March 11, 2005

Courtesy Northeastern Athletics

New Hampshire scored three goals in the second period and Northeastern could never catch up, as New Hampshire beat Northeastern 4-0 to eliminate the Huskies from the Hockey East playoffs on Friday night at UNH's Whittemore Center. Keni Gibson made 26 saves for NU.

The Huskies finish the season with a 15-18-5 overall record while New Hampshire moves on to the Hockey East Semifinals with a 24-9-5 mark. It was Northeastern's first postseason appearance since 2002.

After holding New Hampshire scoreless over the first period for the second night in a row, New Hampshire scored three goals in the first half of the second period, including two 15 seconds apart to take a 3-0 lead after two periods. Justin Aikins and Preston Callander scored at 4:28 and 4:43, respectively to give the Wildcats the momentum. The second goal was followed by a Tim Judy penalty at 5:10 to keep the pressure on the Husky defense. NU killed that penalty but Aikins notched his second goal of the period at 9:05 to put the Wildcats up by three. The last time NU gave up a pair of goals that quickly was in Dec. 29, 2003 when NU gave up two goals in 16 seconds to Mercyhurst in a 7-5 win.

The Huskies began an offensive press in the second part of the period but couldn't get on the board. After being outshot 9-1 early in the second, NU out shot the Wildcats 13-3 from that point on. Northeastern was aided by a pair of New Hampshire penalties (Chris Murray for cross checking at 10:29 and Craig Switzer for tripping at 18:03) but the Huskies couldn't get the puck in the net before the clock ran out.

The Huskies continued to press hard when the puck dropped in the third period but couldn't get on the board. New Hampshire made it 4-0 at 4:37 in the third when Josh Ciocco passed the puck from behind the net to Matt Fornataro at the left post and Fornataro got the puck past Gibson.

With Jon Awe in the penalty box in the third period, the Huskies created a short-handed opportunity as Jared Mudryk and Bryan Esner took the puck into the UNH zone. UNH's Tyson Teplitsky was called for holding at 11:08, creating a 4-on-4 for 22 seconds, then giving NU the advantage but the Huskies couldn't get on the board. In the 16th minute of the third, Donny Grover took a shot from the blueline tha twent off Pietrasiak and hit the crossbar.

The teams emerged with a scoreless tie after the first with UNH outshooting NU 10-8. Play on the ice was much closer, however, as the Huskies had several scoring opportunities that matched New Hampshire's offense. On NU's best offensive opportunity in the first when Jason Guerriero took a shot from the right side that Wildcat goalie Jeff Pietrasiak made a great save on. New Hampshire immediately turned it around and got two great shots on net that Gibson saved.

With Jon Awe in the penalty box for cross checking at 16:47, New Hampshire had several good chances. With the action in the left circle and Gibson leaning that way, UNH's Jacob Micflikier passed the puck to Daniel Winnik, who shot on an open net but hit the crossbar. In the ensuing minute, Tim Judy made three great shot blocks to help keep UNH scoreless.