Jan. 2: Northeastern rallied from a three-goal deficit with three in the third period and salvaged a tie with St. Lawrence in a non-league game at Matthews Arena in Boston Friday night as the two teams deadlocked at 3-3 in their first action after lengthy layoffs.
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The Saints seemed comfortably in front after scoring a pair of power play goals on a second period major and starting the third with 2:15 of continuation of that power play, but Northeastern got a shorthanded goal from freshman Nolan Stevens to start its comeback 1:37 into the period and tied the game with an extra attacker goal with 23:2 seconds to go in the period.
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The Saints, now 8-8-2, did snap a four-game losing streak with the tie while Northeastern is 5-2-1 in its last eight and 5-10-2 overall.
"We competed hard and we played pretty well, but it was one of those games after we've been off for a while and you see mistakes you usually don't see our team make," coach
Greg Carvel said. "But the thing most upsetting to me is we took our feet off the gas because we were ahead 3-0 going into the third period. It's a lesson we shouldn't be learning at this point of the year."
The Saints opened the scoring on their first power play chance of the game as after defensemen
Eric Sweetman and
Nolan Gluchowski worked the puck across the top of the offensive zone, Gluchowski gave it to
Brian Ward at the top of the right faceoff circle and the junior center snapped a wrist shot which beat NU goalie Clay Witt for Ward's fourth of the year.
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The Saints appeared to have scored another goal just minutes later when a shot went in off the upper body of
Mike Marnell, but it was disallowed when it was ruled that Marnell directed it in with his forearm.
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The two teams traded power plays through much of the second period, but a major for boarding gave the Saints the chance to open some breathing room late in the period and they did with two goals in a span of 45 seconds.
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Sean McGovern got the first, his fifth of the year, when he gathered a rebound after a Witt save on the initial shot by Woody Hudson.
Alex Hagen also assisted on the play at 17:36 of the period to give the Saints a 2-0 lead. It went to 3-0 at 18:21 on a similar play at the opposite side of the net. This time
Gunnar Hughes gathered in the rebound and flipped it over Witt with
Patrick Doherty and Sweetman assisting on the Saints' third power play goal of the game and Hughes' fifth of the year.
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Stevens took advantage of a Saint turnover in front of the Saint net for the shorthander to start the comeback in the third period and freshman defenseman Trevor Owens finished off a four-on-two break with his first collegiate goal midway through the third period to make it a 3-2 game. NU pulled Witt with 1:23 to go and got the equalizer from Adam Reid at 19:37 in a scramble in front of Saint goalie
Kyle Hayton.
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Hayton, who was solid in the third period with 13 of his 33 saves in the last 20 minutes, made a pair of big stops in a play in close in the final minute of the overtime to save the tie. Witt finished with 28 saves for the Huskies.
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