WEST POINT, N.Y. — After suffering an embarrassing loss to BU in the Matthews Arena finale to close 2025, the Northeastern men’s hockey team hoped to start the new year off strong following a three-week winter break.
But like most New Year’s resolutions, that hope lasted just two short days.
Friday night, Northeastern traveled to West Point for the first time since 1998 to complete a home-and-home separated by nearly three months, and in a near-déjà vu to the teams’ tie-up back in October, the Huskies were handled quite effectively, heading back to Boston with a 5-2 loss weighing them down.
“We did not manage the game at all,” said Northeastern head coach Jerry Keefe. “I’m not sure if we thought the game was gonna be easier than it was… we came into Army, and they were the better team.”
The Huskies were playing from the back foot from the get-go, outpaced by the Black Knights at every turn. Army maintained possession for the majority of the first period, with a penalty apiece killed off by both sides in the frame.
Regardless of Army’s game control, Northeastern hung in there, matching the home team’s shooting pace relatively evenly, with just one shot on goal separating the two teams by the end of the opening period.
It matters more that those shots end up in the back of the net, though, and after an aggressive forecheck applied by freshman forward Giacomo Martino, the puck found its way to junior forward Dylan Hryckowian, who sent a feed towards the crease. Freshman center Jacob Mathieu was waiting on the doorstep, but there was no need: the puck took a deflection off Black Knights senior defender Owen Nolan and slipped through the five-hole of sophomore netminder JJ Cataldo, giving the Huskies a 1-0 lead in the trailing minutes of the first.
It didn’t take long for Northeastern to build upon its lead.
Following a goaltender interference call on junior Vincent Salice, the Huskies headed to their second power play of the game just under five minutes into the second.
And after just 34 seconds, they worked the puck around the zone to set up sophomore forward Joe Connor for a one-timer from the right circle, which he powered into the top corner of the net to double Northeastern’s lead.
Connor’s goal marked the last positive contribution the Huskies would witness all game.
The next few minutes were marred with penalties, with Northeastern getting assessed three in the span of seven minutes. Though the nationally fifth-ranked penalty kill was able to fight off the first two shorthanded stints, the exhaustion began to set in during the third.
With Army’s twin sophomore forwards Ben and Jack Ivey playing a game of catch around the right side of the zone, Ben Ivey carried the puck to the point and whipped in a shot from the blue line. Junior goaltender Lawton Zacher was screened in front, leaving the door wide open for Jack Ivey to get the deflection into the back of the net and cut Army’s deficit in half.
Once the Black Knights got on the board, their momentum only progressed further, peppering Zacher relentlessly with shots. Northeastern continued to lose a step on every 50-50 puck, struggling mightily to get the game back under their control.
And after a mishap mid-line change with just over one minute to go in the second, Army found themselves on an odd-man rush breaking into the offensive zone. Junior forward Nik Hong fed a beautiful pass to charging sophomore forward Adam Marshall across the zone, pulling Zacher out of position and giving Marshall a wide-open look to equalize.
Over the course of the second period, the Black Knights outshot the Huskies 18-4.
“First of all, you can’t take penalties,” Keefe said. “You let the other team back into it. We were on the penalty kill way too long in the second period. It starts with discipline, and then playing just smarter hockey. You can’t give another team chances when you have the lead.”
The Huskies seemingly came into the third period with a new mentality, starting the frame off with control that they hadn’t had all game, but it was short-lived.
Nearly halfway through the third, Northeastern was assessed yet another penalty, this time a holding call on sophomore defender Jack Henry. Army had been playing a cat-and-mouse game on the power play all night, toying with the Huskies with changes of pace. After yet another passing sequence between the Ivey twins, sophomore forward Nils Forselius picked the puck up from the center of the zone. With some nifty stick work, he dangled around two Northeastern sweaters and shoveled a goal over the outstretched Zacher, giving the Black Knights a 3-2 lead.
Once Army took the lead, they didn’t look back.
Just three and a half minutes later, the Huskies suffered yet another neutral zone turnover. Freshman forward Billy Batten carried the puck into his offensive end, and though the Black Knights were outnumbered in the zone, Batten found a sliver of space at the center of the zone with just enough room to rip a shot past Zacher to double Army’s lead.
“We were getting caught on our changes tonight a few times,” Keefe said. “We gave up some odd-mans where we didn’t get a puck behind them and we changed at the wrong time. That happened way too many times… they’re a team that kind of stretches the ice out on you, and ended up getting way too many three-on-twos, which is uncharacteristic with our team, but happened tonight.”
Zacher was pulled for the extra skater with nearly four minutes to go in the game, as early as you’ll ever see Keefe make the move.
And though the six-on-five looked composed for Northeastern, it was too little, too late. An empty-netter with just under a minute left on the clock sealed the game shut, Army completing the season sweep and upsetting the visitors 5-2.
The loss marks Northeastern’s third straight, their longest losing streak of the season thus far, and arguably the most frustrating loss the team has taken this season.
“We’ve got to get back on the winning ways here, start playing winning hockey,” Keefe said. “It’s not going to get easier again. We’re getting back into conference play and playing some good opponents. We’re playing on the road. We’ve got to get back to what makes us play well… There were spurts in the game where we started to play well, started to get to our identity, then we got away from it again, so it’s trying to get to our game for 60 minutes. That’s the only chance we’re going to have to win hockey games.”
The Huskies will look to right the ship as Hockey East play kicks off again Jan. 9 in Vermont.
Considering the way they were outclassed Friday, Northeastern will certainly have some extra studying to do as classes begin again, in the hopes that while they may have lost the battle to Army, the war is nowhere close to over.
There’s a lot of hockey to come, and time will tell if Friday’s matchup was just a misstep or something far more grave for the Huskies to assess.
Northeastern travels to Burlington, V.T. for an away series against the University of Vermont Catamounts Jan. 9-10. Luke Graham and Daisy Roberts will provide the call live, starting with a 7 p.m. puck drop on WRBB Sports Friday night.
Daisy Roberts is a hockey, basketball, and baseball broadcaster and writer for WRBB Sports. She has been covering Northeastern Athletics for five years. You can read her content here and follow her on X here.