BOSTON — If there’s one takeaway from Northeastern’s season so far it’s this: a record never paints the full picture.
It’s safe to say that the Huskies are far past their adversity stage coming out of arguably the hardest week of the schedule thus far with not one, but two consecutive upsets against top-ten teams in the country — a milestone that the team has not seen since 2015-16.
Following a 4-3 overtime win over No. 3 Boston University on Tuesday, Northeastern took the cake over No. 6/5 Maine by a score of 6-3 Friday, reaching a season-high win streak of four. The positive cycle of boosted confidence and getting results comes at the perfect time for the Huskies, with the Beanpot Semifinals fast-approaching on Monday.
“It’s been a challenging year, but that’s a good thing,” said junior captain Justin Hryckowian. “When you go through adversity, you know that something good’s coming out of it and you’re building for it. We weren’t getting those one-goal games earlier in the year and it seems like we’re starting to come up on the right end of those as of late, so it’s perfect timing to get hot. We’re just honing in on our details and playing a better brand of hockey.”
While Northeastern didn’t dominate the opening 20 minutes, it certainly had the upper hand. As expected from a top-seeded team, Maine kept NU to the outside and limited quality chances out front. However, the Huskies rushed the net at every opportunity and struck first on the scoresheet as a reward.
Assisted by Alex Campbell and Jack Williams, freshman winger Dylan Hryckowian snuck the puck behind a sprawled Maine goaltender Victor Östman from the goal line for the go-ahead tally at 11:10 into the period.
“He’s so fast out there,” Campbell said of his linemate Dylan. “He’s good at hunting pucks and I think all three of us are good down low below the dots, so we go low to high. And getting puck retrievals off shots, I think that’s been a huge part for us.”
The first special teams action of the night closed out the frame after Maine’s Donavan Villeneuve-Houle was called for a hooking minor. The Huskies notched four SOG on the power play, but the Black Bears killed the advantage and headed into intermission down by one.
An asset of a top team is being able to bounce back and fast — something Maine is no stranger to with a record of 16-4-2 coming into the matchup. The Black Bears rushed NU’s zone early to start the second period, getting three SOG in the first two minutes of play.
In a bad stroke of luck, senior forward Gunnarwolfe Fontaine hit the pipe at 1:47, almost giving the Huskies a 2-0 lead, and Maine found the back of the net seconds later for a tie game at 2:05.
With a pairing of NU’s 78.5% penalty kill against Maine’s 18.8% power play, NU was able to hold down the fort for Maine’s first power play at 6:45 into the second frame, allowing freshman goaltender Cameron Whitehead to face zero SOG.
However, Maine was dominating 5-on-5 and ultimately took the lead with a second unassisted goal at 17:14. The Huskies gave up 16 SOG versus their own count of five for the period, evidently giving the Black Bears too much time and space down the middle and unable to break out for the same reason.
“We hadn’t been [at] our best, we knew that, and it’s a 60-minute game. We’ve really got to dig into this last twenty,” said head coach Jerry Keefe of his message in the locker room. “Sometimes you go out and play really well and you’re down 2-1. In our situation, we didn’t really play great and we’re down 2-1, but it’s a one-goal game — it’s a one-shot game.”
Northeastern had ample time to score the tying goal in the third and did so early at 4-on-4. After a perfect setup by Justin Hryckowian and tape-to-tape pass by sophomore defender Vinny Borgesi, reigning best defensive defenseman in the conference Hunter McDonald scored his first goal of the season top-shelf at 3:10.
Just over a minute later, Maine’s Ben Poisson received a head contact game misconduct and major penalty, giving NU a five-minute edge to retake the lead.
Two weeks prior against UMass Amherst, the Huskies weren’t able to capitalize on the major power play opportunity in the third period. But this time, they made up for it three-fold.
Between a minute and a half span of 5-on-4, NU notched a total of three goals to take a 5-2 lead. It was a top-nine effort, and Campbell, Justin Hryckowian and Jack Williams came away with the tallies — both Campbell and Williams’ team-high 14th of the season.
“I think it’s just about being smarter with the puck,” Campbell said of why the power play has been clicking so much recently. “Sometimes we were trying to force plays that weren’t there. We put a lot of work in practice on it and talked over some plays. Luckily today we were able to break it down a little bit.”
Keefe also acknowledged the workshopped power play and what the improvement comes down to.
“We’ve changed the units, we’ve changed the sets,” he said. “But more importantly than that to me, it’s just confidence still. Having a little bit of swagger, it’s that simple. You start winning some games, the puck starts going in the net for you a little bit. I just think this group is like that right now, they’re feeling much better about their games.”
By this point, the Huskies had caught up in shots with 29 each at 11:01 into the third period. The Black Bears continued putting pressure on Whitehead looking to get back in the game, but they weren’t successful until Östman was pulled for the extra attacker.
With the help of the Nadeau brothers, Maine’s Cole Hanson scored his second goal with 47 seconds left of regulation for a 5-3 game.
“We didn’t have a net front which is a problem 6-on-5 — you have to have net-front presence all the time,” said Maine head coach Ben Barr. “We had some chances to get to do that and didn’t. When we did score, I think we had a good net front and [it] found its way in. Got to be more consistent with that.”
Still not backing down from getting the empty netter, the Huskies battled in the O-zone until Borgesi snapped it in with 12 seconds to spare for a final score of 6-3.
Headed into its Beanpot Semifinals matchup against Harvard on Monday, Northeastern is in a promising spot with a record just under .500 now at 11-12-2, but more importantly coming off two huge upsets and a four-game hot streak.
Northeastern will have the momentum and confidence to ride on for a chance at defending the Beanpot title, ready to rematch top teams in BC or BU. While it may not be obvious on paper, the Huskies can hang with the best and continue to prove themselves game after game.
And one thing’s for certain, per Justin Hryckowian: “We’re Northeastern, we’re not underdogs — ever.”
The Huskies will take on the Harvard Crimson in the Beanpot Semifinals Monday, at 5 p.m. in TD Garden. Matty Wasserman, Khalin Kapoor and Zach Lyons will have the call on WRBB 104.9FM.