Lose-Lose Situation for Northeastern Hockey

Husky Hockey fans looked on in disbelief as their men’s hockey team failed to win either of their matches against Providence College.  

The pair-off loses extends the Huskies winless streak to four games as they have lost each of their last three games.  In their last six games, Vitale and Co. have gone 1-4-1.

The scary thing is these are six games that the fans expected, not hoped, to win.

Friday night was a terrible night for the Huskies.  They were at home hosting the Friars but couldn’t get anything going as P.C. rolled to a 5-1 win.

The game was scoreless after the first period, and then Providence got a short-handed goal from Nick Mazzolini.

Then on a 5-3 advantage, PC really opened the game up, scoring on the two-man advantage (Matt Taormina) and the ensuing one-man advantage (Jon Rheault).

Ryan Ginand got the Huskies on the board a couple minutes later with a power-play goal of his own. But in the third period, Taormina would score again, this one also a power-play goal. Then about half way through the third, Ian O’Connor scored the games only even-strength goal to make it 5-1.

Then on Saturday night, the Huskies went to Providence looking for a little revenge.  At first it seemed like they might be able to make it happen. 

Wade MacLeod scored on the powerplay about nine minutes into the first period.  Then Jimmy Russo made it 2-0 as the Huskies seemed to have regained the edge in the series.

However, the Friars had different plans.  A goal by Pierce Norton and a power-play goal by John Cavanagh would send the teams into the first intermission tied up at two.

The second period was another win for the Friars.  Ben Farrer scored an even strength goal to give Providence it’s first lead in the game and Norton’s second power-play goal of the night gave them a little bit of an insurance policy.

About halfway through the third, John Mori scored the game's seventh and final goal, making it 5-2 to cap off a weekend the Huskies hope to soon forget.

The pair of losses drop the Huskies record to 8-7-2 in Hockey East and 11-8-3 overall.  With the University of New Hampshire and Boston College both earning points this weekend, the gap between the Huskies and first place has grown significantly.

With the two wins, Providence has now tied with the Huskies for third place in Hockey East with two games in hand.  Nationally, the Huntington Hounds dropped from 11^th to 13^th while Providence jumped into the rankings at 14^th.

The Huskies also fell into a tie for 13^th with Wisconsin in the Pairwise Rankings.  That would set them teetering on the edge as far as making the NCAA tournament goes, especially if there are many upsets in the conference tournaments.

There is one more game for the Huskies to prepare before the Beanpot as they will square off against the University of Massachusetts at Amherst on Friday February 1^st at 7:30 PM at Matthews Arena.  The game will be aired by NESN.

The Minutemen are currently ranked eighth in the Hockey East Standings, two points behind Boston University and two points ahead of the University of Maine.  They are also ranked 15^th in the nation.

The Huskies are now five points behind first place UNH and four points behind BC.  And now the Huskies also have to worry about UMASS-Lowell who is just two points back in fifth place with a game in hand on Northeastern.

On Monday, February 4^th, the Huskies face off against Harvard University, opening up the 56^th annual Beanpot Tournament at the TD Banknorth Garden.  Last year, Northeastern defeated the Crimson in the consolation game.