BOSTON - Despite another big outing by junior forward Cody Ferriero, the Northeastern men's hockey team (6-10-1, 3-8-1 HEA) was overcome late in a 6-3 loss to Bentley (7-9-1, 5-5-1 Atlantic) on Saturday night at Matthews Arena.
The Essex, Mass., registered another multi-goal game, scoring twice after putting away four tallies the weekend prior. Senior assistant captain Robbie Vrolyk also scored in the loss.
Senior goaltender Chris Rawlings recorded 26 saves in the setback while the Huskies tossed 48 shots towards Bentley's backstopper, Branden Komm.
Immediately off the draw, Northeastern maintained its presence in Bentley's end and eventually the Falcons' defense gave way at 3:05 of the first period.
Pimm cleanly won a draw to Komm's right and wafted the puck out to Roy in the corner. Roy made a couple cradles and zipped the disc towards the goalmouth where Ferriero collected it, took one shot, and then buried his own rebound to net the first tally of the game, 1-0.
Over three minutes later, Bentley responded with a one-timer strike finished off by Alex Grieve at 6:08. Jared Rickford redirected a clearing attempt back behind the net to Brett Gensler. Grieve separated himself from NU's defenseman and buried a pass from Gensler in between the circles to cinch it up, 1-1.
The second period evened out after the Huskies outshot BU, 16-9, in the first frame. Each team squandered a power play opportunity before the Falcons took advantage of the extra skater at 14:42.
Brian Hartung was whistled for boarding at 12:19, but moments after coming out of the box, he buried a perfect pass from Gensler to put Bentley ahead, 2-1. Michael Reardon backhanded a pass out of Bentley's zone to Gensler at the red line. Gensler carted the puck towards Rawlings, but linked up with Hartung all alone on the far post for the successful one-timer.
With 54 seconds left to play in the second stanza, Justin Breton added another tally to give Bentley a two-goal cushion.
Roy tried to center a pass from the far corner in BU's end, but the puck sailed through the crease to Breton on the left dot. Breton went coast-to-coast and finished the scoring play with a nifty backhand past Rawlings' blocker for the 3-1 lead at 19:06.
Northeastern did not take long to cut into the deficit once the third period got underway. Ferriero intercepted a wayward pass in the neutral zone from behind Bentley's net and skated a wide loop before seeing no one was around him. Ferriero took a couple strides and unleashed a wrist shot that bounced off of Komm's shoulder and trickled across the goal line to make it a 3-2 game just 53 seconds into the third period.
Vrolyk knotted it up with a great put-back tally at 5:14 to make it a 3-3 contest. Rookie Mike McMurtry generated the play by wheeling the puck from behind the net and making the dish to sophomore Adam Reid at the crease. Reid lifted the puck towards Komm and Vrolyk was in perfect position to push back the carom.
Two minutes later, Bentley reclaimed its lead, 4-3, at 7:27 of the third stanza. Brett Switzer triggered the play by getting the puck out from the corner out to Breton on the far boards. Breton hammered an uncontested shot towards Rawlings and Derek Bacon got his stick in position to tip it down past Rawlings.
The Falcons regained their two-goal edge at 10:51 after Hartung potted his second of the night on a broken play in Northeastern's zone. Rawlings kicked the puck out to a pair of NU defensemen, but Hartung swooped in and roofed the wrister to put Bentley ahead, 5-3, on the unassisted strike.
Head coach Jim Madigan opted to pull Rawlings in favor of another attacker with 2:44 to go in the third period, but Zach Marginsky managed to put away an empty netter for the 6-3 victory at 18:10.
Northeastern returns to Hockey East action next Friday when the Maine Black Bears come to Matthews Arena for a 7 p.m. puck drop on Jan. 11. The Huskies will play just one game next week.
Game Notes
- Cody Ferriero has scored six goals in the last two games (3.00 goals per game).
- Cody Ferriero, Braden Pimm and Kevin Roy have scored a point in their last two outings.
- Chris Rawlings in six saves short of totaling the second-most saves in Northeastern history. Rawlings has 3,161 career saves, five short of Brad Thiessen's career mark of 3,166.