Published in the Huntington News on November 17, 2011.
The men’s hockey team dropped into ninth place in Hockey East standings last weekend after two road losses to No. 3 Boston College and University of Massachusetts Amherst and falling to 1-7-2 on the year.
At Conte Forum in Chestnut Hill Friday, the Huskies looked like they were headed to their third consecutive overtime bout, but a late goal by BC’s captain Tommy Cross broke the 1-1 tie with 0:02.8 left on the clock. BC leads the Hockey East standings at 7-2-0 (9-3-0 overall), but lost to Boston University (HEC 3-3-1, overall 4-4-1) on Sunday in a 5-0 shutout.
“They are a very good hockey club,” head coach Jim Madigan said. “They are fast. They put pressure on you all night long, all game long. They just come at you with four lines. They had the territorial edge on us.
Northeastern got on the board early with sophomore forward Cody Ferriero’s first goal of the season at 12:41 in the first. The lead held through the end of the first period in which the Eagles were on the power play three times, putting up nine shots on goal, but were unable to connect.
“We just wanted to get pucks to the net and did that,” Madigan said.
The Eagles added 17 shots on to junior goalie Chris Rawlings during the second period. He allowed one over his shoulder, off the stick of BC’s Kevin Hayes after Hayes came storming in for a bit of one-on-one action in front of the goal at 11:50.
“[Rawlings] played extremely well. He’s giving us great games,” Madigan said. “It would have been nice to award him for a great effort on his end. He’s been in a real good zone. He’s seeing the puck real well.”
The tie held through the end of the second despite attempts by junior forward Justin Daniels, who was thrown off course by BC defensemen, and junior forward Vinny Saponari, as BC goalie Parker Milner came up with the save.
With the score still tied 1-1 with under a minute left in regulation, Luke Eibler was sent to the box for holding, putting BC on the power play. After the Eagles called a timeout, Cross’ shot crossed the red line just in the nick of time.
“What we haven’t had is intelligent hockey, and that’s what we tell our team,” Madigan said. “You can have all the effort, all the compete and get pucks to net and do some systems well, but if you don’t play intelligently, which the last two or three losses have resulted from, is not playing smart.”
Going into Saturday’s contest against the Minutemen at UMass-Amherst, the Huskies were just 2 for 44 while on the power play. Despite adding two goals, they walked off the ice with another loss in the third period, 4-2.
By the end of the second period, sophomore defenderAnthony Bitetto and freshman forward Ludwig Karlsson each had added goals to the power play efforts.
Karlsson’s goal at 16:02 in the second broke a 1-1 tie, but the lead didn’t hold as UMass’ Michael Pereira answered with his seventh goal of the season.
“It’s back to continuing to work hard. No one is going to feel sorry for you in this league, so the only way we are going to get out of here is by working harder and get the breaks going our way,” Madigan said.
As the third period opened tied 2-2, another overtime seemed evident until UMass’s Branden Gracel slipped another power play goal past Rawlings at 14:14 for a 3-2 lead.
Northeastern didn’t escape with a one goal differential when the clock expired, as UMass’s T.J. Syner found his way through Northeastern defenders and was able to get a puck into the empty net.
The Huskies continue a three game road trip tomorrow at Providence College, before playing winless-Vermont at Matthews on Saturday for Homecoming, both games are slated for 8 p.m.