The Northeastern men’s club hockey team will play in the American Collegiate Hockey Association, or ACHA, March 14 to 18 in St. Louis, Mo.  

The team ranked No. 1 in the Northeast Region Dec. 8, 2024, before falling to third at the regular season’s conclusion. As the third place team, the Huskies played in the regional tournament for the first time in three years. In the past two years the team received an automatic bid to nationals, so the Huskies had a lot on the line going into the playoffs.

“All the other teams [had] nothing to lose [in regionals],” said Alexander Kowalewski, a fourth-year business administration major, and the team’s goaltender and president. “The other teams don’t typically go to nationals. And we [had] everything to lose because we’re the highest seed in the tournament. Any loss is an upset.”  

Northeastern secured its ticket to the 2025 nationals with a 3-2 overtime win against Boston University Feb. 22 and a 2-0 win over the University of New Hampshire Feb. 23 in the ACHA Northeastern Regional tournament. 

“If we lose at any point coming up, that’s it. And for the seniors on the team, that’s the worst case scenario,” Kowalewski said. “You don’t want to go in, lose and that be it. We’re expecting a couple more games.”

At nationals, teams have the potential to play five games over the course of five days. The tournament begins with pool play, where each team plays three games. Then, the winners of each pool move on to the Final Four. The two victors of the semifinal games play in the national championship. This demanding schedule takes a lot of mental and physical strength from the players.

“It is a war of attrition where you have to wake up everyday and play another game, play a new team and every single game you have to win,” Kyle Wilson, third-year business administration major, forward and vice president of logistics, said of Nationals. 

The team has had trouble at nationals in the past two years, losing in pool play. 

“We struggle with capitalizing on a larger stage. We haven’t been able to step up when it matters,” said fourth-year civil engineering major and forward Leo Byers. “We haven’t won an overtime game in two years [at the national tournament].”

The team was sent packing during pool play of last year’s tournament, despite receiving an automatic bid allowing them to bypass regionals. Two overtime losses to Michigan State University and Weber State University ended the Huskies’ championship hope. 

“It feels like divine intervention, like nothing we do works. But with an expert analysis, it’d probably be that we don’t have a style of play that’s conducive to those games, where you just have to ‘war’ it out and find a goal,” Byers said.

Northeastern handily beat 2023-24 national champions Indiana University March 12, 2024 by a score of 5-2 in last year’s national tournament, something Wilson said proves that the team can “compete at a high level.” 

The Huskies are taking a different approach to the tournament this year. 

“We’ve taken ourselves a little bit less seriously this year,” Wilson said. “Trying not to sit there and be brooding about everything has been helpful this year. We come in and we’re loose and we’re having fun.”

The season has been unlike anything the players have experienced. After 16 seasons with the team, head coach Fred Carpenito stepped down from his duties this year. While assistant coach Pat Hanlon has taken on coaching responsibilities, Carpenito remains largely involved with the team. 

“We’ve had kind of a shaky season compared to the last couple seasons,” Kowalewski said.  “We’ve just had a little bit more adversity.” 

The team finished this regular season 13-8-4, compared to 14-7-2 in 2024 and 15-6-2 in 2023.

The Huskies have battled through the difficulties faced this year and found themselves playing on the biggest stage. 

“We’re absolutely at our best when we’re there because we love hockey and not because we feel like we have to win or we have to prove ourselves,” Byers said.

The Huskies will kick off the tournament March 14 against the University of Utah before facing the reigning national champions, Indiana University, March 16 in a rematch of last year’s tournament. 

“We all have to individually play the best we can,” Kowalewski said, “and be the best player and teammate that we can in order to win those games and stay focused.”