For the Northeastern men’s hockey team, it’s all about baby steps.
With Saturday’s 3-2 victory over host Merrimack College, NU climbed to within a single game of the eighth-place Warriors. Including a tough 4-2 loss to crosstown rival Boston College Friday, Northeastern is now 7-11-4 overall and 2-9-3 in Hockey East play.
In a relatively even Hockey East conference, just three points separate ninth-place Northeastern (seven points) and sixth-place Boston University.
“Obviously it [the Merrimack win] puts us closer to the playoff picture,” said assistant captain Eric Ortlip, who is currently tied for second in the nation in powerplay goals with seven. “We’re just going to worry about winning games here down the stretch, it’s all we can do right now. We’re not going to try to worry about the guys in front of us, we’re just going to worry about us winning games. Obviously it doesn’t hurt when other teams lose, but we just want to take care of ourselves right now.”
The win was the 200th of Husky coach Bruce Crowder’s career. Earlier this month, Crowder notched his 100th win as a Husky in a 5-2 romp over Holy Cross. Crowder’s career mark is now 200-222-47.
“I think the meaning for the playoffs is far more important [than my coaching milestone],” Crowder said. “I think if you coach long enough, you’re going to get some of those milestones. A lot of people probably think that milestone should’ve come a lot sooner. It’s great, but I really like this team and it’s nice that it came with this bunch of guys.
“They’re a great bunch of kids, and they’ve worked hard and persevered and now we’re two points away from Merrimack with three games in hand and I’m not sure what happened at BU tonight, but it’s going to be a dogfight right down to the end,” he added. “Anytime you get points in Hockey East they’re precious, and we got two tonight.”
Neither team scored in the first period Saturday, but NU took a 2-1 lead into the third on goals by junior Jared Mudryk and Ortlip.
Mudryk took an outlet pass at center ice before dekeing the puck forward, pulling it back and rifling a wrist shot over Warrior goalie Jim Healey’s right shoulder.
Ortlip was the beneficiary of tic-tac-toe passing from Jon Awe and Mike Morris on the powerplay when he banged home his ninth goal of the year from just in front of the Merrimack crease.
In the third period, Merrimack (8-16-3, 3-11-2) tied the game on a Brent Gough breakaway, but Morris slipped a powerplay rebound past Healey at the 8:50 mark of the third to give NU a hotly contested victory.
“I thought it was a tremendous hardfought victory for us,” Crowder said. “We haven’t really found ways to win games like this, and I think it’s a good indicator that we know we can win games like this and battle back.”
On Friday, NU hosted No. 2 Boston College in a rematch of the Huskies impressive 3-0 upset of the Eagles on Jan. 3.
Northeastern opened the game up 2-0 on even-strength goals from Jason Guerriero and Mudryk, but a Ryan Shannon tally before the end of the first period brought the Eagles (17-3-3, 10-1-2) within a goal at the first intermission.
Then, after a scoreless second period, BC senior Tony Voce knotted the game with a wrist shot goal at the 8:50 mark of the final frame. Voce tapped the puck through goaltender Keni Gibson’s pads after defenseman Tim Judy got tangled with a BC player and was unable to rejoin the play after slamming into the boards knee-first.
Crowder saw the goal as the turning point in the game.
“One of our guys went into the boards. He must’ve done it by himself,” an obviously perturbed Crowder said after the game. “Basically he was hurt a little bit so he wasn’t able to get back into the play. He must’ve just lost an edge.”
Then, with just 43 seconds left in the game, Shannon scored on an empty net goal from his own blueline after he slid the puck the length of the ice from his knees.
Northeastern will meet the University of Massachusetts-Amherst on Thursday at 7 p.m. before Monday’s first round Beanpot game against Boston University at 5 p.m. at the FleetCenter.
