By Gordon Weigers, news correspondent
The Northeastern men’s hockey team finished the regular season this weekend with back-to-back games against the Boston University (BU) Terriers. NU won the first matchup 6-5 at BU before losing 6-1 at home on Senior Night.
Junior forward Kevin Roy was named Warrior Hockey Player of the Month by Hockey East on Monday, March 2. In February, Roy scored eight goals and tallied nine assists to lead the Huskies to a 6-3-0 record. Roy, who reached the 100-point mark on Jan. 6, now has 123 career points, 25th on the NU all-time career scoring record.
“When you look at how good we’ve been, it gives us a lot of confidence,” Roy said.
In the series against BU, the Huskies were led by three players who tallied three points each this weekend – Roy and sophomore forwards Dalen Hedges and John Stevens.
“John Stevens has been playing his best hockey the last three weeks,” Associate Head Coach Jerry Keefe, filling in for suspended Head Coach Jim Madigan, said. “He’s a leader and guys are feeding off of that.”
NU got on the board first on Friday night when sophomore forward Mike Szmatula tipped in a shot by junior defenseman Dustin Darou. Szmatula’s score was followed by a power play goal from Roy. Only 23 seconds later, freshman forward Nolan Stevens scored to put the Huskies up 3-0.
After giving up two goals late in the first period, NU once again scored three goals in a row. Sophomore forward Zach Aston-Reese continued his late-season tear by scoring his eleventh goal of the season. Freshman forward Dylan Sikura added a goal, followed by a goal by Hedges.
BU scored in the last minute of the period and the Huskies led 6-3 going into the third. The Terriers scored two power play goals in the third period but NU hung on to win 6-5. Senior forward Evan Rodrigues had a hat trick for the Terriers, but it was not enough to beat the resilient Huskies.
“We never really got down when BU made their push,” Keefe said.
Saturday’s Senior Night was the final regular season home game for the four Huskies graduating after this season. Seniors forward Adam Reid and defenseman Dax Lauwers and redshirt seniors goalie Clay Witt and forward Torin Snydeman were all honored before the game.
Despite the huge Matthews Arena crowd, it was the Terriers who came out flying in the first period on Saturday. Junior forward Ahti Oksanen recorded four points for BU and was a key member of a power play unit that struck three times in the game.
“We’ve been victimized on the penalty kill,” Madigan said. “It’s suicide to take seven penalties against [BU].”
Freshman forward Jack Eichel tallied three points to further his lead in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) scoring race. Eichel has 55 points, BU’s Rodriguez is in second with 49 and Roy sits in seventh with 43 points.
Junior defenseman Matt Grzelcyk scored his third goal in as many games against the Huskies. Grzelcyk scored the winning goal for BU on Monday night in the Beanpot final.
Roy scored NU’s only goal on Saturday as he took a pass from Hedges and ripped it by the glove of junior goalie Matt O’Connor.
Madigan was allowed to participate in the pregame ceremony that honored NU’s seniors, but was forced to watch the game from the press box as part of his two-game suspension by Hockey East for his comments about referees after the Beanpot.
“They’re a hard team to play a catch-up game with,” Madigan said. “They just kept on coming.”
NU will now prepare for a best-of-three series with the Merrimack College Warriors. Merrimack finished the season with a 14-16-4 record and finished eleventh in Hockey East. The Huskies will host the Warriors on Friday at 7 p.m. and Saturday at 4 p.m. at Matthews Arena. If a third game is necessary, it will be played Sunday at 4:30 p.m. at Northeastern.
Photo courtesy Jim Pierce, Northeastern Athletics
