BOSTON – In December, Boston University played spoiler as they roared back from a late deficit to take down Northeastern in Matthews Arena’s final hurrah.
On Monday, those same Terriers shattered Northeastern’s dreams of breathing life into a rapidly dying season with a Beanpot championship, knocking the Huskies out in a dramatic shootout victory.
This one got underway slowly, with both sides looking tentative and reluctant to make a mistake in front of a loud TD Garden atmosphere. In a wrinkle for Northeastern, head coach Jerry Keefe opted to go with fourth-line center Eli Sebastian in the starting lineup, replacing Amine Hajibi in a trio that otherwise mirrored the first line. Although neither team was able to generate high-quality chances in the open, it was the Terriers who began to impose their will on the game, cycling the puck in the offensive zone and putting the onus on Northeastern to hold their defensive shape.
Hold their shape they did, and with 11:43 to play, a mistake by BU freshman defenseman Charlie Trethewey allowed Hajibi to skate free down the left side. A flailing Trethewey had no choice but to haul him down, and the Huskies had their first power play of the evening.
With the man advantage, Northeastern took the initiative for the first time. A dominant power play quarterbacked by senior defenseman Vinny Borgesi hemmed BU in deep, and after a point shot left the Terriers scrambling, Borgesi fed junior forward Dylan Hryckowian in the left slot. Hryckowian’s one-time slapper beat Mikhail Yegorov to draw first blood for the Huskies.
From there, Northeastern found the front foot, but a kneeing minor on Andy Moore handed BU a power play. Although the Huskies’ penalty killers did their jobs, the momentum swung back to the Terriers, where it’d stay for the rest of the period.
That momentum threatened the lead on multiple occasions, with Northeastern netminder Lawton Zacher forced into a number of impressive saves including a sprawling, airborne kick save to deny BU’s Cole Eiserman on a wide-angle rebound. Zacher was up to snuff every time, though, and the frame ended with Northeastern in front 1-0.
“He’s a big, big game goalie,” Keefe said. “You can see that. He did everything he could.”
It wouldn’t stay 1-0 for long. Less than two minutes into the second period, the Terriers struck, taking advantage of some sloppy play from their opponents to gain the zone. Once there, a Trethewey netfront fling deflected off freshman center Jonathan Morello, rooting Zacher to the spot as it caromed into the back of the net.
The equalizer got BU’s tails up, applying waves of pressure to an increasingly beleaguered Northeastern defense corps. Again, though, it’d be the Huskies that broke through. Sophomore defender Jack Henry won a puck battle in the corner, finding Jacob Mathieu up the boards. Mathieu skated onwards, combining for a nice one-two with Hryckowian at the blue line before skating in. From just above the right circle, Mathieu rifled a wrist shot that beat Yegorov to his blocker side, bulging the back of the net. In a flash, the Huskies regained their one-goal cushion.
It only took three minutes between Morello’s goal and Mathieu’s, and it’d be around the same gap between Mathieu’s and BU’s ensuing equalizer. This one was entirely Northeastern’s doing, as a fumble in the offensive zone from senior defenseman Austen May allowed BU sophomore forward Nick Roukanakis to skate in 2-on-1. With Northeastern’s Dylan Finlay drifting, Roukanakis took it himself, powering a shot past Zacher into the far corner to knot this one at two.
The remainder of the second period continued at a breakneck pace, with BU owning the majority of the chances. The scoreline remained even, though, even as the Terriers used their speed and skill to press the issue far more than Northeastern did. Zacher again came up big, putting together a personal highlight reel that peaked with a swiping stick save from his back as Eiserman tried to jam home into a yawning cage.
This one stayed at 2-2 throughout the entire third period. BU had the upper hand, peppering Zacher’s crease with shot after shot, but without any of the high-grade chances that led to their two second-period goals. In fact, it was Northeastern who might’ve felt unlucky not to score, as freshman center Giacomo Martino rang the post and Hryckowian couldn’t quite poke home off of a BU slip in front of their own net. For his part, Zacher continued to make saves, and this one wound down to the final buzzer in relatively calm fashion.
Overtime dragged on, with stoppage after stoppage killing much of the back-and-forth play characteristic of most 3-on-3 overtimes. However, with 2:32 remaining, a careening Eiserman net drive spiraled out of control, sending the sophomore barreling into Zacher in his crease. Zacher stayed down for several minutes, keeled over with hands on his right knee as a vibrant TD Garden crowd fell unnervingly silent.
Zacher would remain in the game, fortunately for Northeastern. And they’d need him, too, as the Huskies’ netminder made a few key saves down the stretch.
