Boston, MA — On Friday night, the Northeastern Huskies traveled to Providence and slumped to a 4-1 loss. Head Coach Jim Madigan was frustrated with his team’s effort and shuffled the lineup in his frustration. The new formation resulted in a better effort in Saturday night’s home rematch with the Friars, but it produced no victory.
Northeastern won the opening frame’s shot counter 12-8 and controlled big segments of play. However, after cleaning a puck off their own goal line, Providence capitalized on the one mistake their hosts made. Julian Kislin took a hooking minor. Ten seconds later, Tyce Thompson potted his fourth goal of the year and staked the Friars to a lead they’d never relinquish.
The second period started poorly when Vincent Desharnais ripped home his second goal of the year only 1:59 into the frame. Northeastern had plenty to cheer about with Jack Dugan’s late first-period slashing penalty, Jay O’Brien’s cross-checking minor, and Greg Printz’s hooking minor gave Northeastern three power plays in the second. Unfortunately, despite six of their eight power-play shots coming in the frame, nothing got through Hayden Hawkey.
PC perfectly demonstrated their style in the third period: physically demanding with hard checks and relentless attack. They outshot Northeastern 13-8 and finished the scoring with Vegas Golden Knights pick Jack Dugan punching his ninth goal of the year just after the frame’s midpoint. The game ended 3-0 in Providence’s favor. Hayden Hawkey recorded 34 saves for his fifth shutout of the season and 13th of his career.
Providence entered the evening at 14th in the Pairwise. With the win, the Friars leapfrog Northeastern and move to 11th. The Huskies, meanwhile, fall from 9th to 12th.
Providence improves to 15-7-4 and 8-5-1 in Hockey East, sitting in 6th place, one point back of Boston University and UMass Lowell. The Friars host the Vermont Catamounts next weekend. Puck drops at 7 pm on Friday and Saturday night, February 1st and 2nd at Schnieder Arena.
“It’s a good road win for our team” observed Friar Head Coach Nate Leaman. “Some good teams have come in here and not been able to win. So I was very happy with us and the result tonight.”
Northeastern drops to 15-7-1 and 9-5-1 in Hockey East. They are tied with Boston College at 19 points, three back of conference-leading Massachusetts.
“We’re not in this thing for silver linings,” said Madigan. “The result is not what we wanted. I liked our effort, our compete. It was much better than last night, which wasn’t going to be hard to beat. Thought we played hard. We didn’t get much puck luck around the net. But we stayed in the game and battled for 60 full minutes.”
Cayden Primeau stopped 26 of 29 shots.
Northeastern hosts UMass Lowell on February 1st then face Boston University on Monday, February 4th for their Beanpot Title defense. Puck drop against Lowell on Friday is 7 pm. Puck drop at TD Garden against BU is at 8 pm.
