BOSTON — As the final seconds ticked away from Northeastern’s 5-1 victory over No. 9 Boston University, the emotions flowing from the Huskies’ bench reflected a team that was largely treating the win as business-as-usual.
Yes, Northeastern was certainly pleased with their thorough effort against a top opponent in a tough road environment. But also, the Huskies were not trying to make up for their entire season’s worth of frustrations in one night.
As Northeastern has entered the home stretch outside of the NCAA tournament picture and near the bottom of the Hockey East standings, head coach Jerry Keefe has preached remaining upbeat in practice and keeping the team’s focus on one game at a time, trusting that better results will follow.
It sounds like a cliché. But on Friday, the Huskies’ path to success was nothing fancy — they consistently found open looks from sharp passing sequences, bought in on the defensive end with both detail and effort, and remained disciplined while protecting their lead.
The result was arguably Notheastern’s most impressive win of the season.
After jumping out to an early lead on junior Cam Lund’s power-play goal, the Huskies never looked back in a detailed, 60-minute victory at Agganis Arena. The win improved Northeastern’s record to 11-15-3 (6-10-3) and vaulted them to ninth in the league standings, just two points behind eighth-place UMass to earn a home game in the Hockey East tournament.
“Just thought we played winning hockey tonight,” Keefe said. “We were committed to playing the right way for 60 minutes, and it was good to see the guys get rewarded.”
While Northeastern is committed to only looking forward inside the locker room, it also holds true that much of their success on Friday came in areas that have been season-long pain points.
That most notably included the power play, which entered the night at an NCAA-worst 9.1% success rate and had not converted in five games, but delivered two goals on Friday. In addition, Northeastern has struggled to hold on to second-period leads against good opponents on multiple occasions — but on Friday, the Huskies responded quickly to BU’s late second-period score, and then stayed disciplined to close out the game.
“We’re just focused on tonight, this week of practice, getting ready for tonight. We’re not focused about what happened earlier in the season,” Keefe said. “We’re just trying to get better right now, and the group’s been positive. Our practices have been good.”
On top of that, Northeastern’s defense has really stepped it up over the past few games. Since getting bludgeoned in an 8-2 loss to BC in the Beanpot semifinal, the Huskies have given up just one even-strength goal in the four games since.
With sophomore Cameron Whitehead reinserted into the lineup after getting benched last weekend against UMass-Lowell, the Huskies’ defense did a great job limiting BU’s opportunities in front of him, and then Whitehead delivered with some high-difficulty saves when called upon.
“We have a lot of faith in Whitey, simple as that,” Keefe said. “He’s a good goalie and came out and played really well for us tonight.”
While the scoresheet shows five goals on just 20 shots on the net of BU freshman netminder Mikhali Yegorov, there was nothing fluky about any of Northeastern’s goals — every single one came on open shots following a good sequence of passing.
The amount of open ice the Huskies had to work with was not taken kindly by BU head coach Jay Pandolfo.
“It’s very difficult to coach effort. You should have enough pride and go out and work. You’re not always going to be at your best. I get that. I understand that. But just take pride in working and fighting to win a battle, fighting to play the right way, and fighting for your teammate,” a dejected Pandolfo said postgame.
“Poor Yegorov,” Pandolfo said. “He was probably like, ‘What’s going on in front of me?’”
For the fourth game in a row, the Huskies notched the opening score of the game. This time, it was Lund who broke through on a wide-open wrist shot from the high slot at 4-on-3.
Then, just under four minutes into the second period, a terrific shift from the top line led to junior Jack Williams wrapping the puck behind the net and saucing a beautiful feed to Lund in the slot, where he found open space and wristed in his second goal of the game.
After the top line of Lund, Williams, and sophomore Dylan Hryckowian was kept entirely off the scoresheet in last weekend’s series against UMass Lowell, establishing their presence early on Friday was an important point of emphasis throughout the week.
“We’re used to going out there [and scoring], and we want to produce every time we’re on the ice,” Lund said. “But having a good week of practice and being positive is all we could do. And obviously, we got the results we wanted tonight.”
The Huskies’ second power-play goal of the night came from senior Ryan McGuire, who found open space on and buried a wrister following a tic-tac-toe passing sequence on the second power play unit.
“It was good to get on the board,” Keefe said of the power play. “Even their power-play unit that didn’t score right before McGuire, they had some really good looks. They moved it well. They were prepared. I thought everyone executed really well. So hopefully that can get us going a little bit on the power play.”
The Terriers finally recorded their first tally with just over two minutes remaining in the second frame, with junior Quinn Hutson waltzing into the high slot at 4-on-4 and finding open space to beat Whitehead.
But then Northeastern won the ensuing faceoff and scored just 12 seconds later on Williams’ one-timer to extend the Huskies’ lead to 4-1.
“It was huge,” Keefe said of Williams’ goal. “Because I thought they got the momentum there. All of a sudden, it’s a two-goal game. They’re feeling pretty good. Their top player makes a big play, for him to come out and get that one right away for us and give us that three-goal lead again that was big for us.”
Northeastern effectively put the game away just 26 seconds into the third period, when Lund beat out an icing and then found graduate senior Jake Boltmann for a one-timer from the right dot.
Most importantly for the Huskies, they did not take a single penalty in third period which could have opened the door for the Terriers (save for a Jake Higgins roughing minor with 12 seconds remaining in the third period).
While Friday’s win will not redefine Northeastern’s season, it also does not have to. Instead, it was further proof that if the Huskies stick to their plan and buy into a complete game, there is enough inside the room to outduel one of the nation’s top teams.
The Huskies return to action against BU on Saturday at 7 p.m. from Matthews Arena. Matty Wasserman, Zeno Minotti, and Luke Graham will have the call on WRBB 104.9 FM.