Northeastern rebounded from a heartbreaking shootout loss against Boston University in the Beanpot in a big way, getting six goals from six different scorers across all four lines of attack to beat Merrimack 6-2 Friday night, clinching a share of the Hockey East regular season title in the process.

The Huskies (21-3-4, 19-2-2 Hockey East) welcomed the Warriors (14-10-5, 10-9-3 Hockey East) to Matthews Arena as they faced off for the first time this season. NU came in as the top team in the conference, sitting on 38 points for the season, 15 points ahead of Merrimack in fifth.

NU came in on an 11-game win streak at Matthews. After losing their first home game of the season to Colgate, they have not lost on their home ice.

An early penalty on sophomore defender Brooke Hobson meant the Warriors had free reign in the attacking zone for the first few minutes of the game. But despite playing 5-on-4, the Warriors managed only a few shots on Aerin Frankel before the Huskies got back to full strength.

The Huskies absorbed that early pressure and lashed out, striking first through junior forward Andrea Renner. Loose defending from the Warriors gifted Renner the puck on the left side of the cage with plenty of space. Her one-time shot went top-shelf, leaving Merrimack goalie Samantha Ridgewell stunned in place and giving the Huskies the 1-0 lead.

Before the period ended, the Huskies would make it two on a beautiful goal by senior forward Tori Sullivan. Hobson won the puck in the D-zone, flicking it on for Sullivan and allowing the forward to make her way up the ice, evading the Merrimack defense and finding a pocket of space staring down the Merrimack net. She wristed one past Ridgewell and into the bottom right corner off the goal, giving NU the 2-0 lead before the first break.

“I just happened to break up a play in the neutral zone, and my linemate went straight to the net, opened up a lane for me to kind of pull the puck and screen the goalie a little bit,” Sullivan said. “Took a shot, and it happened to go in.”

After a long stretch without any stoppages, the Huskies were able to take advantage of some tired Warrior legs and strike for goal No. three. A swift rush from NU’s first line attack saw Alina Mueller take the puck through the neutral zone and down the left wing, before turning and finding her fellow freshman forward Chloe Aurard across the ice. Aurard had time to take her shot and went low, allowing senior forward Kasidy Anderson to hit a redirect past Ridgewell from point-blank range. The goal marked Anderson’s 50th collegiate goal for the Huskies.

A minute and four seconds later, the Huskies had their fourth. Skylar Fontaine played a pass towards the center from behind the goal, and it was deflected slightly into the path of freshman forward Miceala Sindoris. Sindoris hit a first-time flick on the backhand past Ridgewell for her first career collegiate goal.

“I saw Skylar racing for the puck, and I knew I had to get to the net and she would get the puck to me, and right when it went in I saw Renner coming at me with her arms wide open,” Sindoris said. “I know everyone’s been pushing for me after the last couple games, I felt like I almost had a monkey on my back. So I felt a big relief and I had all my teammates coming towards me, cheering me on.”

Merrimack hit back 59 seconds after Sindoris’ goal. Forward Katelyn Rae sent a cross in front of goal, and it took a deflection off the stick of a Husky defender and slid past Frankel.

The start of the third period saw Merrimack replace Samantha Ridgewell with Lea-Kristine Demers in net, but she did not fare much better, conceding a goal at 3:48 of the period. With the Huskies attacking on the power play, they turned to their power-play-scoring expert, sophomore forward Veronika Pettey. Mueller played the puck across the face of goal to Pettey, who ripped a wrist shot near-post and past Demers for goal number five. The goal was Pettey’s seventh power-play goal of the season, which leads the NCAA.

Merrimack struck back a little over a minute later, as a point shot from Paige Sorensen was redirected in by forward Megan Fergusson.

Merrimack got its third late in the third after they won a faceoff in the attacking zone, giving defender Dominique Kremer roon to shoot. She wristed one low from the point, and it made its way through a crowd and past Frankel to make it 5-3.

But the Huskies weren’t done, as they capitalized on an empty net chance with 11.7 seconds remaining in the game to score their sixth. Skylar Fontaine found Mueller in front on the rush, and Mueller, despite mishitting her shot, was able to tuck it in from close range.

“I thought we did a good job burying our chances that we had, but [we] were still sloppy,” head coach Dave Flint said. “Credit to Merrimack though, they play hard and they play a good system. I’m happy we won, but thought we could have been better.”

It was a huge response from the Huskies after their shootout loss to BU in the Beanpot Tuesday. They will not be competing for a Beanpot trophy next week, but they still have other ambitions.

“I told the team after Tuesday, I said ‘Listen, you played the No. 8 team in the country, one of the hottest teams in the country right now, it was a 3-3 tie which, that’s how it shows up pair-wise,’” Flint said. “Today we needed a win to clinch a regular season championship, and there’s a lot bigger things that we need to take care of.”

The Huskies got at least one goal from each of their attacking lines Friday, including two from both the first and second lines.

“Successful teams, if they rely to heavy on one line and then all of a sudden that line isn’t scoring, then you’re gonna have trouble,” Flint said. “We’re getting it from all of our lines, we’re  getting it from our D, so I’m happy to see that it’s spreading around.”

NU earned a share of the Hockey East regular season title with the win. With either another win or a BC tie or loss, they will claim the title.

“We’re really big on unity, I think through all the ups and downs, like after Tuesday we knew we had to come back stronger,” Sindoris said. “We’ve all been staying together, staying positive through all the games, and we’ve just been working hard every game of the season, giving our all to try to get to this point.”

The Huskies face BC on Tuesday in the Beanpot consolation game with a chance to strike a blow to their closest Hockey East challengers.