of the zone. He passed to sophomore forward Kevin Roy on the right side, who fired a shot past Girard, scoring his sixth-career Beanpot goal.
Northeastern captain and junior defenseman Josh Manson got called for a game misconduct on a blow to the head with five minutes left in the first period when he collided with Harvard’s Alexander Kerfoot, ejecting the captain from the game.
“It was a big concern. It’s our captain, he’s our leader on the ice, off the ice, he’s our emotional leader,” said Madigan. “We know the type of player he is, he keeps the opposition on edge, that’s how he impacts the game. Losing him that early hurt us. We came in down a defenseman, Dustin Darou. Jarrett Fennell dressed and we have a lot of confidence in him, but he hasn’t played an awful lot. … It put a lot of onus out there on four guys for two periods.”
On the ensuing five minute power play, the Huskies allowed no shots and prevented the Crimson from setting up in the offensive zone.
The Huskies came out in the second period and scored 31 seconds later. Freshman forward Mike Szmatula skated down the left side of the ice and passed to junior Torin Snydeman in front of the net. Snydeman knocked the puck through the goalie’s five hole to make the game 3-0 in favor of the Huskies.
Senior forward Braden Pimm scored four minutes later to give Northeastern a 4-0 lead. In 4-on-4 play, sophomore defenseman Colton Saucerman started the play from the left side. He passed across the ice to Szmatula, who passed to Pimm in front of the net, who knocked it in.
Harvard had a good opportunity with about nine minutes left in the second period when there was a pile in front of the net. Redshirt-junior goaltender Clay Witt made the initial save and the puck was lost in a flurry. Witt and the Northeastern defense anchored both sides of the net and prevented a goal.
The Huskies scored even quicker in the third period, scoring just 16 seconds into the period to make it a 5-0 game. With 20 seconds of leftover power play time, Saucerman shot from the blue line and beat Girard on the left side. Harvard pulled Girard and put in goalie Steve Michalek after the goal.
Harvard nearly scored their first goal 7:30 into the third period during a 4-on-4 play. Sophomore Desmond Bergin had the puck with no defenders nearby and right in front of Witt, but Witt sprawled on the ice to make the save.
Witt made another good save with 8:41 left in the game. Harvard’s Sean Malone received a feed at the top of the crease and shot low. Witt made the save with his right skate.
Kevin Guiltinan was called for a game misconduct with 3:27 left in the game, ejecting him from the contest. Northeastern scored on the major power play 13 seconds later when freshman defenseman Matt Benning passed to Pimm in front of the left post from the blue line. The puck was lost in a pile when Szmatula came in and fired the puck past the left side of Michalek.
The Huskies preserved the shutout. Witt made 27 saves in his fourth shutout of the season. Witt came into the game with the highest save percentage in the nation at .943.
“I think [the Huskies] played strong defense,” Harvard coach Ted Donato said. “They really overloaded the corners. We had some chances when we did win the pucks to get to the point. We didn’t do a very good job. They did a good job eliminating any offensive zone time.”
The Northeastern freshman class leads the nation with 100 points. Szmatula is currently second in the nation in freshman scoring and is playing in his first Beanpot. He participated in his first Beanpot after watching it every year.
“Growing up, I always watched it on TV, and I remember watching it last year,” said Szmatula. “It’s special to be a part of and tonight we wanted to give our team a chance to play in the finals, and we did that.”
The Huskies will play Boston College in the finals next Monday. BC has won the last four Beanpots and beat Northeastern in the last three tournaments.
“You need goaltending, you need special teams, which will determine a lot and you need disciplined hockey, which I didn’t think we were very good at today,” said Madigan said. “Those three criteria need to come together to win a Beanpot Championship. And sometimes you need a little luck.”
The puck will drop in the TD Garden for the championship matchup at 7:30 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 10. The Huskies will return to the ice before that game, however, squaring off against the University of Massachusetts on Friday at 7 p.m.
