The No. 11 Northeastern men’s hockey team (9-4, 4-3 HE) defeated the Brown University Bears (3-7, 2-4 ECAC) 4-1 Nov. 29 on the team’s senior day and annual “Breaking Barriers” game.
Junior goaltender Lawton Zacher remained on the sidelines after sitting out both games against Boston University last weekend, meaning the transfer from Brown avoided going up against his old team. Sophomore goaltender Quentin Sigurdson filled this role again, starting his third game of the season. Sigurdson collected 27 saves, one less than his Brown counterpart, junior goaltender Fred Halyk.
Despite the Bears outshooting the Huskies seven to five, Northeastern secured two goals in the first period.
Freshman forward Amine Hajibi netted the first goal of the night four minutes into the game.
From behind the net, junior forward Dylan Hryckowian passed the puck to freshman forward Jacob Mathieu, who failed to collect, but a flying Hajibi found the loose puck and sniped it into the goal.
Forty seconds later, sophomore forward Joe Connor decided to get in on the fun, finding his fifth goal of the season.
Junior forward Tyler Fukakusa took a shot that was deflected by Halyk, letting Connor find the rebound on a one-timer swipe.
In the second period, Northeastern let off 15 shots, while Brown had seven. Both teams were able to add to the board in this frame.
Hryckowian netted his eighth goal of the season four minutes into the second period, setting him on track to surpass his career-high of 17 goals last season.
Mathieu passed to Hajibi at the left faceoff circle, who then sent the puck to Hryckowian at the back post, who tipped it in.
Brown got on the board with two minutes remaining in the period, courtesy of freshman defenseman Matt Desiderio.
In the final period, senior defenseman and captain Vinny Borgesi found the final goal of the night with less than 90 seconds to go.
On a Brown empty net, Hryckowian grabbed the puck from behind the net and tried to curve the puck in the goal. A Bears defenseman blocked the shot and tried to push it out, but junior forward Eli Sebastian attempted to send the puck into the net. The Bears once again did not let the puck in, pushing it out of the scramble to Borgesi, who collected and scored.
The team will face No. 18 University of Massachusetts (8-8, 2-5 HE) for the second and third time this season Dec. 6 and 7 at 7 p.m. and 5:30 p.m., respectively. The team defeated UMass 4-2 in their last matchup Oct. 17 in Minutemen territory.
