Two periods of exciting back-and-forth hockey and a tie game degenerated into a Notre Dame rout in the third as Northeastern’s game turned sloppy and the defending Hockey East champion Huskies fell to the Irish 5-2 Saturday night at Matthews Arena in Boston.
With an effective defensive effort and an impressive transition game, Northeastern had a 2-1 lead at the halfway point of the game off power-play goals from Dylan Sikura and Zach Aston-Reese, but their game slowly degenerated into the poor effort in the final period.
From that point, Notre Dame scored four straight goals, starting at 18:06 of the second period with Andrew Ogilve’s fifth goal of the season and followed by scores from Cam Morrison, Jake Evans and defenseman Andrew Peeke.
Northeastern began missing defensive assignments and started turning the puck over on the breakout.
“We did good things at first,” Northeastern coach Jim Madigan said, “but we need to play smart for 60 minutes, not just 40 minutes. The way we were playing we were unable to match Notre Dame’s speed and quickness. We were hanging back in the defensive zone and we were cheating on offense too much. We had a lot of breakdowns in the third period.”
As for the visitors, coach Jeff Jackson said he was pleased with the way his team played five-on-five. Northeastern’s two goals both came on the power play.
“Obviously their power play was good,” he said. “We got a good offensive effort from our defenseman and we know that Northeastern always plays a tough game in front of their own goal.”
In particular, Jackson noted freshman defenseman Peeke, who scored his first collegiate goal to wrap up the scoring.
“Andrew Peeke has a great future and we are very pleased with him,” he said. “He played very well with his partner, sophomore Bobby Nardella. But remember, he is a true freshman (18 years old), but he will be a good player.”
Evans, the center on Notre Dame’s top line, had a goal and an assist on the night, but of note he was credited with winning 13 of 17 faceoffs. “That always gives a team an offensive edge,” Jackson said.
The two teams wrap up their weekend series Sunday afternoon at 3 p.m. Of course Madigan is looking for a different result.
“We do have several injuries (the Stevens brothers in particular) that will take several more weeks to heal,” Madigan explained. “Those things happen and they aren’t an excuse. Now is the time that we need our goalie, Ryan Ruck, to step up and steal a game or two. I thought he was fighting the puck a bit tonight.”
Hockey East roundup
Connecticut 3, at No. 14 Ohio State 3
Tage Thompson scored twice and goalie Rob Nichols had 46 saves as UConn tied No. 14 Ohio State Saturday afternoon in Columbus, salvaging the weekend after losing Friday 7-4.
No. 4 Boston University 4, at No. 18 Michigan 2
Charlie McAvoy and Jordan Greenway each had a goal and an two assists as Boston University scored three third-period goals to beat Michigan 4-2 Saturday afternoon in Ann Arbor, Mich. On Friday, Michigan had opened the weekend series beating BU 4-0.
Arizona State 5, at New Hampshire 4 (OT)
Arizona State tied the game with 1:30 remaining and Bronson Pasichnuk scored 56 seconds into overtime to beat New Hampshire, 5-4 in Durham, N.H. Tyler Kelleher had a goal and an assist for UNH.
Vermont 2, at Massachusetts 1
Matt Alvaro broke a 1-1 tie with 5:14 left in the game to give Vermont a 2-1 win over UMass in Amherst, Mass. Rob Darrar opened the scoring at 6:22 of the first to give Vermont the lead and Kurt Keats tied it for UMass at 2:43 of the second.