With less than a minute remaining, though, this one looked over. A quick rush gave way to an open shooting lane for BU’s Ryder Ritchie, who snapped one over the shoulder of Zacher and into the net. As the Terriers rushed the ice, however, multiple officials interrupted proceedings, waving the goal off for a blatant interference call on BU captain Gavin McCarthy.
Northeastern did nothing on the ensuing powerplay, and the five-minute overtime elapsed with the score still locked at two apiece. The deadlock, of course, gave way to a shootout — a rapid-fire, individual contest to decide the victor after 65 minutes of team hockey couldn’t do the trick.
The last time any Beanpot game went to a shootout? February 13, 2023, when Northeastern clinched their first of back-to-back Beanpot titles with a shootout win over Harvard. In that one, netminder Devon Levi staved off all three Crimson shots, and the Huskies turned a narrow 1-0 shootout margin into an eighth Beanpot trophy.
This round wouldn’t go the same way. Northeastern’s Giacomo Martino missed his attempt, while BU’s Jack Harvey scored. The Huskies clawed back into it when Hryckowian scored and Zacher stopped Eiserman, but after Mathieu’s attempt was pawed away by Yegorov, the fate of the game fell on the stick of sophomore defenseman Cole Hutson.
Hutson, who’d been everything but perfect all evening long, made no mistake. He slalomed in on Zacher, deking before coming around to his backhand. Hutson’s backhand shot went low and hard, trying to sneak under the left pad of Zacher.
Hockey, as with most other sports, is a game of inches. The margin between winning and losing can be so fine it’s almost difficult to comprehend, or accept. One inch can make the difference between a win and a loss, a fiesta and a dirge, a success and a failure.
Such was the case here. Zacher got to his spot — he really did — but whatever part of his padding got in between the puck and the net just wasn’t firm enough, or close enough to his body. Hutson’s shot took a nick off the Northeastern goaltender, but instead of ricocheting back to where it came, the deflection was only enough to slow the puck down to a crawl as it crept agonizingly across the goal line.
By the time it came to a stop, the celebrations were already underway. One inch — one measly inch — went BU’s way, and the Terriers advanced to the late game next Monday.
“[Tonight] was a good college hockey game,” Keefe said. “I’ve been on the right side of those, and they feel really, really good. Tonight, on the other side… it’s not a great feeling.”
The game marked the fourth time Northeastern and BU had faced off this season, with the Terriers now holding a 2-1-1 advantage. Every game, though, has been decided by a solitary goal, with two of those four going to overtime. While the teams won’t see each other again in the regular season, the potential looms for these sides to face off in the Hockey East tournament, especially with both programs finding themselves squarely in the middle of conference standings.
“We have confidence playing them, and I’m sure they have confidence playing us,” Keefe said. “They’re well-coached here… they’re a good hockey team. But, I like how our team’s played against them.”
For BU, even as the game officially went as a tie, the shootout win broke a three-game losing spell that dropped the Terriers under .500 on the season.
“We really needed that. I felt really happy for our guys,” said BU head coach Jay Pandolfo. “Obviously, it’s been a bit of a struggle recently, but this is a huge win for us. We had to win this game to have a chance to defend the Beanpot. Now, we have that opportunity.”
BU’s game-long advantage was in large part due to the standout play of Hutson, a Capitals draftee and brother of former BU stars (and current professionals) Lane and Quinn Hutson. Cole led all skaters in shots and shots on goal, all while playing heavy ice time, assisting the Roukanakis goal, and notching the shootout winner.
“It was super cool,” Hutson said of his winning goal. “Obviously, the team needed the win… just happy to win it.”
Monday wasn’t even the first time this season Hutson put the Huskies away in added time. In November, he broke away from defensemen in overtime to score a sudden-death winner at Agganis Arena.
“We’ve had Lane here, we’ve had Quinn here,” Pandolfo said. “All of those guys have come up big for us in big moments, and Cole did tonight.”
Northeastern, meanwhile, crashed out of the Beanpot in the opening round for the second consecutive year. Additionally, the tie (and subsequent shootout loss) extended a miserable streak of two wins in 10 games, a stretch that spans back to their last heartbreaking loss to BU on December 13.
If Northeastern’s last devastating loss to BU flipped the script on their season, this one, then, is capable of doing the same. And it’ll have to, with eight massive Hockey East contests separating the Huskies from postseason play.
But, for now, Northeastern men’s hockey sits defeated, burdened with the pain of coming one inch short.
Northeastern will return to action on Friday as they take on UConn in Waltham. Max Schwartzberg, Armaan Vij, and Daisy Roberts will have your call on WRBB 104.9 FM with puck drop set for 7 p.m.
Jacob Phillips is the Sports Director for WRBB Sports. He’s been covering Northeastern athletics for over two years, focusing primarily on men’s basketball. Follow him on Twitter here and Instagram here. He also writes for Mid-Major Madness, and you can find his work here.