Men’s Hockey: Terriers Fall Late in 3-2 Heartbreaker at Northeastern

By Ryan Owens

The No. 18/19 Boston University Men’s Hockey team (5-7-1, 3-4-0 HE) fell late in a 3-2 loss to No. 12 Northeastern (8-3-0, 4-2-0 HE) Friday night at Matthews Arena.

BU gave up a goal with 1:07 left in regulation to sophomore forward Joe Connor and was unable to fight back in their limited remaining time, notching their fourth defeat in their last six games.

“I thought there were times in the game where it’s some of the similar stuff we’ve seen from our team,” Head Coach Jay Pandolfo said. “Again, not good enough details there defensively, and it cost us.”

BU was held back by its power play, which failed to capitalize on eight opportunities. The Terriers outshot the Huskies 34-25 but were unable to find the winning goal.

“I didn’t think the power play was very good again tonight,” Pandolfo said. “We changed the units up a little bit, and the result wasn’t much better.”

Just over a minute into the game, Mick Frechette scored, taking a shot from the point that got through netfront traffic and beat Huskies goalie Quentin Sigurdson to give the Terriers an early 1-0 lead.

The lead lasted only two minutes, as Northeastern’s Andy Moore deflected a puck in front to beat BU goaltender Mikhail Yegorov and tie the game 1-1 less than five minutes in.

A few minutes later, sophomore forward Nick Roukounakis received a pass from Jack Harvey in the slot and deked to his backhand, lifting the puck past Sigurdson to regain a 2-1 lead for BU.

Although both teams found the back of the net early in the game, the scoring dried up for much of the rest of the game.

Austen May tied the game for Northeastern early in the second period, ripping a shot from the boards. The score held until Connor’s late tiebreaker.

Sophomore defenseman and leading scorer Cole Hutson had several quality chances, including a wraparound bid that required a lengthy video review; officials confirmed no goal, and the game remained tied.

Connor’s game-winning goal in the dying seconds was a snap shot in the slot, rocketing the puck over Yegorov’s glove.

The Terriers pulled the goalie late but were unable to capitalize with their extra skater, dropping the game.

“We kind of lost coverage a little bit,” Pandolfo said of the late tiebreaker. “We had the puck…and we didn’t find a way to advance it out of our zone.”

Yegorov stopped 22 of 25 shots faced throughout the face-off and had an .880 save percentage.

The teams will meet again at Agganis Arena on Saturday to conclude the weekend series. Puck drop is set for 7 p.m., with streaming available on ESPN+ and TSN+.