Box Score | Season Stats | Infographic | Highlights | Press Conference

BOSTON – The Northeastern men's ice hockey team (2-9-1, 2-5-1) scored twice in the first period and received 24 saves from Clay Witt to pace the Huskies to a 3-1 victory against Merrimack (8-4-1, 4-3-0) on Saturday night at Matthews Arena.
 
John Stevens, Dalen Hedges and Mike Szmatula all scored for the Huskies, who dominated at the faceoff dot throughout the evening, winning 49-of- 72 draws while outshooting the Warriors 29-25. Northeastern was 1-of-2 on the power play and killed off its lone minor penalty in the second period. Collin Delia made 26 saves in goal for MC while Justin Mansfield scored the lone Merrimack goal.
 
Northeastern came out and set the tone in the first period, outshooting MC 10-7 and netting a pair of goals in the opening 20 minutes. The first came 2:14 into the contest when John Stevens scored his first of the season when he buried a one-timer from the slot off a feed from Nolan Stevens along the left wall, beating Delia short side.
 
NU extended its lead to two midway through the frame when Hedges scored on the power play. With Kyle Singleton in the box for a roughing minor, Hedges collected a loose puck between the hash marks off an initial shot from Kevin Roy, and quickly spun around to fire it past Delia for Hedges' third goal of the season.
 
At the other end, Witt handled all seven shots he faced in the first period, the toughest coming during a three-on-one for Merrimack late in the stanza when he made a big glove save on Brett Seney, who was streaking down the right side.
 
Merrimack pressured the Huskies throughout the second period with 10 shots on goal, and cut the NU lead in half four minutes into the frame. Delia kept it a two-goal game early in the stanza when he made a quick recovery to stone Matt Benning, who tried to tuck a shot inside the right post.
 
After sustained zone time for the Warriors in the Northeastern end, Justin Mansfield made it 2-1 when he snapped a shot off the left post and past Witt off a cross ice feed from Hampus Gustafsson at the left side. MC kept the scoring chances coming as the period wore on, and nearly knotted the game at two during an odd-man rush, but Mathieu Tibbet's shot went just wide.
 
Northeastern almost took a 3-1 lead early in the third period when the Huskies created a turnover in the Merrimack zone, leading to a one-timer from Mike Jamieson in the slot off a feed from Brendan Collier, but Delia was there to make the big pad save.
 
While the Huskies maintained puck possession for the first half of the frame, Merrimack had chances of its own as the Warriors transitioned two-on-one, resulting in a Tibbet shot from the left side that Witt knocked down.
 
Merrimack would pull Delia in favor of the extra skater coming out of a timeout with two minutes to play in regulation, but an empty net goal from Mike Szmatula iced the win for the Huskies.
 
The Huskies will be back in action on Saturday night when Northeastern hosts No. 4/4 Minnesota at 7 p.m. from Matthews Arena as part of the B1G/Hockey East Challenge.

Season tickets, as well as individual game tickets, are available for men's ice hockey and can be purchased by visiting GoNU.com/tickets. In addition, the student sale for the 2015 Beanpot will take place on Saturday, January 17, 2015 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the Matthews Arena lobby. Please contact the Ticket Office by calling 617-373-4700 or emailing huskytix@neu.edu with any questions.

For complete coverage of Northeastern and Northeastern hockey, follow us on Facebook (Northeastern and Northeastern Men's Ice Hockey) and Twitter (@GoNUathletics and @GoNUmhockey). Check out exclusive videos on GoNUxstream and behind-the-scenes content on Instagram (GoNUathletics).

Tweets by @GoNUmhockey .