NORTH ANDOVER, Mass. – Northeastern had the opportunity to jump into a first-place tie with Boston College in the Hockey East standings with a victory in Saturday’s contest at Merrimack.
Junior Adam Gaudette answered the Warriors’ first-period tally, tying the game for good with a power-play goal 13:08 into the second period. The teams ultimately settled for a 1-1 draw after being held scoreless in the third period and overtime of what was a tight-checking game.
“It was a game we kind of expected in this building, against this team,” said Northeastern head coach Jim Madigan, whose team held a narrow 33-30 shot advantage in the game and now sits one point behind Boston College in the league standings. “They’re a hard-nosed team. It’s tight confines, and you have to battle for every inch of space out there.”
“It was hard to make plays in the offensive zone, but I like how we came back from down 1-0.”
Gaudette’s goal was the 50th of his Northeastern career and his 28th on the power play, which leaves him just four shy of the school record in the latter category. It was the lone special-teams conversion of the contest, which featured the top power play units in Hockey East, as they combined for an 0-for-5 mark on the remaining opportunities.
“Some ebbs and flows; I thought both teams had chances to win it,” Merrimack head coach Mark Dennehy said. “I thought both goaltenders played well. To be honest with you, I thought both penalty kills were pretty good.”
After all, it was a rather unfortunate bounce that washed Merrimack’s lead away.
After sophomore Jeremy Davies kept the puck in the offensive zone at the blue line and centered to senior Nolan Stevens, whose one-time shot sailed high of the net. Gaudette, however, was camped out at the left post and banged the puck out of mid-air and past Merrimack junior Craig Pantano for his team-leading 12th goal of the season.
“If they design a play off the end board that gets whacked in, they’re better coaches than we are,” Dennehy joked.
The Warriors were rewarded with the game’s first goal for just the seventh time this season. Senior Jace Hennig scored at 14:41, beating Northeastern freshman Cayden Primeau five-hole after Brett Seney earned a clean win in the left faceoff circle.
Primeau bounced back for a 29-save night, making 10 in the second period.
As Dennehy alluded to, there were prime opportunities for the score to be changed late in the game. Pantano made half of his 32 saves in the third period alone, including a key stop on Gaudette in the final 10 seconds after Dylan Sikura fed the junior on a 2-on-1 break as he closed in on the top of the crease.
The Warriors managed the first four shots on goal of overtime. They nearly had the game won 1:30 into overtime, too, as Seney fanned on a one-timer off freshman defenseman Dominic Dockery’s cross-ice feed to the right circle.
Still, both teams enter the holiday break in positive states. The Huskies’ 10 wins in 17 games are their most since 2008-09 as they finished 3-0-1 in the last four. Merrimack is just 4-9-4 overall and 2-6-2 in Hockey East play, despite two wins and a tie in their last trio of contests.
“On the surface when you look at 8-3-1 (in Hockey East play), the record is good, but I don’t want us to be satisfied,” Madigan said. “We lost too many puck battles out there tonight, so that’s the hunger you need all the time, and we had it for a lot of the first half.”
“For us, that’s five out of six points in the last three games, so that is momentum I think we can carry through (the break),” Dennehy said of the Warriors. “That was probably one of our best 60-minute games. Again, there was ebb and flow, but there weren’t large stretches where one team hemmed the other in. I just thought that was a good college hockey game. We were ready from the get-go.”
National roundup
Robert Morris 5, Mercyhurst 2
In the opener of an Atlantic Hockey home-and-home series from Pittsburgh, the Colonials scored three times in the third period to break a 2-2 tie and earn their sixth victory of the season. Brady Ferguson scored the game-winner just 1:23 into the final frame and concluded a four-point night with another goal at 12:28. Timmy Moore posted a goal and two assists for the Colonials, while Francis Marotte made 35 saves.
RMU took a 2-0 lead at 13:08, but the visitors clawed back to even the score by shortly after the game’s midway marker on goals by Taylor Best and Jonathan Charbonneau. The latter Laker had a two-point night.
