BOSTON — No matter how tumultuous or frustrating these first three months of the season were, every opportunity was in front of Northeastern on Friday night.
In their first home game in over a month, Matthews Arena was sold out and the Dog House was rocking. The lineup was at full health. Their opponent was vulnerable, having endured plenty of their own struggles so far this season. And confidence was riding high after last Saturday’s dominant 5-1 victory over No. 17 Quinnipiac, providing optimism that another second-half turnaround was possibly in the works.
Instead, by the middle of the third period, the sizable contingent of UMass fans in the lower bowl of Matthews Arena had taken over the building.
As quickly as the cautious optimism had arrived last week, reality returned for Northeastern.
The Huskies got outworked and out-executed in a deflating 5-0 loss to UMass on Friday, which dropped their record to 6-10-3 (1-7-3), dead last in Hockey East in both wins and points percentage. Though Northeastern won the shot battle 41-30, UMass had far more high danger looks, and the Huskies failed to take advantage of any of their four power plays.
“Great crowd tonight, and we did nothing to take advantage of it,” said Northeastern head coach Jerry Keefe. “I thought the start of the game was what lost us the game. They played Big Boy hockey and we didn’t.”
Both teams entered this weekend’s series in similar positions, sporting sub-.500 records and Pairwise ratings in the low 20s with hopes of getting their season back on track in the second half of conference play.
But after executing at a high level against Quinnipiac for all three periods last Saturday, the Huskies’ breakouts and offensive rhythm was stymied by the Minutemen from the very start. And while Northeastern adjusted to UMass’ play style as the game wore on and began generating more chances towards the back half of the second period, the top-to-bottom consistency was not simply there against a talented top six and a superstar goalie in sophomore Michael Hrabal.
“The message is we have to dig in way more,” Keefe said. “Everything has to be more important. Pucks have to be more important. We have to be heavier, we have to be more physical, we have to be more intense.”
UMass began rifling shots on the net of Northeastern goaltender Cameron Whitehead from the very first shift of the game, and freshman Daneil Jencko broke through just five minutes into action with a rebound tap-in after Huskies’ freshman Jack Henry couldn’t clear the puck from the crease.
It was a continuation of a trend from before the Holiday break, with Northeastern letting up goals that Keefe maintains are preventable with better attention to detail.
“Everything that we do, we need more intensity,” he said. “And it showed. First goal, pucks right on our stick, not intense enough. And I don’t even know how it went in, he just kind of whacked at it and goes in.”
Northeastern struggled to crack UMass’ excellent neutral zone defense, with virtually their only sustained possession time in the offensive zone over the first 30 minutes of the game coming directly off offensive zone faceoff wins.
The Minutemen’s star junior Cole O’Hara potted the second goal early in the second period on a tic-tac-toe odd man rush following Northeastern’s sloppy line change. The third goal broke the Huskies’ spirit just three minutes into the third period, with UMass captain Lucas Mercuri getting behind Northeastern’s defense on the rush and tapping in a perfect cross-ice feed from standout junior Aydar Suniev.
“That was a big goal too, because it was 2-0. We’re not out of the game. I thought our game was getting better as it went on,” Keefe said. “We just lose a stick battle going to the net and he taps it in again.”
Even as the Huskies strung together multiple minutes of strong, disciplined play to start both the second and third periods, it took only one miscue or missed assessment to gift-wrap the Minutemen’s top forwards open drives to the net, and they took full advantage time and time again.
“We gave up four easy goals tonight, maybe five because the one was an empty netter,” Keefe said, shaking his head. “Four easy goals. You are not going to win hockey games doing that.”
While Northeastern did outshoot UMass 17-10 in the second period and 17-7 in the third period, the eye test did not resemble that — in part because of Hrabal’s smooth play between the pipes and the lack of juicy rebounds he gave up, but also because most of Northeastern’s looks were from well above the dots.
And to make matters worse, Northeastern’s power play returned to a complete standstill after making encouraging progress over the past two games. The Huskies had four unsuccessful chances — including two when the score was within two goals — and got one Grade-A look over the eight minutes on the advantage.
“It wasn’t good,” Keefe said of the power play. “We had one chance, [Dylan] Hryckowian in the high slot, it was open and he missed it. But it was not consistent enough at all. Not enough momentum either.”
Northeastern still has plenty of season left, and that starts with a better effort tomorrow night against UMass in their home barn, where the Huskies have not won since 2017.
The opportunities were ripe for the taking on Friday, and Northeastern instead threw the momentum and progress of the Quinnipiac game right out the window. And now, it’s back to the drawing board.
WRBB will travel to Amherst for Saturday’s rematch of the contest between Northeastern and UMass to close out the season series. Matty Wasserman, Amelia Ballingall, and Luke Graham have live coverage on WRBB 104.9 FM. Puck drop is scheduled for 6 p.m.