Liam Walsh picked a big stage to score his first goal of the season for Northeastern, tallying the eventual game winner at historic Fenway Park in a 4-1 victory over No. 15 Massachusetts, 4-1.
After Aidan McDonough opened the scoring at 10:36 of the first, Walsh fired a shot off UConn netminder Arsenii Sergeev (22 saves) less than five minute later to extend the lead heading to the fist intermission.
Decent time to score your first as Husky! #HowlinHuskies pic.twitter.com/Edm3gVOhyN
— Northeastern Men’s Hockey (@GoNUmhockey) January 7, 2023
The game remained that way until Matthew Wood scored his 18th goal of his rookie campaign with 7:34 left. The Huskies, though, responded immediately as Justin Hryckowian scored just 35 seconds later.
Jack Williams fifth goal of the season seal UConn’s fate and Devon Levi earned the victory making 29 saves.
SCOREBOARD | USCHO.com POLL | PAIRWISE RANKINGS
Boston College 4, No. 15 Massachusetts 2 (at Fenway Park)
In the night game at Frozen Fenway, transfer Cam Burke scored his first two goals of the season and Mitch Benson made 23 saves as Boston College upset No. 15 UMass, 4-2.
Similar to Northeastern in the early game, the Eagles never trailed, taking an early lead on Cutter Gauthier’s 11th goal of the season. Michael Cameron answered for UMass on the power play at 9:28 but BC answered with a power play goal of its own, Burke’s first off the game, at 12:41.
In the second, Burke scored again, this goal being the eventual game-winner at 12:55. UMass drew within a goal with another power play tally with 16:45 remaining in regulation.
Jellvik to Burke, and that's a double for #17. pic.twitter.com/dt46kjwyhK
— BC Men's Hockey (@BC_MHockey) January 8, 2023
But as the Minutemen were pressing for the equalizer, a failed challenge for a head contact penalty after UMass had already used its timeout resulted in a late delay of game minor penalty. BC’s Eamon Powell scored a power play tally into the empty net with eight second remaining.
No. 16 Michigan Tech 3, No. 6 Boston University 2 (Desert Hockey Classic)
Michigan Tech scored three first period goals and then held on as Boston University rallied late to earn a 3-2 victory in the title game of the Desert Hockey Classic at Mullett Arena in Tempe, Az.
Logan Pietila, Kyle Kukkonen and Tristan Ashbrook all scored in a span of less then nine minutes in the opening period to shock the sixth-ranked Terriers early.
Tristan Ashbrook buried his 2nd of the weekend and 5th of the season for a 3-0 first-period lead! #mtuhky #FollowTheHuskies pic.twitter.com/YTWthEpo8M
— Michigan Tech Hockey (@mtuhky) January 7, 2023
Matt Brown scored at 5:33 of the second to close the gap and Devin Kaplan’s fourth goal of the season with 9:10 left brought BU to the brink of the comeback.
But Blake Pietila finished the third period with nine saves and a total of 31 in the game to take the title in Arizona State’s tournament.
No. 2 Quinnipiac 4, No. 10 Harvard 1
College hockey’s hottest team extended its unbeaten streak to 16 games (15-0-1) as No. 2 Quinnipiac knocked off No. 10 Harvard, 4-1. It is the seventh straight win for the Bobcats, who could become the nation’s number one team on Monday following Denver’s loss on Friday to Alaska.
Collin Graf and Ethan de Jong scored in the opening period and Cristophe Tellier extended the lead to 3-0 in the second.
Telly cleans up in front to put us up three😎#BobcatNation | #ECACHockey pic.twitter.com/jkXH39fDHI
— Quinnipiac Men's Ice Hockey (@QU_MIH) January 8, 2023
Though Harvard struck back on Alex Gaffney’s goal at 4:52 of the third, Quinnipiac closed the game out with Skylar Brind’Amour’s late empty-net goal.
No. 12 Ohio State 6, No. 14 Michigan State 0
Joe Dunlap scored twice and four other players tallied multi-point games as No. 12 Ohio State routed No. 14 Michigan State, 6-0, to complete a two-game sweep of the Spartans and extended the Buckeyes winning streak to five games.
Guzzo ➡️ Cassidy ➡️ Dunlap 🚨
🔥 Dunlap's second of the game. He's on a five-game goal-scoring streak and has seven goals in the stretch. #GoBucks @JoeDunlap21 pic.twitter.com/B6TOZ5sqUp
— Ohio State Men's Hockey (@OhioStateMHKY) January 7, 2023
Michigan State, conversely, is heading in the wrong direction having lost five straight and seven of its last eight.
The host Buckeyes scored three goals in the first, two in the second and completed things with a single tally in the third. Jakub Dobes stopped 32 shots to earn the shutout.