Northeastern men’s hockey won its fifth straight game Friday night at Matthews Arena, dominating the first game in a conference series against the Merrimack College Warriors, 9-1.

This win against the Warriors, who haven’t defeated Northeastern since 2015, improves the Huskies to 5-1-1 in Hockey East (9-3-1 overall).

Breaking their recent pattern of come-back victories, the Huskies started and ended strong Friday night. NU established a 2-0 lead just four minutes into the game, as junior forward Matt Filipe scored his second goal of the year at 1:27 and senior forward Austin Plevy notched his first ever goal for the Huskies at 3:30.

“We talked all week about having a real good start and our kids really jumped out quickly and took advantage of some opportunities around the net,” head coach Jim Madigan said after the game.

At 6:29, Merrimack forward Patrick Kramer cut Northeastern’s lead to 2-1, scoring what ended up being the Warriors’ only goal of the night off of a redirect following a faceoff win. After that, the Huskies went on an offensive rampage, and took a 5-1 lead into the first intermission.

Sophomore forward Zach Solow put one away on the power play at 9:25 off of a rebound from senior defender Jeremy Davies and followed it up with another tally less than two minutes later, assisted this time by Liam Pecararo. A few minutes later, Brandon Hawkins put goal number five on the board for the Huskies.

NU was just as explosive in the second period. Solow, who was taken into the tunnel after a tough lower-body hit with just under six minutes left in the first, returned to the ice determined to complete his hat trick. He succeeded just five minutes into the period when he buried a breakaway goal despite the Huskies being shorthanded, bringing the score to 6-1.

At 13:20, John Picking proved the Huskies still weren’t done, scoring the team’s second straight shorthanded goal by picking off the puck at the blue line and taking it the distance before tucking it into the net. Picking, a junior forward, struck again with under two minutes left in the frame, this time on the power play, to end the period at 8-1.

There was only one goal in the third period. Hawkins’ second tally of the game came when he netted a shot from the slot at 5:37.

“I liked our discipline throughout the game,” Madigan said. “You have to maintain discipline in this league.”