BURLINGTON, VT — As Jack Williams buried his second goal of the night to put Northeastern up 3-1 in the waning minutes of regulation, he let out a triumphant yell.
Then, without breaking stride, Williams pointed his stick in the direction of the fans lining the boards at Gutterson Fieldhouse, tucked his hands together beneath his right ear, and wished them all goodnight.
Yes, it appears the Huskies and their captain finally have some swagger again.
After netting the overtime winner in Friday’s 2-1 victory, Williams scored two more clutch goals on Saturday to lead Northeastern to a 3-2 win over Vermont. The victory secured the Huskies’ first series sweep of the season, and Northeastern (9-10-3, 4-7-3 Hockey East) has now won five of their past six games and improved to No. 18 in the Pairwise rankings.
“We’ve talked all year about playing a full weekend, and I really think this was our first full weekend of play,” said Williams. “So it felt nice to close it out there.”
Though it feels like another lifetime, it was only eight days ago that Northeastern was humiliated in a 5-0 loss to UMass in front of a sellout crowd at Matthews Arena, which prompted head coach Jerry Keefe to say “they played Big Boy hockey and we didn’t.”
And while the Huskies said all the right things about keeping their heads down after Saturday’s win, Williams’ demonstrative goal celebration also showed the exhale that comes with finally completing the job across an entire weekend.
“I think we’re just starting to figure out how this team has to play to win,” Keefe said. “We’re just learning that we’re going to have to play in a lot of tight games…we know that pretty much every game the rest of the way, if we’re going to win them, it’s going to be somewhat similar to that.”
Northeastern’s offense was mostly quiet over the first 35 minutes of Saturday’s game, falling down 1-0 on a tip goal by Vermont junior Massimo Lombardi in the first period, and failing to capitalize on a five-minute power play in second frame after Catamounts senior Blake Steenerson took a game misconduct for cross checking Jake Boltmann in the head.
The Huskies finally made their surge in the late second period, with Williams and Cam Lund each beating Vermont goalie Axel Mangbo less than a minute apart to give Northeastern a 2-1 lead headed into the third.
And while the Huskies have had trouble holding onto late leads all season, the difference this weekend was that they stuck to their details and remained disciplined even as Vermont made their inevitable push.
“It’s just finding a way to turn those one goal games into wins,” Williams said. “We’ve talked a lot this year about what winning hockey looks like, and it’s starting to click with our guys just managing pucks in the third period, making plays when they are there.”
Despite Northeastern’s struggles throughout the first two-thirds of the season, Williams has been a steadying presence and performed up to expectations — his season-long totals now stand at 12 goals and 28 points, with the latter mark tied for second in Hockey East and 10th nationally.
And when the Huskies once again found themselves in close games this weekend that have so often gone the other way, it was Williams asserting himself as a goal scorer to put the team over the top. His overtime winner on Friday and two goals on Saturday were each the result of individual efforts to win puck battles, dangle through traffic and create space in the low slot, and then beat Mangbo blocker-side high every time.
“He scored two big time goals, and he didn’t do them in a six goal game, right? He did them when we needed them in really huge situations,” Keefe said of Williams. “When we talk about hard skill, it means you play the game the right way, you play 200 feet, and then your skill takes over. And that was a great example. It’s great to see when your captain is doing that.”
And while Williams is rightfully the star of this weekend, two other key factors have led to Northeastern’s resurgent performance over the past three weeks (save for that one UMass clunker last Friday):
Firstly, Whitehead has broken out of his slump from last month and is performing up to the All-Hockey East expectations bestowed upon him when the season began. After posting a dismal .863 SV% in the final five games to close 2024 — which included letting in a handful of goals on routine chances, prompting him to be pulled by Keefe on two separate occasions — Whitehead holds a .947 SV% in first five games of 2025.
And secondly, Northeastern’s penalty kill has been performing far better of late. Though the Huskies continue to have issues with taking too many penalties — in particular Joe Connor, who was sent to the box twice on Saturday and is now top five nationally in penalty minutes — those penalties have not cost Northeastern simply because the kill has been so effective.
The Huskies’ penalty kill closed the first semester at 72.3%, which was worst in Hockey East and in the bottom 10 nationally. In the seven games since, Northeastern has killed 21 of 23 power plays, including all eight against Vermont this weekend.
“The whole unit has really come together, starting with how we’re preparing,” Keefe said of the penalty kill. “It’s just about gaining confidence, finding a rhythm, and then seeing that work turn into success.”
For Williams and the four other juniors who have been with the Huskies program for the past two years, finding a rhythm at this exact point in the season is nothing new. Following a rocky first half of last season, Northeastern closed with a 10-4-1 record after Jan. 26. In the 2022-23 campaign, the Huskies posted a 9-4-2 mark after Jan. 17.
“For whatever reason, we always just come out slow and pick it up around this time of year,” Williams said.
And here Northeastern finds itself once again, with the calendar flipping to late January and the once-left-for-dead Huskies showing signs of life.
Northeastern returns to action on Saturday, Jan. 25 in a home contest against Merrimack. Matty Wasserman, Zeno Minotti, and Amelia Ballingall will have the call at 7:00 p.m. on WRBB 104.9FM.