NORTH ANDOVER, Mass. — Northeastern coach Jerry Keefe and his team were well aware of the opportunity in front of them on Saturday.
After all the frustrations throughout this lackluster first two months of the season, a victory would have marked the Huskies’ fourth win in their last five games. It wouldn’t have been pretty, or how anyone chalked it up during the preseason, but Northeastern would have been No. 20 in Pairwise and on an upwards trajectory headed into the holiday break.
Instead, the Huskies came out completely flat.
After managing just three shots on goal in the first period and giving up a goal on special teams, Northeastern kicked it into gear in the second period on Saturday — but it wasn’t nearly enough, falling 4-1 to Merrimack at Lawler Rink.
The Warriors entered Saturday at No. 45 in Pairwise and in last place in the Hockey East standings. It was a game Northeastern absolutely needed to have. Instead, the Huskies fell to 4-8-3 (1-6-3 HE), and they’ll now have two weeks to regroup from a brutal first half before heading to the Leyard Classic at Dartmouth on Dec. 28.
“We had enough chances to probably get three [goals] in that game, and they didn’t go in, and they cashed in on a few of our mistakes. It’s similar to almost a lot of our losses,” Keefe said. “We were desperate tonight, and we didn’t bring a desperate type of game. Desperate would be you play 60 minutes of the hardest hockey you’ve played all year, and we didn’t do that.”
A handful of Northeastern’s performances this season have looked exactly like Saturday, where the team has come out flat, only to claw their way back and still fall short. In others, the first periods have been outstanding, only for the progress to subside as the game wears on. A third of the team’s games have included a major penalty, and in almost all of them, the power play has completely failed the team.
There’s a myriad of explanations or reasons on any given night, but it all boils down to one conclusion: This team has not played with the detail, chemistry, and execution that’s needed to weather the ups and downs of a hockey game, and ultimately close out victories.
“I don’t know, because it’s been different periods,” Keefe said when asked if he had an explanation for the team’s lack of consistency. “Tonight, we weren’t good to start the game, and then I thought we battled our butts off in the second period. It’s hard to figure out. It’s just our consistency overall over the course of 60 minutes is not where it needs to be to win at the level.”
Both of Northeastern’s special teams units are currently last in Hockey East and in the bottom 10 nationally, with the power play at a ghastly 9.8% and the penalty kill at just 72.3%. While there’s been blips and stretches of special teams issues over Keefe’s tenure, there has never been struggles nearly this bad: Last year’s team finished at 25% on the power play and 84% on the kill, and in 2022-23, the Huskies were 17.9% on the power play and 85% on the kill.
While the penalty kill has been better in recent weeks, the Huskies gave up a power play goal in the first period on Saturday on a one-timer from the left circle. Meanwhile, Northeastern’s lone power play opportunity came just moments after Merrimack had taken a 2-1 lead early in the third period — only for the puck to barely reach the middle of the zone.
“I don’t know if it’s about a new look, because we haven’t really had a lot of consistent looks this year,” Keefe said of the power play. “We need to figure out power play out, obviously, and maybe there’s some personnel changes on that. I thought our PK has been better of late. I actually thought we defended that PK goal pretty well, just an up and over shot, those are the ones that can’t go in.”
The Huskies were relying on more of their depth pieces on Saturday, with both winger Dylan Hryckowian and defender Jo Lemay out of the lineup due to injury.
And whether it’s underperformance, not being put in positions to succeed, bad puck luck, or some combination of all three, the reality is Northeastern’s middle six forwards have not produced enough: Christophe Tellier has nine points, after notching 26 at Quinnipiac last season. Ryan McGuire has just one goal and one assist, after leading his Colgate team last season with 14 goals and 26 points. Nick Rhéaume has just one goal, after scoring nine with Lowell a season ago. And highly-touted freshman Joe Connor has shown great flashes, but ultimately has only two goals and two assists to show for it — and 25 penalty minutes.
The team did battle back after the dreadful first period on Saturday, logging much better shifts in the second and playing with better pace on all four lines. That led to the tying goal with 10:26 remaining in the second by freshman James Fisher, who recorded his first NCAA goal after he’d missed the previous three games due to injury.
“Good to see Fish get a goal,” Keefe said. “Good for his confidence.., we got him back in the lineup tonight, and obviously he can shoot the puck, so that’s a huge asset. Good to see him get on the score sheet.”
Northeastern ended up outshooting Merrimack 24-14 over the final two periods, and had a number of good looks close to the net on possible tap-ins and deflections which just didn’t fall.
“It looked like a couple times we had some really good looks and they didn’t go in,” Keefe said. “So I don’t know if it’s just because we haven’t been scoring. When you’re not scoring, you’re gripping the stick too tight and lack confidence. You know, we score in practice, and it just hasn’t translated into games.”
This midseason lowpoint is a place Northeastern is plenty familiar with in recent years. Two years ago, the Huskies closed the semester at 8-7-3 record and No. 26 Pairwise — though it arguably felt worse given the team began the year as the unanimous Hockey East favorites and the No. 8 team in the country. Last season, the Huskies hit the break at 5-8-1 and No. 25 in Pairwise, after lugging through a dreadful 0-7 start to Hockey East play.
In both those years, the Huskies flipped the script in the second semester, but the damage done in the first half was too much to overcome to make the NCAA tournament. Still, those turnarounds could provide some level of belief for the Huskies as they attempt to dig out of a deep hole once again.
“We can talk about that. I mean, we’ve done it before, but still, it’s not where you want to be,” Keefe said. “It’s just been a frustrating first 15 games. Tonight was an opportunity for us to finish off the first half on a good note and winning four out of five games. And that starts to get you into some consistency, right? And we weren’t able to do it tonight.”
”It’s like, you take two steps forward, another one back. So I don’t know,” he added. “I’m frustrated. Everybody is frustrated right now.”
Northeastern will return to action against Providence on Dec. 28, in the first game of the Leyard Classic. Luke Graham and Amelia Ballingall will have the call on WRBB 104.9FM.