Michigan Tech 3, Lake Superior State 3 (OT)
The Lakers and Huskies battled back-and-forth in Houghton, Mich., with the latter side emerging with a shootout victory to take five out of six points from the WCHA set. Tech is unbeaten in six of its last seven games after Jake Jackson broke a two-round scoring drought in the shootout. Anthony Nellis equalized with an extra-attacker goal for the Lakers in the final minute, sending the game to overtime.
Brendan McKay and J.T. Henke scored goals in each of the first two periods to lift Lake Superior to a 2-0 lead, but the Huskies scored three straight and led 3-2 after Brent Baltus scored his seventh goal of the season with just 4:06 remaining in regulation. Dylan Steman put Tech on the board 14:06 into the second period and was the lone multi-point scorer in the game with a goal and an assist.
Mareks Mitens made 33 saves for the Lakers, including 12 in the first period. Robbie Beydoun stopped 22 to earn his fourth decision of the season for Tech.
Northern Michigan 4, Ferris State 2
Darien Craighead posted his first collegiate hat trick, helping the Wildcats build up a pair of three-goal leads en route to a series-sweeping victory in Marquette, Mich. Craighead, who scored once in each period, capped his three-goal night at 4:13 of the third period ― less than a minute after Corey Mackin’s shorthanded tally got the Bulldogs on the board.
Troy Loggins doubled NMU’s lead with a shorthanded goal of his own 6:07 into the second. Atte Tolvanen made 17 saves for the Wildcats as he won his eighth of 12 decisions this season.
Bemidji State 4, Alaska Anchorage 0
The Beavers scored all four goals over the final period-plus and ended their first semester of action on a five-game unbeaten streak. Myles Fitzgerald, Jay Dickman, Brendan Harris, and Charlie Combs scored for Bemidji, with its second and third goals coming on the power play. Adam Brady and Gerry Fitzgerald each recorded multi-assist games.
Michael Bitzer half of his 20 saves en route to his school and WCHA-record 19th career shutout, while Olivier Mantha had double-digit stops in all three frames and totaled 33.
No. 7 Minnesota State 3, Alabama Huntsville 0
The Mavericks maintained their first-place lead in the WCHA standings with a Saturday win in Mankato as they scored scored once in each period and held a 32-16 shots on goal edge. Connor LaCouvee improved to 9-2-0 on the season for Minnesota State, needing just the 16 saves to finalize his second shutout. The Mavericks have outscored opponents by a whopping 20-2 mark during their current four-game winning streak.
Reggie Lutz and C.J. Seuss were the MSU goal scorers; Seuss scored 4:09 into the second period and 87 seconds into the third, his seventh and eighth tallies of the season. Parker Tuomie recorded two assists.
Colorado College 4, Arizona State 0
The Tigers cruised to victory in their non-conference series opener in Colorado Springs, scoring three first-period goals and their last just 1:31 into the second. Alex Leclerc made 36 saves for his eighth win of the season. CC linemates Trevor Gooch (two assists), Christiano Versich (one goal, two assists), and Westin Michaud (two goals) all recorded multiple-point games.
Joey Daccord made 11 saves in a starting role for ASU and was dealt his ninth loss. Ryland Pashovitz stopped 28 in relief, including 18 in the third period. The Tigers held a 43-36 shot edge in the game.
Dartmouth 5, at No. 2 Denver 4
The Big Green earned their first road win of the season and their first victory in seven all-time meetings with Denver in come-from-behind fashion, scoring five straight goals over the second and third periods after falling into a 3-0 hole. Collin Rutherford’s first collegiate goal with 1:37 remaining in regulation gave Dartmouth a 4-3 lead, while Shane Sellar’s second goal of the night ― an empty-netter ― with 57 seconds left was the game-winner.
Dartmouth, which is now 3-8-1, was winless (0-6-1) in its last seven games before Saturday. Devin Buffalo stopped 12 of the 13 third-period shots he faced and finished the night with 38 saves. Cam Strong recorded a goal and an assist, while Kevin Neiley’s first points of the season came in the form of three helpers.
Kohen Olischefski scored two of the Pioneers’ first three goals, while Troy Terry added a power-play goal in between. Tanner Jaillet made 23 saves in defeat for Denver, which sees a six-game unbeaten streak that dated back to Nov. 17 snapped.
