By Chris Judd, News Staff
The University of New Hampshire eliminated the men’s hockey team from the Hockey East tournament in three games this past weekend, each being decided by one goal. The Huskies, however, still have an outside chance at getting into the NCAA tournament.
Both teams struggled to score in Friday’s game, which UNH won 1-0 on a goal from freshman forward Tyler Kelleher.
The Huskies tied the series on Saturday with a 5-4 overtime win. The game looked grim for the Huskies when UNH took a 4-2 lead with 8:30 remaining in the second period. But, Northeastern scored five minutes later when sophomore forward Mike McMurtry had the puck near the blue line and passed to sophomore defender Colton Saucerman. Junior goalie Casey DeSmith made the initial save, but Saucerman crashed the net to knock the rebound in and make it a 4-3 game.
The Huskies tied the game with 6.6 seconds left in the period when Saucerman shot the puck to the net from the slot. A scrum broke out in front of the net and the puck trickled behind DeSmith. Sophomore forward Kevin Roy got there first and scored the goal.
It seemed Northeastern took its first lead of the game with eight minutes left in the game, but the referees reviewed the play and called it a no goal because of goalie interference, forcing overtime.
The Huskies won the game four minutes into the extra period. Senior forward Braden Pimm shot the puck to the net and generated a rebound. Then, Pimm chased the puck at the left post and threw it to an open net where it deflected off freshman forward Mike Szmatula into an open net. The play was reviewed, but confirmed.
“On the final goal I just drove to the net and it hit off my head, then my body,” Szmatula said. “I don’t know, I’m just happy it went in.”
UNH won the third game of the quarterfinals against Northeastern 5-4. It was a 3-3 tie going into the third period, but UNH outscored the Huskies to advance to the semi-finals at TD Garden this weekend.
Northeastern scored with seven minutes left in the period. Junior forward Torin Snydeman went behind the net and threw the puck out. It bounced off DeSmith’s leg and went in.
The Wildcats took a 3-1 lead with three minutes left in the period when sophomore defender Brett Pesce shot from the blue line. Senior forward Kevin Goumas deflected it for his second goal of the game.
Szmatula made it a one goal game five minutes into the second period. Pimm got the initial shot and Szmatula knocked the rebound in.
The Huskies tied the game with five minutes left in the period when Saucerman took the puck down the right side of the ice and passed to Pimm in front of the crease. Pimm shot it in and tied the game.
The Wildcats retook the lead five minutes into the third period with a power play goal. Goumas scored his third goal of the game with a slap shot from the middle of the ice.
The Huskies nearly tied the game three minutes later when Szmatula fired a shot that McMurtry deflected. However, it was ruled a high stick and called no goal. The play was reviewed, but the officials said there wasn’t enough evidence to overturn the call.
“It’s almost a little bit like forensics,” Madigan said after reviewing the tape. “The trajectory of the puck, there’s no way our guy could touch it on the stick and he contended when he came back that it went off our guy. … There’s no way when you saw the tape and you freeze framed it I don’t know how it was missed. It’s a bad miss at a critical point in the game. … That’s the turning point in the season as far as I’m concerned.”
UNH scored next when Pesce and junior forward Matt Willows had a two-on-one against Saucerman. Willows passed to Pesce, who scored, and the Huskies never recovered.
The Huskies still have a chance to enter the NCAA tournament, but it’s going to depend on how other teams finish the season. Northeastern is currently ranked 18th in the pairwise rankings — the formula used to determine who gets into the NCAA tournament — with the ultimate top 16 teams entering the field.
