By Bailey Putnam, news correspondent
The Northeastern men’s hockey team added a pair of losses to its record after a trip to Quinnipiac University this weekend. A 3-2 loss on Friday and a 4-3 loss on Saturday at Quinnipiac’s TD Bank Sports Center were numbers five and six of the Huskies’ 0-6 start to the season.
“The story has been repeated a couple of times now,” Head Coach Jim Madigan said after Saturday’s game. “The last three games have been one-goal games with us not coming out on the plus side.”
The Huskies played catch-up most of the game against their out-of-conference foe Friday night. After falling 2-0 to the Bobcats, Northeastern freshman defenseman Garret Cockerill scored his first collegiate goal halfway through the second period to put the Huskies within one goal. Quinnipiac regained a two-goal lead with a shot from freshman forward Andrew Taverner late in the period.
Down 3-1, Northeastern outshot its opponents 11-7 in the final period. Junior forward Kevin Roy netted his first goal of the season 8:57 into the period to put the Huskies back within one goal. The Bobcats, however, held onto their lead through late six-on-four pressure from Northeastern, which pulled redshirt sophomore goaltender Derick Roy for an extra skater while on a power play.
NU found itself on the other side of the spectrum Saturday, going into the locker room up 2-0 after the first 20 minutes of play. Sophomore forward Mike Szmatula scored both of the first period goals for the Huskies.
Quinnipiac battled back during a penalty-riddled second period by scoring three goals. The period, punctuated by 34 combined penalty minutes, ended with the teams knotted at three apiece after sophomore forward Ryan Rosenthal netted his first goal as a Husky.
The Bobcats took control of the game 4:59 into the third period when junior forward Soren Jonzzon pounded a rebound past Roy for the would-be game-winner.
Northeastern, which was ranked 16th in the nation in a preseason US College Hockey Online poll, is currently last in the Hockey East standings. The early-season slump comes as an unexpected reality to Madigan.
“It’s not where we want to be,” Madigan said. “It’s not where we [predicted it to be] but our record is our record.”
The Huskies face the task of trying for their first win of the season in a pair of games this weekend. They play the University of Massachusetts Lowell, which currently sits atop the Hockey East standings with a 3-0 division record. The teams will meet at Lowell on Friday and again at Matthews Arena at 7 p.m. on Saturday.
Photo by Kariman Abuljadayel
