No. 11 Northeastern men’s hockey (7-3, 3-2 HE) fell to the No. 14 University of Connecticut Huskies (6-4-2, 4-2-1 HE) Nov. 14 and Nov. 15, 4-2 and 4-3, respectively. 

“We shot ourselves in the foot all weekend,” head coach Jerry Keefe said after the Nov. 15 game. “We were in a much better position to get more points this weekend than we did … Bad turnovers. I just thought we gave them way too many easy opportunities.”

In the first game of the weekend, scoring did not begin until the second period, when UConn struck first. Sophomore forward Ethan Gardula took the first goal, tapping the puck in off the shot of freshman forward Alexandre Blais. 

Less than 20 seconds later, UConn doubled its lead. Senior forward Tristan Fraser drove down into the faceoff circle before passing it to senior forward Jake Percival, who notched his first of four goals on the weekend. 

Northeastern finally found the back of the net with under 16 minutes left in the third period. Freshman forward Jacob Mathieu passed the puck from behind the net to freshman defenseman Dylan Compton. Compton took a shot from inside the blue line, scoring his first collegiate goal. 

Freshman forward Jack Pechar tied the game with just over eight minutes remaining. Junior forward Eli Sebastian skated down into UConn’s offensive zone before passing it to Pechar, who collected the puck and took a shot in the faceoff circle, which sailed past UConn’s senior goaltender Tyler Muszelik. 

Percival added two more goals under his belt, securing UConn’s third and fourth goals.

Percival’s second goal was a tip-in off a shot from senior forward Tabor Heaslip, and his final was on an empty net with 30 seconds left in the game.  

In the second game of the weekend, Northeastern started ahead of UConn, but like the game before, the team that was originally behind tied it. However, Northeastern was not able to take the lead after the equalizer. 

“When you’re on the road and you take it to a team like we did in the first period, you expect a hard push from a team at home, and that’s what they did,” said Keefe. “At the same time, the game is 0-0. I thought we weathered the storm pretty well last night in the second period. Tonight, we got the third goal, and then we took three penalties in a row. It’s a different situation. That’s on us.”

Northeastern was missing two key players from the lineup, senior defenseman Joaquim Lemay and junior forward Matthews Perkins. Lemay was taken out of the game the day prior, while Perkins played the whole game. 

Keefe confirmed both players will be checked out by team doctors on Monday. 

Twelve minutes into the first period, Mathieu was sent to the sin bin for hooking. Northeastern was able to shut down UConn for the next two minutes. NU ranked eighth in the NCAA for penalty killing with a .893 kill percentage. 

Compton scored his second goal of the weekend, and his second collegiate goal, to give the Northeastern Huskies the lead. 

With 10 minutes left in the opening period, UConn pushed out the puck to the blue line, which senior defenseman Vinny Borgesi lunged to save and passed to Compton. The freshman passed to junior forward Dylan Hryckowian, who could not get around his defenseman and passed back to Compton, who sat inside the blue line and sent a one-time slap shot into the net. 

“I thought [Compton] played really well last night, and I thought he was good this weekend, and tonight as well,” said Keefe. 

The next seven minutes were filled with poor decisions by both teams as they battled for the puck.

With under 90 seconds left in the first period, UConn’s junior forward Jake Richard was sent to the box for tripping senior defenseman Dylan Finlay. Freshman forward Giacomo Martino capitalized on the advantage, scoring the second goal for Northeastern. 

Sophomore forward Joe Connor dispossessed a UConn player and took a shot above the right faceoff circle. The puck hit off Muszelik for Martino to tap it in behind him. This was the freshman’s sixth goal of the season. 

Northeastern kept rolling at the beginning of the second period. Sophomore forward Griffin Erdman scored his second goal of the season. He intercepted a UConn pass and shot it into the upper right corner of the net. 

Freshman defenseman Noah Jones was sent to the penalty box with 14 minutes left in the second frame for tripping. During the advantage, Connecticut pulled Muszelik for an extra skater in hopes to find its first goal of the night. However, two minutes came to a close without any changes to the scoreboard. 

With 12 minutes into the period, Sebastian was sent to the box for high sticking, putting UConn on the power play. Gardula scored the first goal for UConn off a tap on a shot inside the blue line from sophomore forward Kaden Shahan, bringing the score to 3-1 Northeastern. 

Six minutes later, UConn struck again, cutting the Northeastern lead to one goal. Senior forward Ryan Tattle drove down the ice towards junior goaltender Lawton Zacher, but instead of sliding the puck in, he passed to Shahan, who slapped the puck in on a one-timer. 

The Huskies called a timeout to reset their mindset after the back-to-back goals. 

With under two minutes to go in the second period, the officials called a penalty on Tattle for interference, which sparked controversy from the crowd and the UConn bench. Tattle and senior defenseman Austen May raced for the puck but May fell, causing the penalty. 

The penalty time leaked into the third period, but Northeastern was unable to get the puck in the back of the net. 

Tensions began to rise in the final period as Northeastern fought to defend its lead. 

With 14 minutes left in the game, UConn was called for too many players on the ice. Blais served the time. Once again, Northeastern was unable to score with the advantage. 

UConn scored the equalizer with less than five minutes remaining. The team replaced Muszelik for an extra skater, helping them score the goal. Percival scored his fourth goal of the weekend with this goal. 

Junior defenseman and assistant captain Viking Gustafsson Nyberg raced down alongside the right boards and into the faceoff circle. He slid a pass across the goal to Percival, who was waiting at the back post. 

Northeastern took eight shots in the final period, but Muszelik was on fire and shut down every chance. 

The tied score sent the game into overtime. 

With two and a half minutes left in overtime, a mistake by Borgesi gave junior forward Joey Muldowney a breakaway. Zacher did not come out of his net strong enough, as Muldowney easily slipped the puck past him, handing UConn a 4-3 win. 

Northeastern will look to bounce back next weekend against No. 13 Boston University (5-6-1, 3-3 HE) Nov. 21 and 22. The first game is at Matthews Arena at 7 p.m., and the second is at BU at 7 p.m. The last time the Huskies met the Terriers, they split the weekend, winning 5-1 Feb. 21 and losing 3-1 Feb. 22.