By: Josh Brown
CHESNUT HILL, Mass. – Coming off of a heartbreaking 2-1 loss to Boston College last week, the Northeastern Huskies (5-7-4, 1-6-2) had its chance for revenge over the cross-town rivals Tuesday night.
Unfortunately for Jim Madigan and company, BC set the tempo early and despite pulling it to 4-3 with 9:29 left, a late goal by Scott Savage sealed the deal for the Eagles.
“I didn’t think we were very good for the first two periods,” said Northeastern coach Jim Madigan, “I thought in the third period we competed much harder. We got pucks to the net, we got a little bit more offense and I thought we were one call away from going on a 5-on-4, instead it ends up in our net and they go ahead by two…so we need more guys going and we got to defend a lot better in our own zone.”
The Eagles did not waste any time going up 1-0 just 1:17 into the first period via JD Dudek’s 7th goal of the season. Fighting along the boards to the right of Northeastern goalie Ryan Ruck(30 saves), Matthew Gaudreau sent a pass to a patient Dudek in the slot who took a stride to his right before firing it over the shoulder of the Huskies netminder.
Just six minutes and change later BC doubled its lead courtesy of Zach Walker. An off-balance pass in the Northeastern defensive zone found the stick of the freshman who roofed his third of the year over Ruck.
Northeastern would make it a game just 2:59 later when Dylan Sikura and Zach Aston-Reese hooked up on one of the prettiest goals you’ll see this year in college hockey. Entering the zone with poise, Aston-Reese threaded a pin-point pass to Sikura who was charging up the left side. The junior effortlessly tapped the puck past BC netminder Joe Woll (28 saves) for his 10th goal of the season.
The Huskies would get four minutes of power play time at the 18:34 mark after Gaudreau committed slashing and tripping infractions just seconds apart, but Northeastern could not capitalize.
Midway through the second period BC would score two goals just 55 seconds apart to put the game out of reach. Dudek got it going for the Eagles collecting another pass in prime real estate from Gaudreau and beating Ruck, and freshman Zach Walker tipped in his own rebound to put BC up 4-1.
Northeastern would not roll over quite yet, cutting the deficit to 4-2 with Gaudreau in the box for hooking, his fourth penalty of the night. Apparently in the holiday spirit after receiving a gift from Aston-Reese on his first period goal, Sikura sent a beauty to freshman defenseman Jeremy Davies on the weak side that was easily tapped home.
The Huskies and Eagles traded goals in the third period, with John Steven scoring his second of the season at the 10:31 mark and BC answering just under five minutes later courtesy of Scott Savage. Northeastern had a couple of opportunities in the final 2:14 with an empty net but could not muster anything by Woll.
Northeastern will next take the ice on Sunday, November 18 at Michigan State. Josh Brown and Dan McLoone will be on the call from East Lansing beginning at 2:45 p.m.