BOSTON — A Kevin Roy goal with just 2:36 remaining in the game lifted Northeastern to a 3-2 upset win over Minnesota Saturday night at Matthews Arena.
Dalen Hedges, who was behind the net, gave Roy a pass right in the slot that he was able to slip by the blocker of Minnesota goalie Adam Wilcox to give the Huskies (3-9-1) the teams’ third win in four games.
“We just wanted to get the puck down low and Mike McMurtry and Dalen Hedges made a great play down low battling,” said Roy. “Hedgy was able to get it to me in the middle and I had a lot of time. I just tried to gain the slot and take a shot on net, and it ended up going low blocker.”
Northeastern got the first good chance of the game, but was not able to convert, when the Huskies were awarded a five-minute power play as a result of a Mike Reilly hit from behind, which sent him to the locker room for a game misconduct just 2:39 into the game.
Minnesota (8-3-0) found the back of the net first on a Justin Kloos one-timer off a pass from Ben Marshall that beat Huskies’ goalie Clay Witt to the right side to give the Gophers a 1-0 lead.
Northeastern knotted the score up at one when junior Dustin Darou scored his first collegiate goal, following his rebound on an initially blocked shot and jamming it home past Wilcox.
“I thought we had pretty good energy in the first,” said Minnesota coach Don Lucia. “We had to kill about seven minutes in the first period and that, obviously, took some of their [Minnesota] energy away.”
Northeastern took a 2-1 lead at the 6:32 mark in the second period when Brendan Collier scored, shooting from the right boards on a pass from linemate Dylan Sikura that quickly found the back of the net.
The lead would quickly vanish, though, as Minnesota scored its second power-play goal of the night on a five-on-three to tie the game back at two.
[photoshelter-gallery g_id=”G0000DsZpt39aoTg” g_name=”20141129-Minnesota-Northeastern-JGR” f_show_caption=”t” f_show_slidenum=”t” img_title=”casc” pho_credit=”iptc” f_link=”t” f_bbar=”t” fsvis=”f” width=”500″ height=”375″ bgcolor=”#AAAAAA” bgtrans=”t” btype=”old” bcolor=”#CCCCCC” crop=”f” trans=”xfade” tbs=”4000″ f_ap=”t” linkdest=”c” f_fullscreen=”f” f_constrain=”f” twoup=”f” f_topbar=”f” f_bbarbig=”” f_htmllinks=”f” f_enable_embed_btn=”f” f_show_watermark=”f” f_send_to_friend_btn=”f” f_smooth=”f” f_mtrx=”f” f_up=”f” target=”_self” wmds=”llQ6QNgpeC.p1Ucz7U.f2JR382T3M6I_pj6Jc1z7MHumiA915Xf0GHXD.OF8BtN_a5I10A–” ]Connor Reilly threw the puck in deep from the point that Kyle Rau deflected past Witt for the equalizer.
A back-and-forth third period found neither team able to crack the tie until Roy scored the winner to send Minnesota home with a 1-1 record in Boston over the weekend. The Gophers downed Boston College 6-2 Friday night.
“We just got to keep working and evolving as a team,” Lucia said. “When we’re successful, we’re scoring a few goals. If we don’t get a five-on-five goal, it’s difficult to win.”
“Any time you can beat a University of Minnesota hockey club, you’re doing some things right.” added Northeastern coach Jim Madigan. “I thought our preparation all week long was really good. I thought going into the game mentally, physically, emotionally we were at good levels.”
After a slow 0-8-1 start, the Huskies have posted a 3-1 mark in their last four outings.
“There’s some good momentum and mojo in that locker room,” Madigan said. “We’re a good hockey club if we just stick to the game plan and play smart and with discipline.”
“We know we’re a really good team and we can play any night against any team in the country, and tonight we proved that,” added Roy. “So we have a lot of confidence moving forward.”
