Skating into an opposing rink is never easy—especially when it’s a game between historically fierce Hockey East rivals.
The Northeastern faithful brought the fire to Saturday night’s game between No. 3 Boston College men’s hockey and the Huskies on Saturday night. Three goals from the home team in the first frame helped Northeastern fans get comfortable early with “Fowler, Fowler, Fowler” taunting chants.
BC’s recent late-game heroics (9–3–0, 4–2–0 Hockey East) missed the bus to Matthews Arena as it suffered a 4–2 loss to Northeastern (2–6–3,1–4–3).
“There was some good tempo, good movement,” BC head coach Greg Brown said. “But when you’re not scoring, it gets harder for a bit.”
The Huskies got off 16 shots in the opening 10:17 of the game. BC goaltender Jacob Fowler made six saves to keep things level, but he couldn’t hold Northeastern off for long.
Dylan Hryckowian scored the Huskies’ first goal at the 10:19 mark. Jackson Dorrington tacked on another one almost exactly two minutes later. In two minutes, the game had turned entirely in Northeastern’s favor.
Oskar Jellvik was able to respond three minutes after Dorrington’s goal with a rebound goal, but the Eagles continued to suffer defensively.
BC gave up a third first-period goal at the 16:04 mark when Jack Williams hit a top-right snipe to preserve Northeastern’s cushioned lead.
It wasn’t until 5:37 remained in the third period that BC tallied its second goal to cut the lead in half. Ryan Leonard extended his goal streak to six games with a clean off the crease.
Williams got called for cross checking at the end of the first period, and the Eagles began the second on the power play. Despite firing off 12 shots in the first five minutes of the second frame, Northeastern kept BC silent, led by goaltender Cameron Whitehead.
Whitehead finished the game with 30 saves.
“He made some huge saves … that gets your guys going,” Northeastern head coach Jerry Keefe said. “And the momentum you can get off of those saves are huge.”
BC’s Jake Sondreal received a cross-checking penalty in the last minute of the second period, and Northeastern began the final period with a man-up advantage. The Huskies fired off seven shots in the matter of about a minute.
But both squads’ penalty kills reigned supreme, just as they had the whole night. The game saw 16:44 penalty minutes with no goals. The neutral zone stayed busy, and much of the final frame’s action saw deflected pucks and zone breakouts.
“Their fore check was outstanding,” Brown said. “That’s probably, if not the most troubled, one of the hardest games we had breaking pucks out.”
A penalty at 16:55 gifted the Eagles another two minutes on the power play and they pulled Fowler as well for a 6-on-4. Still, the back of the net was untouched.
BC’s first line’s relative quietness—it produced one point and a plus/minus of -3—led to BC handing Northeastern just its second win of the year on Saturday as the Eagles and Huskies split their weekend series.
“[We] played a little better second and third,” Brown said. “But the hole was pretty deep and they did a great job.”
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