Northeastern men’s hockey (5-1-0, 3-0 HE) shut out the Boston College Eagles (2-4-1, 0-2 HE) 3-0 Oct. 31, completing the sweep of their crosstown rivals after defeating them 4-1 the night before.
The first period was scoreless but had multiple penalty box sitters. BC had three power plays in the first period, while Northeastern had one. Freshman forward Giacomo Martino was sent to the sin bin for tripping, and senior defensemen Vinny Borgesi and Joaquim Lemay were both sent for slashing.
Junior goaltender Lawton Zacher collected 32 saves, his third consecutive game with more than 30 saves. Zacher transferred to Northeastern in the offseason from Brown University, and he made an instant impact. His 40-save performance from the night before spared the Huskies from a possible BC comeback.
Northeastern was able to break through in the second period.
Freshman forward Amine Hajibi took the first goal of the night less than two minutes into the period on the power play. Borgesi took a shot from inside the blue line, hoping for a tip in. The puck hit the boards behind the net, then ricocheted off the net to which Hajibi tapped it into the goal mid-air.
With six minutes left in the second frame, sophomore forward James Fisher netted the second goal of the night. Junior forward Andy Moore was heading along the boards on the left side with a defender on him. He spun around and passed to senior defenseman Dylan Finlay, who passed to Fisher, who was waiting in front of the net to put the Huskies up 2-0.
With 15 minutes left in the final period, Martino scored the last goal of the night. He dispossessed a BC player on the right wall and passed it to freshman forward Jacob Mathieu who took a shot which reflected off freshman goaltender Louka Cloutier. Mathieu pushed it back towards the net to junior forward Tyler Fukakusa who tapped it to Martino, who scored.
Northeastern sweeping the Eagles gives them a chance to break the top-20 in the NCAA rankings. The Huskies will look to extend their winning streak to five next weekend against the Stonehill College Skyhawks (1-6, 0-0 Big 10) Nov. 7 at 7 p.m. Stonehill was swept by Penn State University Oct. 24 and 25 but will be fighting to overturn this streak in upcoming games before facing the Huskies.
