Huskies Beat River Hawks and Sweep the Weekend

The Northeastern University Huskies, who were coming off their three-peat Beanpot victory on Monday, came into Saturday night’s game against the University of Massachusetts-Lowell River Hawks having shut them out in Lowell on Friday night.

However, the Huskies, who were already playing without Matt Filipe (now day-to-day) and Jayden Struble (done for the season) lost Hobey Baker contender Tyler Madden during Friday night’s game. As a result, their line-up was a bit unorthodox, going with 11 forwards and eight defensemen. Craig Pantano who had blanked UML on Friday night was once again in net for the Huskies on Saturday.

In what is perhaps not the best recipe for success, Northeastern was only able to put four shots on the River Hawks Tyler Wall during the opening period while UMass-Lowell peppered Pantano with 14 shots and managed to get one past him at 13:18 of the first period. Reid Stefanson collected his first goal of the season giving the River Hawks a boost in momentum. Northeastern was able to hold on until the first intermission, in large part because of Pantano’s continued impressive play.

Of course, Pantano didn’t take the credit.

“I think it has to do with the play in front of me right now. You know, they’ve been letting me see shots and they’ve been giving me the easy plays. So, I think that we’ve just been dialing in our defensive game and that’s helped me too,” Pantano said.

There were a few shots in which Pantano came up huge, so not sure his teammates only gave him easy plays.

Coming out in the second, it was clear that the Huskies were determined to do a better job of testing Wall. After surviving an early slashing penalty called on Riley Hughes at 2:53, the Huskies managed to finally put one behind Wall at 6:32 of the second period to knot things up. Mike Kesselring notched his second goal of the season, assisted by Jordan Harris—who had the double overtime-winning goal in the Beanpot Championship—and Alex Mella—who was playing in only his eighth game of the season.

With guys out of the Huskies lineup due to injuries, some players who hadn’t had many games got a chance to show what they could do. Fourth-pairing defenseman, Billy Carrabino, who was playing in his third game of the season, did a good job of taking bodies whenever he could. His hits were all strong and legal, making a couple of the Lowell players look over their shoulder if he was on the ice.

While the shots on goal at the end of the second period didn’t look like the Huskies had done much, the teams actually matched each other in the second with seven shots a piece. The ice wasn’t tilted for either team. And neither team was able to convert on the man advantage.

The third period saw Northeastern showing what they can do when allowed. Their tenaciousness allowed them to stay in the offensive zone for a couple of strong shifts. It was while they were doing an excellent job of keeping the puck in Lowell’s end—despite UML’s efforts to clear—that they were rewarded. Matt DeMelis made a play that ricocheted off a River Hawk defenseman and went in. Once again Harris was involved in the play. The secondary assist went to Jérémie Bucheler, who was responsible for keeping the puck in the offensive end. With 10:34 still remaining in regulation it was not surprising to see Lowell make a push to try and tie the game.

Wall was pulled with 2:19 remaining, and once again Pantano kept his team on the winning side.

“Yeah. I’d like to congratulate our opponent [Northeastern]. They took two tight games this weekend. And tonight stung. You know what? This was a tough one for us. I thought we started the way we wanted to start and couldn’t quite get the second one in the first period which would have helped. In any event, their goalie stood tall. I thought our goaltender was excellent also, and the second period, they pushed, and we watched, so it wasn’t a good recipe for success. In the third I thought we made uh… we had some good shifts. We made a push. They threw one to the front. I think it goes off our defenseman’s glove. You know, it’s a fortuitous bounce or whatever you want to call it. Sometimes that’s hockey and we couldn’t get the equalizer despite having a late power play. You know, you keep that team… you’re 100 percent on the penalty kill to no power play goals and you still lose a tough one that’s that’s what’s toughest,” said UML’s head coach Norm Bazin after the game.

Northeastern has been impressive when on the man advantage throughout the season, making many of the opposition teams regret taking a penalty. However, Saturday night they only had one man-advantage opportunity in the second. And while they had some strong offensive zone time, the River Hawks did a great job denying them.

In the end it came down to Pantano’s play between the pipes and the River Hawks inability to clear the puck that DeMelis ultimately shot from the right of the goal, along the goal line, that went off the opposition.

“Great weekend. You know, you get four points in this league, it’s difficult and it’s hard to come by, and particularly against a very good Lowell team. And I just thought our first period we, you know… Lowell carried the play and we reset in between the intermission first and second. And I thought our second, third period really, really good. We had second effort; we battled; we competed. Obviously, the lineup was a little altered and I thought our guys had a real gutsy gritty performance here tonight. Really happy, pleased, and proud of our guys and how hard they played and competed and the guy to my left [Pantano] was a big part of that this weekend,” said Huskies head coach Jim Madigan.

In what is one of the tightest races for playoff spots in Hockey East history, the four points that the Northeastern Huskies took in the sweep of UMass-Lowell, put them back in the race. There is still a lot to do, but they are back in it.

“I mean, it can set us up for success in the future there. It’s a great team and to get four points against them is really hard to come by. So we can just use this to propel us forward for the rest of the season,” Pantano said of their weekend success.