By Jonathan Raymond

The men’s hockey team came away with three points against Vermont and Boston University this weekend, but at the end of it, the team was hungry for more.

The team executed an impressive 4-2 victory over the Catamounts of Vermont Friday night before it welcomed the cross-town rival Terriers to Matthews Saturday.

Goals from freshman forward Tyler McNeely, who was named Hockey East Rookie of the Week after his three-point weekend, and sophomore forward Randy Guzior helped the Huskies jump out to an early 2-0 lead against BU sophomore goaltender Brett Bennett.

Bennett shut the Huskies down the rest of the way, and a late first period goal from BU brought the score to 2-1. With a power play to aid them, BU was able to tie the game with less than four minutes left. A flukey failed clear left the puck open in front of the net, where senior forward Bryan Ewing picked it up and sent it past sophomore goalie Brad Thiessen for the final tally of the game.

“It could be worse, but it’s definitely a sour taste in your mouth when you’re up 2-1 that late, and you’re up 2-0 early, and then they get that late goal,” said freshman forward Wade MacLeod. “It leaves you wanting more, leaves you wanting to keep playing, to battle it out for that extra point. Thiessen played really well and he deserved the win and we just didn’t get it for him.”

Head coach Greg Cronin said there were still positives to be taken from a three-point weekend, while also praising the play of Thiessen, who had 35 saves against BU and 22 against UVM to lower his goals against average to 2.85.

“There was a lot of energy in the building. I thought the first 10 minutes were really good, and I thought BU controlled the game for the second period and I think the third period went back and forth,” he said. “It was one of those games where every one-on-one battle, won or lost, was going to have a consequence to it. I thought the best player on our team tonight was Brad Thiessen. It’s a point and it’s better than zero, so you move forward and you put it in the bank.”

Guzior, who also buried home the game winner against Vermont, said the disappointment over a tie against a team like BU illustrated how far the program has come.

“Three points is not good enough, four points is what we want there. We had goals in the beginning of the season to be one of the top four teams in the league,” he said. “We want more. We have the talent to do it, we have the players, and that’s what we’re going for this year.”

The victory over Vermont was another big hurdle for the team to overcome just one week after they had beaten New Hampshire for the first time since 2002. The Huskies hadn’t yet beaten Vermont as a Hockey East opponent, with their last victory coming Dec. 6, 2003 when Vermont was in the Eastern College Athletic Conference.

It was a stalwart five-on-three penalty kill by the Huskies that turned the momentum in their favor. Minutes later the team converted on a power play of its own when sophomore forward Chad Costello connected on a one-timer from fellow sophomore forward Kyle Kraemer to tie it.

“That was huge. We just remained positive on the bench, everyone was cheering each other on, we knew we were going to kill it. We’ve had a great penalty kill all year,” Guzior said. ” So we knew once that happened we needed one line to get out there, get the ball rolling, and that’s exactly what happened. We just took it from there.”

A late second period goal by McNeely put NU up 2-1, but UVM responded early in the third. Guzior’s third period goal proved to be the game-winner, and senior captain Joe Vitale finished things off with an empty net goal as time neared expiration.

It proved to be another big weekend for Vitale’s line. He, McNeely and MacLeod combined for three goals and four assists. Since the first three games in which they didn’t score a single point, the tandem has combined for 18 points. Vitale leads the way with eight, a team high.

The Huskies, now in a five way tie for first in Hockey East, return to Durham Friday to face New Hampshire before hosting UMass-Lowell at Matthews Saturday. Both games will be at 7 p.m.