By Jared Shafran, News Staff

After dropping the first game of the Homecoming series against Maine 6-2 Friday night, the men’s hockey team scored four goals in the third period Saturday to get its second Hockey East win of the season, 5-2.
The Huskies are now 4-5 overall and 2-4 in Hockey East.
The team struggled to maintain momentum Friday, taking a total of six penalties at Matthews Arena. Two were game misconducts; one apiece to junior captain and forward Tyler McNeely and sophomore forward Alex Tuckerman. McNeely’s came nine minutes into the second period and Tuckerman was escorted off the ice 17 seconds after the puck dropped for the third period.
With 2:20 left in the first period, Maine forward Adam Shemansky scored his sixth goal of the season to give the Black Bears a 1-0 lead.
By the time the second period ended, Maine had tacked on three more goals.
After forward Robby Dee made it 5-0 Maine just over two minutes into the third period, the Huskies got on the board when freshman Justin Daniels scored his second goal of the season. Later in the third, Huskies junior forward Steve Silva scored his second goal of the season on a power play, but NU couldn’t get any closer and lost 6-2.
The following night, the Huskies converted three times on the power play and earned a win in front of their home crowd.
‘It was a good bounce-back win,’ head coach Greg Cronin said. ‘Last night’s score was ugly, but we didn’t play that bad. It was kind of one of those games where I didn’t dislike the way we played, I just hated our discipline.’
Maine got on the board first with less than five minutes remaining in the second period as sophomore defenseman Mike Banwell scored on a shot from the point that changed direction on freshman Husky goaltender Chris Rawlings.
NU, however, wasted no time in getting a goal of its own, tying it up two minutes later on a power play goal by freshman forward Robbie Vrolyk.
Just over a minute into the third period, McNeely created a scoring opportunity with defenseman David Strathman while the Huskies were shorthanded.
During an odd-man rush, McNeely flipped the puck over an opposing defenseman’s stick to a wide-open Strathman on the left side. Strathman made a quick deke on Darling and put the puck into the back of the net for the shorthanded goal, making it 2-1 Huskies.
‘We were on the kill, so we were in our zone and we got the puck and they had too many guys trapped down low, so I saw an opportunity to jump,’ Strathman said. ‘He [McNeely] saw me the whole time and heard me from the red line in. We had the three-on-one and he just made a nice pass.’
With 7:38 elapsed in the period, Maine forward Brian Flynn scored a power play goal, tying the game at 2-2. This time, the Huskies answered back less than a minute later. Tuckerman gave the Huskies the lead for good when he skated into the Maine zone by himself and snapped a shot between two defenders and over Darling’s right shoulder.
‘I thought he was our best player tonight,’ Cronin said of Tuckerman. ‘It was real important that he got into a groove there; he gives us a lot of confidence offensively.’
After Saturday’s game, Tuckerman said he knew it was not a smart decision to take the major penalty the previous night. He said he was happy to contribute to the win.
‘We know we didn’t play as well as we could in Friday’s game,’ Tuckerman said. ‘It’s now my sophomore year, I’ve been trying to add more to the team and I’m finally getting comfortable.’
With 9:40 remaining, the Huskies got their second power play goal of the night when a rebound came to senior forward Kyle Kraemer, who put it in the net with 8:40 remaining.
Almost two minutes later, the Huskies put the game away. Still on the power play, junior defenseman Mike Hewkin found junior forward Matt Lipinski, who scored his first collegiate goal, icing the Huskies’ victory at 5-2.
‘It was a really gutsy win, I’m happy for our guys,’ Cronin said. ‘The power play was obviously the catalyst behind the scoring, but I could tell we were in a rhythm right away.’
It was the first time the Huskies scored five goals since a 5-3 road win last season at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst Feb. 13.
‘I think we’ve struggled scoring goals lately and we’re looking to pour it on in the next couple games before the holiday break and get some wins,’ Tuckerman said.
Northeastern will play a home-and-home Hockey East series with Providence this weekend. Friday’s game will be at Matthews Arena with the series shifting to Providence Saturday. Both games begin at 7 p.m.