DURHAM, NH — Northeastern arrived at the Whittemore Center Friday night in a must-win situation, and once again they failed to deliver, falling 4-1 in the first of a two-game series against the Wildcats.
The two teams faced a similar situation heading into the match-up: Northeastern 0-2-2 in Hockey East, UNH 0-2-1, both trying desperately to break into the win column, and the Wildcats came out on top.
It didn’t start out that way. Less than two minutes into the game, in their first shot of the game, Northeastern broke open the scoring on an odd-man rush, springing graduate student defender Jake Higgins for his first goal as a Husky.
“That goal was a nice play, got us the lead 1-0,” said head coach Jerry Keefe. “And from there on out, it was the worst game we played this year by far.”
While Northeastern showed improvements in its discipline, taking just two penalties, one of which resulted in four-on-four – and down from the team’s 4.8 per game average – UNH capitalized on the Huskies’ weaker moments.
In that four-on-four, which came from matching minors on Northeastern’s Joe Connor for cross-checking and UNH’s Marty Lavins for roughing, the Huskies lost possession in the neutral zone. Cam Lund tried to circle back on the offensive blue line and found his stick stripped by UNH senior captain Alex Gagne. Gagne burst toward the net of Cameron Whitehead, beating out Lund in a footrace, and flicked the puck top corner to tie the game.
Sloppy turnovers continued to be a theme throughout the night, with UNH controlling the majority of possession of the puck and forcing Northeastern to make hasty decisions. Meanwhile, when the Huskies did get control, they struggled to connect on passes, their constantly changing lines proving to be an obstacle.
“Nothing’s working right now,” Keefe said. “[I] don’t have a lot of answers. We came into this game and did not execute or buy into anything that we talked about doing as a group.”
The Huskies had two power play opportunities in the game, and although they found a way to produce on the man-advantage last weekend, their success stopped there, with only three shots combined through the four minutes.
On the penalty kill, the Huskies took a step up from the previous weekend’s destruction by Providence, but still couldn’t come out clean. They put up consistent clears against the Wildcats’ offense, not allowing them a single shot with the extra skater, but as the power play expired and the Huskies let their guards down, Gagne and junior forward Morgan Winters went circle to circle to put UNH on top.
With five minutes left, the Wildcats extended their lead with a rebound goal by Cy LeClerc and sealed the match with Winters rocketing the empty-netter up-ice off a defensive zone draw.
The loss drops Northeastern’s conference record to 0-3-2, leaving them just a mere one point over the dead-last slot in Hockey East, currently occupied by UMass Amherst. It’s a disappointing start to the season for a team with so much promise.
The Huskies have a lot of individual talent, from portal adds like Joaquim Lemay and Jake Boltmann to rookies like Connor to mainstays like Jack Williams and Lund. But they’ve struggled to develop a team identity, and in a conference with so many top-tier teams, it’ll be a tough hill to climb.
Northeastern has one more chance against the Wildcats Saturday night, this time on home turf, to try to turn things around. Puck drops in Matthews Arena at 7 p.m. with Zach Lyons, Luke Graham, and Chase Alexander on the call on WRBB Sports+.