Northeastern men’s hockey (1-0, 0-0 HE) opened its season with a win over the Holy Cross Crusaders (0-1, 0-0 Atlantic Hockey America) 6-4.

“It’s nice to get the first win of the season, that’s for sure,” head coach Jerry Keefe said in the postgame conference. “There’s a lot we got to work on, and we’ll kind of look at that … But we did some good things in the game too, and it’s good to see some of the young guys or the new guys make an impact on the scoring sheet.”

Northeastern started off sloppy with missed passes and losing the puck to Holy Cross. The Crusaders took advantage of the weak play as they scored less than four minutes into the game, courtesy of junior forward Jack Stockfish. 

This goal woke up the Huskies as they retaliated three minutes later. With an extra attacker on the ice, junior forward Dylan Hyrckowian claimed the first Northeastern goal, proving he is back after the offseason. The assistant captain had the most goals in a single game last year, scoring three over Quinnipiac University Jan. 4. 

With less than 10 minutes left in the period, junior forward Tyler Fukakusa was the first player to be sent to the sin bin for slashing. The Huskies were successful on the penalty kill and made it out of the two minutes without a dent to the scoreboard. 

Crusader sophomore forward Matt Kursonis was sent to the penalty box for tripping with a little more than four minutes to go in the opening frame. The Huskies took advantage of the extra player, taking the lead for the first time in the game. Freshman forward Giacomo Martino scored his first collegiate goal, assisted by senior defender and assistant captain Joaquim Lemay and senior defender Austen May. 

The Huskies were not finished. With less than two minutes to go in the first period, junior forward Matthew Perkins took his first goal for Northeastern. Perkins only scored one goal for the University of Minnesota Duluth last season, but during his freshman campaign, he scored six. The goal gave the Huskies breathing room at 3-1. 

“We like Perkins [with sophomore forward Joe Connor and Hryckowian],” Keefe said. “I like Perkins’ speed. I like his complete game too. He plays a mature game, so I thought that line was good.”

Twenty seconds later, Holy Cross’s senior forward Matt DeBoer was sent to the box for slashing. Connor also received a penalty with less than 30 seconds to go in the period, bringing back the same problem from last season as he sat in the box 18 times. Keefe said in an interview with The Huntington News that the team has worked on this with Connor and emphasized the importance of staying out of the box and on the ice. 

Less than three minutes into the second period, Holy Cross struck again. 

From behind the net, junior forward Connor Welsh cut around a Northeastern player to pass to junior forward David Hymovitch, who collected the puck and slapped the shot in. 

The Huskies immediately bounced back, scoring their own goal about 30 seconds later. Fukakusa took the puck to the right faceoff circle and passed back to Connor. He slung it into the net, making the score 4-2. 

“The next goal in a one-goal game is always the biggest goal,” said Connor. “We tended to get that next one every time, so it was big for us.”

The rest of the period was filled with penalties. 

A fight between the players sent sophomore forward James Fisher into the box for roughing, and Stockfish received a double penalty also for roughing. The Huskies could not hit the back of the net with the advantage. 

With 14 minutes to go in the period, Connor was sent to the box again, this time for slashing. Five minutes later, Crusader junior defenseman Brody Gagno took a slashing penalty. Neither team could pull anything off during these power plays. 

The final period started off back and forth between the Crusaders and the Huskies. 

After a controversial call, Hryckowian was sent to the box for slashing with 12 minutes left. 

Holy Cross narrowed the score once again at 4-3 with under eight minutes to go. Senior defenseman Mack Oliphant’s shot was pushed away from junior goaltender Lawton Zacher, but the puck was left alone in the crease for senior forward Timothy Heinke. Northeastern challenged the goal for an offsides penalty, but after review, the call stood. 

Zacher had 25 saves against the Crusaders, giving him a .862 save percentage. 

“He’s an energetic kid, and it looked like there was a couple in there that – he made some big saves for us tonight,” said Keefe. “So that was big. I mean, we had a 4-2 lead going into the third, and I thought we were in good shape there. We got to do a better job locking it down in front of him.”

With less than three minutes, Connor netted another one. Connor and Hryckowian stayed on top of freshman defenseman Quinn McCall and Oliphant on the Crusaders’ side of the ice, where Hryckowian intercepted a pass from McCall. He passed up to Connor, who slid the puck in after senior goaltender Louden Hogg dove to put the Huskies up 5-3. 

In an attempt to tighten the score, Holy Cross added an extra attacker, which worked. Junior defenseman Will Elias took a shot right inside the blue line that hit the back of the net. 

Twenty seconds later, the Huskies were able to capitalize on their well-controlled puck movement as freshman forward Jacob Mathieu scored an empty net goal, marking his first collegiate goal. With the score 6-4 and less than a minute and a half left, the tension began to bubble between the teams. 

Senior forward Michael Abgrall was sent to the penalty box for tripping Hryckowian with 41 seconds left. A fight began with only six seconds left in the game, where Lemay, Hryckowian, Fisher, Stockfish, McCall and Kursonis all received a 10-minute penalty. Many of them were sent back to the locker room for the final few seconds. As the clock expired, the teams were back to fighting once again. 

The Huskies are back Friday, Oct. 10 at 7 p.m. against Army West Point (0-0-1, 0-0 Atlantic Hockey America) for the breast cancer awareness game.