BOSTON — Cam Lund was that close to doing it again.
After delivering a highlight-reel goal in the second period and playing arguably the most complete game of his career, Lund was set up perfectly by Jackson Dorrington to tap in the game-winner with three seconds left in overtime.
This time, Lund’s shot fluttered just wide right.
The Huskies let a two-goal lead slip away against No. 6 Maine, resulting in a 2-2 tie in front of another sellout crowd at Matthews Arena. The Black Bears picked up the extra standings point in the shootout, taking five of six points from Northeastern in the opening weekend of Hockey East play.
For the third straight game, the Huskies hung tight with a top-ranked opponent and perhaps were a couple bounces away from a different outcome. But the record speaks for itself: Northeastern is 1-3-1 through five games, and they now have a bye week to regroup and get healthy before another tough series looms against No. 13 Providence.
“Get ready to get better for two weeks. Was that simple,” Northeastern coach Jerry Keefe said of his message to the team. “We have to learn how to win a game at home when you’re up by two goals.”
Northeastern was once again undermanned defensively on Saturday, with Jo Lemay and Jake Boltmann — two veteran transfers expected to play key roles — both out of the lineup due to injury.
Those absences forced the Huskies to ask an eye-popping 24 minutes of ice time from freshman Jack Henry, who has already cemented himself in Keefe’s inner circle of trust. In addition, freshman Seth Constance and fifth-year transfer Jake Higgins both took on far bigger roles than expected.
“I thought our defensemen gave us everything we asked for this weekend,” Keefe said. “Especially against a team like Maine, who is a forecheck team — they don’t mess around. The puck is going behind our D almost every single time, and they’re going to finish their hits…[we asked] defensemen to go out and play a lot of minutes that maybe sometimes don’t play that many minutes.“
Offensively, Keefe shuffled the forward lines on both Friday and Saturday, to decent results in terms of possession time — but ultimately not enough goals to show for it. Some of that was simply a result of great saves by Maine sophomore Albin Boija, a puck hitting a post or crossbar, or slightly mistimed odd-man rushes.
After failing to score for the first 59 minutes on Friday, the Huskies struck just three minutes into action on Saturday, with junior Nick Rheaume dumping home a rebound off a transition shot by sophomore Vinny Borgesi.
After the bottom six struggled to generate much sustained offensive pressure on Friday, Keefe was impressed by the new-look third line of Rheaume, sophomore Eli Sebastian, and freshman Griffin Erdman.
“I thought Sebastian’s line was really good tonight,” Keefe said. “I liked Nick Rheaume’s game last night and tonight, and he scored a big goal for us tonight to get us the lead. And I just liked how he scored, going to the net.”
Northeastern got their second goal on one of the most impressive individual sequences of Lund’s college career. A bouncing puck deflected off Lund’s left shoulder in the neutral zone, and he somehow managed to tap it to himself in the air, keep the puck on his stick, and then finish the 1-on-0 over Boija’s shoulder.
It was Lund’s fourth straight game with a goal, after his previous career-best goal streak was two games. While he’s been Northeastern’s biggest offensive producer, he could arguably have even more scores early this season with the repeated quality looks he’s been getting in transition — including the potential OT-winner on Saturday.
“He’s definitely taken a step, for sure,” Keefe said. “He’s got a lot of confidence, and he wants the puck on a stick. Still not going easy for him. He’s getting a ton of chances, and he’s playing good hockey, so hopefully he can continue to continue to build on that. You want him to feel good about his game right now and not dwell on the fact that not all the chances are falling.”
One constant struggle for Northeastern early in the season has been special teams, and it came back to bite them again on Saturday. Just minutes after Lund gave Northeastern the 2-0 lead, freshman Ben Poitras took a five minute major for a facemask.
Though the Huskies’ penalty kill faired decently, Maine’s Brandon Holt scored off a deflection on the man advantage to cut Northeastern’s lead in half.
That was the story of the weekend: The Huskies took four penalties on Friday and five on Saturday, leading to a Black Bears power play score in each game. Meanwhile, Northeastern was 0-3 again on the power play Saturday, and still is yet to score a power play goal in 14 opportunities this season.
“We took too many undisciplined penalties this weekend,” Keefe said. “Two offensive zone penalties in the first period, and we take a five minute major up two goals. That’s not a recipe to win games.”
After Northeastern couldn’t capitalize on a power play in the waining minutes of the second period — which featured two great looks for junior Jack Williams — Maine tied the game on a phenomenal individual effort by fourth line winger Sully Scholle nine minutes into the third.
In overtime, the Huskies had the clear advantage, outshooting the Black Bears 5-1, but could not convert on some golden looks on Boija’s net. Maine dominated the shootout, with their first two shooters each connecting to give them the extra Hockey East point.
There was again a lot to like from Northeastern this weekend, who built on their improved effort against No. 1 Denver last Saturday by once again delivering a quality effort at 5-on-5.
And with nearly two weeks off, they also will hope to get healthy on defense. After the game, Keefe described Lemay and Boltmann as both “week to week” with undisclosed upper-body injuries.
But for a program that envisions itself competing right near the top of Hockey East — and with a roster that appears good enough to do so — games like Saturday, with a two-goal lead at home, need to turn into victories. And Keefe is the first to admit it.
“We’ve got two weeks to sit on this and get better,” Keefe said.