By Josh Brown
BOSTON – Riding a five-game unbeaten streak into Friday night’s game against No. 10 UMass Lowell, Northeastern looked unbeatable for the first 15 minutes courtesy of early goals from Adam Gaudette and Matt Filipe. Not only was the offense putting the puck in the back of the net, but the Huskies did not even allow a shot for nearly 15 minutes.
Losers of four straight and slipping down the Hockey East standings, Norm Bazin’s squad was desperate. So when Dylan Zink netted his ninth of the season to cut the Huskies lead to 2-1 late in the first, Lowell caught its second wind.
Northeastern would take a 3-1 lead just over a minute into the second via Gaudette’s second power play goal of the game, but from there Lowell would score three unanswered with C.J. Smith (power play), Jake Kamrass and Connor Wilson lighting the lamp in a span that lasted from 2:30 into the second period to 8:49 left in the third.
Filipe would score his second of the game just moments after Lowell took the lead to tie the game up, but Ryan Dmowski and Kenny Hausinger (empty net) proved to be too much and the River Hawks (16-9-3, 8-7-1) escaped Matthews Arena with a 6-4 win.
The Huskies (11-11-5, 5-9-3) will be back in action Monday afternoon when they take on Harvard in the semifinals of the Beanpot at 5 p.m.. Josh Brown, Dan McLoone and Christian Skroce will have the call from the TD Garden beginning at 4:45.