PORTLAND, ME — The state of Maine is somewhat affectionately known as Vacationland.
If Northeastern’s trip to Portland was in fact a vacation, it wasn’t a good one. Ever seen Home Alone? It felt like that. Except, where the MacAllisters only forgot Kevin, Northeastern seemed to forget their entire identity.
You name it — offense, defense, special teams — not a single facet of their game made the trip up north. Maine took advantage, scoring once at even strength, once shorthanded, and twice on the powerplay as the Black Bears thumped the Huskies, 4-0.
From the opening puck drop, Northeastern were clearly second-class citizens. Maine registered a number of quality chances in the early going, including a flurry from defensemen Frank Djurasevic and Loic Usereau that produced a high-grade look for junior forward Sully Scholle.
Huskies’ netminder Lawton Zacher was equal to that task, but the Bears got on the board just after the period’s halfway mark when two Northeastern defenders combined for a misplay behind their own net. The loose puck skittered to Maine’s Owen Fowler mere feet from Zacher’s cage, and the senior forward took a second to turn before flipping a backhand into the roof of the net.
The rest of the period went without incident, as the Huskies struggled to generate chances. Against a backup goaltender — Maine elected to go with freshman Mathis Rousseau over struggling starter Albin Boija — Northeastern seemed content to test him from distance rather than grind for chances at the mouth of the crease.
It was a strategy that wouldn’t pay off. Even as Maine’s William Gerrior put Northeastern on the power-play with a touch under 15 minutes to play in the period, the Huskies just couldn’t get anything going. In fact, 90 seconds into the man advantage, a passive approach bit them. Freshman defenseman Dylan Compton had the puck hop over his stick at the blue line, and Fowler swooped in, skating in alone on Zacher before snapping a wrister past his blocker to double both his tally and the lead.
Five minutes later, things went from bad to worse. Between Matthew Perkins, Dylan Finlay, and Eli Sebastian, Northeastern committed three penalties in 37 seconds, with the last one coming when Sebastian handled the puck on a faceoff with the Huskies already staring down an extended 5-on-3 situation.
It took Maine 32 seconds to cash in. Senior captain Brandon Holt walked in untouched from the blue line, snapping a beauty of a shot past Zacher from between the circles to put Maine up 3-0 and send a packed out Cross Insurance Arena into raptures.
With momentum (and a two-man advantage) still squarely in the hands of the Black Bears, they came back to the watering hole yet again. This time, it was a sloppy Northeastern line change that gifted Maine a 2-on-0 breakaway. And, although NU’s Andy Moore was able to sprint back and get himself involved in the play, his diving breakup effort on a centering pass only did enough to deflect the puck up in the air. In a twist of fate that embodied exactly how the Huskies’ night was going, the fluttering puck looped over Zacher’s shoulder before settling in the back of the net.
Whether it was deserved or not, the goal went to Maine’s Josh Nadeau, and whether deserved or not, Northeastern was down 4-0. (In the case of the latter, it was definitely deserved.) Maine threatened a few more times as the second period ticked down, ending the frame with a 15-2 edge in the shots on goal category.
Friday was the rare game in which the third period was almost entirely for show. Down 4-0, and without any spark whatsoever, the Huskies put up more of a fight in the third than they did in the first two periods, but it came to little avail. Neither team broke through, and by the time Northeastern generated their first five-alarm chance of the night — a chaotic scramble in front of Rousseau’s net — it was nearly a dictionary definition of too little, too late.
Northeastern’s 4-0 loss was more than a deflating, embarrassing performance; with two games left to play in the regular season, the result (combined with other results around Hockey East) dropped the Huskies behind Maine, BU, and UMass in conference seeding. While Northeastern does still control their own destiny, to a certain extent, Friday’s results put them firmly on the outside-looking-in for a top-five seed and a tournament bye.
On a more micro scale, the result was concerning, especially considering the Huskies were closer to full strength as star forward Dylan Hryckowian made his return from an upper-body injury. Maine outplayed, outhustled, and out-executed Northeastern for 60 minutes, a trend the Huskies will have to reverse if they want to earn a different result in Saturday’s rematch.
“We’re going to be much more ready to play tomorrow night,” Northeastern head coach Jerry Keefe said postgame. “I didn’t think we got to the game we wanted to get to [tonight].”
Puck security was an issue that directly led to two of Maine’s goals, and turnovers bothered the Huskies all night. Some of that seemed to be simple miscommunication, but Northeastern even struggled in some individual situations.
“We had to play a certain way tonight,” Keefe said. “The ice was a little bouncy. It took us a period to [learn that]. I give Maine credit, because they played a much more simple [game]… they got the puck, moved it up the rink, got in behind us.”
Turnovers may have been a big problem, but they were far from the only problem for a Northeastern team that gave up 46 shots on goal and failed to pose much of a threat on Rousseau’s net. With a quick turnaround on Saturday, they’ll have to bounce back in a big way to put this embarrassing result behind them and reinsert themselves into the scrap for tournament positioning.
Northeastern returns to action on Saturday when they take on Maine at Tsongas Arena. Kabir Singh, Daisy Roberts, and Armaan Vij will have your call, with puck drop at 7 p.m. on Sports+.
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.