Box Score

Postgame comments (Jim Madigan)

PROVIDENCE, R.I. - Sophomore Josh Manson scored another goal as did rookie Ryan Belonger, but the Northeastern's men's hockey team ran into a red-hot office as Providence downed the Huskies, 6-2, on Friday night at Schneider Arena.

Providence's penalty-killing unit curbed NU's power play tear, stopping all five of the Huskies' chances.

Senior goaltender Bryan Mountain earned his eight start of the season and stopped 28-of-34 shots in the loss. Northeastern outshot the Friars, 37-34, and Jon Gillies earned his 12th win of the season by turning back 35 Huskies' attempts.

In the early goings, Providence made it clear it was going to establish a presence in front of Mountain in close. Northeastern's netminder did a great job keeping the Friars away from the crease, but was eventually burned off the draw at 8:38 of the first stanza.

Off a draw in Northeastern's end to Mountain's right, Kyle Murphy cleanly won a draw back to Derek Army on top of the left circle. With plenty of traffic blocking the net, Army utilized the screen and beat Mountain five-hole to give PC the early 1-0 advantage.

The Huskies looked like they might tie it around the 13:00-minute mark with a good window of sustained pressure, but on the Friars' next possession, PC went up 2-0 on a bang-bang play in front of the crease.

Mark Jankowski scooted the puck out of the corner behind the cage to Tim Schaller on the near post. Schaller tried to stuff the puck in through Mountain's pad, but eventually popped it out to Steven Demopoulos in the slot to rip it past Mountain down low for the 2-0 lead at 14:14 of the first period.

Shortly after PC's second tally, senior Steve Morra was called for a high stick at 14:36 behind Gillies. On the ensuing draw, junior Braden Pimm called upon his strong penalty-killing efforts and pushed the puck back up Providence's end and drew a holding call on Kevin Hart at 14:47 to negate PC's power play.

Neither team countered during the 4-on-4 episode and Northeastern gained an opportunity to cut into PC's lead after Steven McParland was sent off for an elbow at 1:45 of the second stanza.

Providence's penalty kill limited NU's chances, but just as the penalty expired, sophomore Dax Lauwers broke up a play in the Huskies' end and connected with classmate Josh Manson in stride. Manson had a breakaway starting at the neutral zone and tried to beat Gillies five-hole, but Providence's goaltender somehow made the acrobatic save to keep to a 2-0 affair.

Manson was denied on the breakaway, but he was not denied on a perfect one-time blast at 9:34 to cut into the Friars' lead, 2-1.

Rookie Mike Gunn won a battle behind Mountain out to junior Zak Stone on the left circle. Stone raced the puck up the sheet, drawing a slew of Friars over to that side of the zone. Manson crept in behind the play, accepted the cross-zone pass and patiently smoked a wrist shot, low side, past Gillies for Northeastern's first strike of the game.

Manson's goal opened up the offensive floodgates for both teams as Mark Jankowski recouped Providence's two-goal lead at 11:22 on an odd-man rush. Schaller had the clear shot from 15 feet outside and the puck caromed off of Mountain to an undefended Jankowski for the quick put back to make it 3-1.

Northeastern answered just over a minute later on a great play from senior Steve Morra and Belonger at 12:39 of the second period.

With a man in his face, Morra triggered on Gillies from 20 feet out and the velocity of his shot kicked out to Belonger on the right extended goal line. From an extremely unfavorable angle, Belonger took his chance and managed to sneak it behind Gillies off of Morra's rebound to cut it to one again, 3-2.

Fifteen seconds later, Providence surprised Mountain with a long-range rifle from Steven Shamanski at 12:54 of the second period to go ahead by two for the third time through two periods. Demopoulos linked up with Schaller on the right side of the zone and with Shamanski unguarded, Schaller made the perfect pass to set up the one-timer goal to make it 4-2 heading into the third frame.

Northeastern picked up another early power play to start the period, this time Alex Velischek going off at 2:10 of the third for hitting from behind. The Huskies had their chances in close, but the Friars' penalty-killing effort rose to the occasion for the fourth-straight time of the night.

Mountain made a huge save on Hart in between the circles around the 5:30 mark, but the Friars were able to score their fifth of the night in a little bit close to make it a three-goal game.

Schaller, attaining his fourth assist of the night, beat his man out wide and wheeled around the net and stuffed it in on Mountain. The original stop was made, but with the puck jostling loose, Demopoulos cleaned up the garbage and made it 5-2 at the 10:50 mark.

Junior Braden Pimm was cited for slashing at 14:14 and the Friars cashed in at 16:40 to put the game out of reach for Northeastern. Tim Schaller scored his first goal on a rebound from Derek Army at 14:51 to seal the Huskies' fate, 6-2.

Northeastern welcomes Providence to Matthews Arena for the first time this season to close the Hockey East series on Saturday night at 7 p.m. The first 500 students in the Dog House will receive free Sweet Tomatoes pizza. Also, the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee will collect canned goods at the game for the CAA food drive. The first 200 fans to donate a canned good will receive a free "Unleashed" t-shirt.

Game Notes
• Sophomore Josh Manson's physical play all night yielded his first-career goal-scoring streak. The Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, native tallied his first-career goal on Feb. 19 at UMass, in overtime game-winning fashion, and followed that with his second-career goal in consecutive games on Friday night at Providence.

• Ryan Belonger pieced together his second-career point streak by scoring his third-career goal on Friday night at Providence. The Green Bay, Wis., native assisted on Robbie Vrolyk's goal on Feb. 19 at UMass. Belonger's first-career point streak occurred through the first two games of the season against Merrimack (0-1-1 • Oct. 10) and Boston College (1-0-1 • Oct. 13).

• Zak Stone and Steve Morra acquired their first points since the Jan. 26 contest at UMass Lowell. Stone has three assists on the season while Morra has a scoring line of 2-4-6.

• Newcomer Dustin Darou scored his first point of the season since coming back from his injury with his fifth assist of the year. The Perth, Ontario, native curbed a 14-game scoreless drought.