BOSTON — New Hampshire came back in town for a showdown with the Northeastern on Friday night. The Huskies came into the game having won their last two contests, and were looking to inch closer to an even record on the season. The Wildcats on the other hand came into the matchup looking to continue their momentum generated from a 6-1 win over RIT last Saturday night.
Ultimately, New Hampshire skated away with a 5-3 victory.
The first period of the night had no shortage of action, with both teams getting on the scoreboard in a fast paced and physical 20 minutes of hockey. UNH opened the scoring for a 1-0 lead about two minutes into the game, when a partial three-on-two led to a low-danger shot on goal from UNH forward Jason Siedem that snuck through Northeastern goaltender Cameron Whitehead.
The Huskies responded well, pushing hard for an equalizer, but ran into a staunch UNH defense that wasn’t afraid to sacrifice the body to block Northeastern shots at every turn. With about eight minutes remaining in the first frame, the Huskies generated some dangerous offensive zone time, testing Wildcat goaltender Jared Whale. Toward the end of this zone time, the Huskies tried a give-and-go play at the blue line which was broken up by UNH, and turned into a three-on-one scoring chance for the Wildcats.
New Hampshire made no mistake, masterfully passing around the lone Northeastern defender, before Ryan Conmy scored on a helpless Whitehead to extend the lead to 2-0 with 6:08 remaining.
“Obviously the first goal can’t go in,” said Northeastern head coach Jerry Keefe following the game. “And then we handed them the second goal on the turnover — so we handed them two goals.”
With 3:28 remaining in the first period, a Northeastern shot from the point was blocked by UNH, but fell perfectly for junior Cam Lund. The forward was able to stuff the puck past Whale for his team-leading seventh goal of the year, bringing the score to 2-1, and bringing Northeastern closer to evening things up.
The second period wasn’t kind to the Huskies, though. The first half of the frame saw some tentative play between the two teams in the neutral zone, but the second half would see UNH widen their lead over the Huskies.
Northeastern seemed to struggle against the forecheck of UNH all night, often being unable to make crisp breakout passes or turning over the puck in their own zone. This was on full display with 13 minutes remaining in the second period, when junior defender Jackson Dorrington failed to clear the Northeastern zone, and the Wildcats capitalized. New Hampshire centered the puck and made no mistake, burying their third goal of the game to extend their lead to 3-1.
Northeastern’s woes wouldn’t end there, though. With 3:52 remaining in the period, poor defense from the Huskies in their own zone yet again allowed UNH to bully their way to the front of the net and find their fourth goal of the game, bringing the score to 4-1.
“I thought there were a couple missed coverages in the [defensive zone] that you just can’t make,” Keefe said. “I thought we did not defend the third and fourth goal well.”
Following the goal, Keefe opted to pull Whitehead from the game, sending in freshman goalie Quentin Sigurdson to man the Northeastern net. Whitehead allowed four goals on 14 shots, for a save percentage around just .715.
“I got a ton of confidence in [Whitehead], I’m not concerned about Whitey, he’s a heck of a goaltender so he’ll be fine,” Keefe said of his starter after the game.
The Huskies came out firing on all cylinders in the third period. They were able to pin UNH in their own zone for the duration of the final frame, generating a multitude of scoring chances. Just under six minutes into the period, a shot from defender Vinny Borgesi from the point found its way into the Wildcats net after deflecting off of forward Christophe Tellier up high, bringing the score to 4-2 with 15 minutes to play.
Northeastern’s persistence would pay off again when, five minutes later, a rebound courtesy of forward Jack Williams found its way to sophomore Dylan Hryckowian, who then fired the puck past Whale to bring the Huskies even closer.
With the score standing at 4-3, and with nine minutes left to play, it seemed like Northeastern may pull off a miraculous comeback.
“You just go out and throw it all out on the line and try to play your best hockey and see what happens,” Keefe said. “It’s all you can do. It’s never going to be easy when you’re down three goals.”
A flame of hope had been lit inside Matthews Arena, but it was quickly snuffed out when New Hampshire’s Liam Devlin scored off of a face-off in the Huskies zone to put UNH up 5-3 late in the game.
Northeastern showed impressive and inspirational resilience to fight back against a three-goal deficit in the third period, but ultimately their comeback fell short.
“We gotta learn to just move on, we can’t dwell, you can’t feel sorry for yourself,” Keefe said. “There’s too much season left.”
Northeastern is now 3-7-3, but will have a chance at collecting another win Saturday night when they host Brown University. WRBB will have live coverage from Matthews Arena from Amelia Ballingall, Luke Graham, and Armaan Vij on WRBBSports+. Puck drop is scheduled for 7 p.m.