The Northeastern men’s hockey team (12-19-3, 7-14-3 HE) was defeated by the No. 6 Providence College Friars (21-9-5, 11-8-5 HE) March 8 in the final game of the regular season 3-2.
“The nice part about playing Providence in the final regular season game is that it gets you ready for playoff hockey,” head coach Jerry Keefe said. “I like that because we’re battle tested, it gets us ready.”
This was the fourth game this season between the Huskies and Friars, with the latter taking all but one contest. Northeastern put together a strong performance, playing close to Providence for the duration of the game.
The first period of play was scoreless, with each team notching 11 shots.
“I thought our first period was really good — we got away from our game a little bit in the second period,” Keefe said.
In the fifth minute of the second period, sophomore forward Graham Gamache fired a shot from the left side of the ice that was deflected by sophomore goaltender Cameron Whitehead. The puck was then collected by senior defenseman Guillaume Richard before being tipped into the net by freshman forward Will Elger, who was screening Whitehead, to put the Friars up 1-0.
The Huskies conceded another goal two minutes later following senior forward Ryan McGuire’s two minute minor penalty for slashing. Junior defenseman Austen May found freshman forward Trevor Connelly in the right faceoff circle. Connelly played a centering pass to freshman forward Logan Sawyer, whose shot went past the blocker side of Whitehead, doubling Providence’s lead in the seventh minute of the period, 2-0.
Northeastern got one back two minutes later. Junior forward Cam Lund skated the puck from his own defensive zone into the offensive zone and had his shot saved by graduate student goaltender Zachary Borgiel. McGuire skated along the right side of the ice to jump on the rebound and slot the puck into the net, making the score 2-1.
The second period ended with the Huskies trailing by one.
The third period was evenly matched through the opening 12 minutes with each team trading offensive chances and saves by the goaltenders.
In the 12th minute of the third period, Northeastern leveled the score in the dying seconds of May’s minor penalty for slashing in the 10th minute. Freshman forward Joe Connor sent the puck to junior forward Jack Williams on the red line. The Huskies’ captain passed the puck to sophomore forward Dylan Hryckowian in the left faceoff circle. Hryckowian’s shot could not be saved by a diving Borgiel, balancing the game at 2-2.
The tie game would not last long, however, with the Friars scoring just thirty seconds after Hryckowian’s goal. Graduate student defenseman Connor Kelley dropped a pass to the blue line for sophomore forward Hudson Malinoski to fire a shot under the blocker side of Whitehead.
In an attempt to once again level the score, Northeastern pulled Whitehead from the net, however, the team was unable to capitalize on the man advantage. The final game of the regular season concluded with a 3-2 loss for the Huskies.
“Our team’s been waiting for the playoffs. I think this is a group that feels like when we play well, we can beat anybody,” Keefe said. “We didn’t get the win, but, did some good things that we could take into Wednesday.”\
Northeastern will take on the Merrimack College warriors (13-20-1, 9-14-1 HE) on the road in the first round of the 2025 Hockey East tournament March 12.
Frances Klemm contributed to this article
