Huskies Comeback To Tie Friars

Northeastern overcame a two-goal deficit in Providence to salvage a tie with the Friars as neither team could score in overtime and the game finished at 3-3.

Senior captain Tyler McNeely got the game tying goal 6:57 into the third period on a power play opportunity that completed the comeback. McNeely, who was perched right on the doorstep, took a pass from linemate Wade MacLeod that went across the crease where McNeely was to bang the puck into the net.

“I thought we were really flat for the first 10 minutes and then I thought we got better and I was really happy with the way we played the rest of the way,” Huskies head coach Greg Cronin said.

The Friars opened the scoring when forward Jordan Kremyr scored his third goal of the season just over three minutes into the game. They then added to their lead when defenseman Eric Baier got his second goal of the season seven minutes later to make it 2-0 just 10:31 in the game.

The Huskies got on the board late in the period when freshman forward Rob Dongara poked home a rebound for his third goal of the year. The goal gave some life to the Huskies as they were outplayed by Providence for most of the first period.

“If we play like we did the last 50 minutes and eliminate the first 10 minutes when Providence was skating through us and winning battles then we’d be good,” Cronin said.

Ben Farrer put the Friars up 3-1 when he beat Huskies goaltender Chris Rawlings high glove side 14:06 into the second period.

But the Huskies started their comeback when center Mike McLaughlin got his fifth goal of the season when he deflected a shot from Garrett Vermeersch past Friars goaltender Alex Beaudry.

The comeback was completed with McNeely’s goal and the Huskies had the better of the chances in the extra period but they couldn’t convert anything else.

“We were down 3-1 so it’s nice to come back but I think we felt with the way we played in the third period, we would’ve liked to get another goal,” Cronin said.

Rawlings made 36 saves for NU and Beaudry was good for 34 saves of his own on the PC side as the Friars outshot the Huskies 39-37.

This is Northeastern’s first point since they beat UMass-Lowell back on October 23.

Providence is now unbeaten in their last seven games, the longest they’ve gone without a loss since the 2002-2003 season.

Northeastern is now 1-7-3 on the season while Providence is at 5-4-3. The two teams will do it all over again tomorrow at Matthews Arena with the puck dropping at 7 p.m.

At the least, Cronin said he felt like his team is moving in the right direction. “I thought tonight we felt confident and we made a lot of plays with the puck. It was a good stone to build off of.”