CHESTNUT HILL, MASS — Friday night’s bout between cross-town rivals Northeastern and Boston College simultaneously showed the Huskies’ grit and ability to battle back from adversity, while also highlighting the challenges high-caliber opponents could pose for the young squad. Despite a strong second-period comeback, the Eagles’ top-end talent proved to be enough to edge out Northeastern in 3-2 overtime defeat.
The Huskies have found success against their cross-town rivals in recent years. Entering Friday night, Northeastern had won four straight against the Eagles and seven of its last 10 matchups. Going into Conte Forum, it seemed they would be tough business for the Eagles, who had struggled to begin the season.
“It’s a battle,” Boston College head coach Greg Brown said of playing Northeastern. “They’re so dangerous, quick to strike, they defend well, they wait, and then the second there’s a break, they get two, three guys, four guys in the offense, and they create really good chances. [It’s] almost like a shark. They’re just waiting, waiting, and then they go.
“Those battles when you play Northeastern, they know they play to their style very well, so it’s a challenge,” he concluded.
The three periods of play plus an overtime stanza felt like four completely different games.
It breaks down like this: All Boston College in the first period (two goals to show for it). Northeastern rediscovers scrappy, ‘blue collar’ hockey in the second (a pair of their own in response). Both teams grinding out the third. In a game that was finalized by a dagger from junior forward Dean Letourneau.
The return of senior goaltender Lawton Zacher to the Husky net presumably came with the expectation of a shutdown backstop on Friday night. However, after the Eagles potted two nearly identical goals — from freshman Matias Vanhanen and senior Ryan Conmy — less than three minutes into the game, those delusions of grandeur were quickly dispelled.
Zacher’s rebound control was uncharacteristically sloppy, and coupled with an apparent inability to sustain any puck possession, let alone offensive zone time, Northeastern found itself in a daunting two-goal deficit — that, frankly, seemed more like six.
So, after getting boat-raced in the first 20 minutes, on a fast track to a disappointing return to Conte Forum, Northeastern desperately needed a second period jolt.
To his credit, out of the break, Zacher settled in making a few key saves — most notably, a breakaway robbery on Letourneau in 4-on-4 play, but a shift in goaltending was not what brought life to the Husky bench. What started as a rough night turned into an impressive 45-save performance.
“[Zacher] was great tonight. He gave us a chance,” said head coach Jerry Keefe. “It’s not easy on a goaltender when you give up two quick ones like that, and he was able to hold it down there and [keep it to just] two goals. […] Lawton Zacher [was] excellent tonight, and he gave us a chance. He got us a point.”
With the tie, Northeastern secured their first Hockey East point of the season. Their previous win against UMass was officially a nonconference win, so they remain winless in the conference but do secure one point in the standings.
As of writing Northeastern is T-8 in Hockey East with New Hampshire.
Although the season is still young, the Huskies have seemingly developed an uncanny ability to get under opponents’ skin, throwing them off their game and leading to undisciplined penalties. In fact, UMass’ head coach, Greg Carvel, discussed that very topic after the 4-1 victory in Amherst a few weeks prior.
It was again on display in period two on Friday.
Following the aforementioned Letourneau breakaway, the Bruins’ 2024 first-round draft pick took one of those types of penalties; the Huskies capitalized and the former Northeastern commit, Letourneau, found a cold seat in the middle of the BC bench for the remainder of the period.
I digress, back to the game.
By the time Leatourneau had taken a seat, Northeastern had already cut the Eagles’ lead in half (2-1) courtesy of a goal off the skate of sophomore transfer Miguel Maques, his team leading third of the season. The Letourneau penalty proved to be evermore costly once sophomore Amine Hajibi notched his second of the season in 4-on-3 power-play fashion to tie it at two.
Hence why Letourneau was promptly benched for the rest of the frame.
“Yeah, you had to let him know,” Brown said when asked if he was trying to send a message by benching Letourneau in the second. “So yeah, the plan was to let him think about it for the rest of the period [and] hope he was ready to respond in the third, and it’s great that he got the goal for us in overtime. Yeah, we have to avoid situations like that. You can’t shoot yourselves in the foot. “
All the while, Northeastern was trailing greatly in the possession category, albeit it had improved marginally, and particularly in shots (down 33-10 after the second).
It didn’t matter because BC was so thrown off the style of play they had in the first and seemingly very flustered by the Huskies’ chippiness that their systems had completely broken down.
That said, on balance, the penalties that came from a grimy style of play were costly at times for Northeastern as well. The Huskies took eight total penalties in the game and although BC only capitalized on one, it is not the way Keefe wants his team to play.
“We want to be a disciplined hockey team,” he said. “I keep talking about managing the game, we don’t need to get involved in certain things in those times of a game. So, I’m not worried about what BC is reacting to. I’m worried about what Northeastern is doing out there. So, for me we just got to stay disciplined and we got to be mature.”
However, after a back-and-forth, yet mostly innocuous third period — sans a Joe Connor chance that just barely bounced over the top of Louka Cloutier’s cage in the waning seconds, which would have sealed it.
And, as alluded to above, when it came down to it, the guy who ended up sealing it was Letourneau, off a one-time drive that squandered a miraculous Northeastern comeback.
Northeastern will return to the ice to once again face off with Boston College on Saturday, October 31. With the loss the Huskies fall to a record of 2-2 and 0-2 in Hockey East Play.
Luke Graham is the Sports Director and former Digital Content Manager for WRBB Sports. He has covered Northeastern hockey and baseball with WRBB both on-air and in print for four years. Read all his articles here, and follow him on X here.