NORTH ANDOVER — Northeastern’s 2026 can largely be described as one step forward, two steps back.
Last weekend’s series sweep against UNH was that step forward for a Huskies roster that had been on a five-game slide heading into the slate.
But after a set of away bouts in North Andover, that progress in the Hockey East standings was effectively negated, as they lost two of two against the Merrimack Warriors. Friday night was somewhat of a more competitive effort than Thursday, but the 3-1 loss sent the Huskies back to Boston deflated, searching for their offensive identity.
“The chances that we had, we didn’t bear down in the end,” said Northeastern head coach Jerry Keefe. “You’ve got to score to win… You can’t win much when you can’t score.”
In contrast to Thursday night’s game, Northeastern came out of the gate hot, dominating possession play immediately. They controlled the offensive zone, whereas Merrimack struggled with zone entries. But despite the Huskies’ strong play in transition, Merrimack’s backcheck negated most of the visitors’ chances.
Halfway through the period, the Warriors had pulled relatively even with Northeastern, but it was the Huskies who struck first. Freshman defender Noah Jones connected with sophomore forward Griffin Erdman in the neutral zone, and Erdman carried the puck into offensive territory. Spotting a sliver of space on the left side of the ice, he ripped the puck over the shoulder of junior netminder Max Lundgren to open the scoring. Jones recorded his first NCAA point with the primary assist on the goal.
Junior goalie Lawton Zacher made some crafty saves in the waning moments of the first period to keep Northeastern ahead, but with the Huskies’ momentum slipping, there was only so much he could do, especially with an increase in physicality.
In the second frame, the penalties started flying, with freshman forward Justin Gill — who was suspended from Thursday’s bout due to a late-game misconduct in the prior week’s matchup — being called for a hold just under five minutes into the period. Though Northeastern was able to complete the kill against the ninth-ranked power play in the NCAA, as soon as Gill was released from the sin bin, the Warriors launched an attack in transition.
Junior defender Austin Oravetz hit Gill in stride as the freshman broke into the offensive zone. With fellow forwards freshman Parker Lalonde and sophomore Caelen Fitzpatrick flanking him on the three-on-two, Gill flicked a pass to Fitzpatrick, who made a play reminiscent of Abbey Murphy’s viral move against Minnesota State. Fitzpatrick bounced the puck into the air over the Northeastern defenders, batted it back down to his stick with his hand, and fired a shot on goal. Zacher made the initial save, but Gill snuck behind Fitzpatrick’s back to knock in the equalizer.
“I didn’t like how we defended the rush,” Keefe said. “We didn’t defend the rush, and we need better clock management at the end of the power play.”
13 seconds after he scored, Gill was sent back to the box for boarding. But once again, the Huskies struggled with the special teams, getting pinned to the perimeter for the majority of the power play, and even letting the Warriors get a sniff of a shorthanded chance.
A bit over halfway through the second period, sophomore forward Joe Connor was issued a boarding penalty, which would have sent Northeastern to the kill, but a cross-check after the whistle by freshman defender Filip Nordberg resulted in matching minors and a four-on-four.
Normally, the Huskies’ speed provides a major benefit with the extra space when both teams are a skater down, but they were relatively outpaced by Merrimack for the majority of the special teams stint. And less than a minute into the four-on-four, it was once again a transition push that bit the Huskies.
Lalonde received the puck at the blue line and skated unscathed to the center of Northeastern’s defensive zone. His initial shot was padded away by Zacher, but with no Huskies in the crease to negate the rebound chance, Lalonde had plenty of space for a second attempt on net, this time burying it and giving the Warriors a 2-1 lead.
“[We had a] lack of finesse tonight,” Keefe said. “We couldn’t finish. We didn’t get any in the power play, we gave up again on the power play, and we gave up a four-on-four. Really, special teams was the difference in the game.”
Northeastern’s offense seemed to spark up a little life in the final frame, but two penalties issued to junior forward Tyler Fukakusa over the first ten minutes of the period disrupted any momentum the Huskies could have built.
As time ticked down with the goal difference still at one, Zacher left his crease, and Northeastern found its stride during the six-on-five. Following a few dangerous-looking shifts from their top two offensive lines, the special teams succeeded in cycling the puck and getting shots off in central areas, but Merrimack just did a better job of getting their bodies in the way. The Warriors had a staggering 23 blocks throughout the course of the game, negating many chances the Huskies could muster up.
With 51 seconds left in the game, senior defender Vinny Borgesi took an untimely penalty to effectively ice the game.
It was a massive momentum killer for a Huskies offense that seemed to be finally hitting its stride, with all that progress that had been building over the prior 20 minutes effectively dissipated.
“That penalty was very disappointing,” Keefe said. “You’ve got a time out… a minute left in the game, you still have a chance. You can’t take the penalty.”
With an empty net and the five-on-five in play, Warriors junior forward Michael Emerson was able to seal the night shut with just seven seconds left on the clock and hand the Huskies their ninth conference loss of the season.
With the sweep against Northeastern, Merrimack has leapfrogged its way from being two points behind in last place in the conference to four points clear of the bottom and just three behind the Huskies. From Northeastern’s point of view, even one win would have tied them for third place in the standings, and a sweep would have them in a three-way tie for first. Instead, they sit in sole possession of fifth place, with the matchups only getting harder from here.
“You gotta find a way to come in and get points, and we didn’t,” Keefe said. “It was a tough opponent, but every game is a tough opponent. You’ve got to learn from it. You’ve got to be better. You’ve got to keep working. That’s the only thing you can do. Obviously, we’re frustrated right now, that’s not going to help. We’ve got to stay positive. We just won two games last weekend; we’ve got to get back to that type of game. We’ve got to work on finishing a little bit.”
With nine conference games in the coming weeks, there are a lot of points on the table for Northeastern to capitalize on. With the Beanpot impending, now would be a great time for the Huskies to right the ship and play as they did in the early goings of the season.
The real question is whether Northeastern has just made a few missteps in January or if they are finally falling back down to Earth after flying high in October. Either way, this is a team that is searching for its identity, with not a lot of time to find it before it becomes too late.
Northeastern will resume Hockey East play as they travel to the Mullins Center in Amherst to take on UMass Jan. 30. Puck drop is scheduled for 7 p.m., with WRBB Sports providing live radio coverage; Amelia Ballingall, Max Schwartzberg, and Armaan Vij will provide the call on 104.9 FM.
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.