The Huskies’ hopes for an NCAA tournament appearance and home ice in the Hockey East playoffs took a hit this weekend when Boston University swept Northeastern in a home-and-home series against between the two teams.
NU hosted the Terriers at Matthews Arena and lost in an offensive battle, 7-4 Friday night. The next night BU erased a 2-1 Northeastern lead in the third period to win 3-2.
The pair of losses dropped the Huskies into a tie with Providence for fifth in Hockey East. The team also fell to 21st in the Pairwise Ranking, which determines the 16 teams that will participate in the NCAA tournament.
Head coach Greg Cronin said he saw a distinct difference between the first and second half of this season. He added that he felt the tough stretch has given the team a chance to see who can be important contributors for the playoffs and beyond.
“Going into this weekend we were 5-6-1 after the break. Before that we were 10-4-2, so you’ve got a tale of two halves of the season,” he said. “A couple things happen; we get banged up, we get injuries, you lose a little bit of the rhythm you’re in. But everybody gets that, so I always look at it as an opportunity for other people to reveal where they are on the depth chart.”
Friday night’s contest started well for NU, as the team struck first midway through the first period with a goal from sophomore forward Chad Costello.
But about a minute later, BU answered with a goal of its own. The Terriers struck again three minutes later to take a 2-1 lead after the first period.
BU increased its lead to 3-1 early in the second, but freshman forward Tyler McNeely responded for the Huskies with a goal late in the period. McNeely brought the puck into the BU zone and took a shot from the right side that passed through BU goalie Brett Bennett’s legs to cut the lead to 3-2.
The third period proved to be the Huskies undoing. About seven minutes into the period, BU forward Pete MacArthur brought the Terrier lead back to two with a goal on a shot from the right circle. A minute and a half later, BU forward Bryan Ewing added another.
The Huskies couldn’t erase the lead as junior forward Joe Vitale’s two goals in the final period were met by two BU empty net scores leading to a final score of 7-4.
The goals for Vitale were his 10th and 11th of the season.
“We kept getting real close, and every time we seemed to start to see a little daylight, they took it right back from us,” Vitale said after Friday’s game.
Both teams’ coaches called the game a “track meet” and said they looked to deviate from that wild, uptempo style of play the next night. The two squads appeared to subscribe to this, as the game seemed tighter and more disciplined following a game in which the two teams racked up 24 penalties.
Unlike Friday, BU struck first Saturday and took a 1-0 lead into the second period.
Northeastern owned the second period, scoring two goals to take a 2-1 lead. The first goal came from McNeely, his second of the weekend, on the power play as he redirected Muench’s shot into the net in a play similar to Vitale’s goal the night before.
The second goal came from sophomore defenseman Dave Strathman with about three minutes left in the period.
However, that was the last of Husky scoring for the night and the team couldn’t hold the lead in the third period. MacArthur evened the score at 2-2 three minutes in. Ewing then sent a shot into the net over Thiessen’s shoulder for the game-winner. This dealt the Huskies their third straight loss.
Despite the bump in the road, Cronin said the team will continue to work hard to prepare for the final four games of the season and the Hockey East playoffs.
“We’re a young team. We are going to get better, we are going to go back to the drawing board and we’re going to work and we’re going to drive the systems home again, which were the catalyst behind our success earlier this year,” he said. “We’re going to go into the playoffs, and we’re going to make a push.”
The Huskies (14-3-3) look to begin to turnaround against UMass-Lowell this weekend in another home-and-home series. Friday night they’ll travel to Lowell and play at 7 p.m. before they return to Matthews Arena Saturday to play at 8 p.m.
