Box Score  | Season Stats | Highlights

DURHAM, N.H. – With the score tied at three through 40 minutes of play, New Hampshire (21-17-1) scored twice in the third period and held off a late surge from No. 14 Northeastern men's ice hockey (19-14-4) to eliminate the Huskies from the Hockey East tournament on Sunday afternoon in a back and forth bout at the Whittemore Center, 5-4.

Freshman Mike Szmatula led the charge for the Huskies with a pair of goals, while Kevin Goumas had a hat trick for the Wildcats. Torin Snydeman and Mike McMurtry also scored for the Huskies, while Clay Witt made 21 saves in goal.

Casey DeSmith had 22 stops for the Wildcats, who went 1-of-3 on the power play to NU's 0-of-2 showing. Shots were even at 26 apiece while UNH won 33-of-62 draws.

New Hampshire came out hard at the Huskies, burying two goals on its first five shots to go ahead early before heading into the locker room with a 3-1 lead. UNH got on the board 3:29 into the game when Nick Sorkin took a feed from Goumas before snapping shot under the glove of Witt for his 20th goal of the season.

With Northeastern on the power play less than five minutes into the game, the Wildcats struck again with a shorthanded tally off the stick of Goumas. After UNH blocked an NU shot from the point, New Hampshire transitioned up ice where Goumas fired a shot from the right face-off dot that beat Witt shortside.

The Huskies would cut into the lead with 6:51 left in the period on Snydeman's seventh goal of the season. With NU controlling the puck in the offensive zone, Snydeman tried to center the puck from below the goal line, but the puck got a piece of DeSmith and trickled through the junior goaltender to make it 2-1.

Northeastern had a few chances to level the score minutes later, including chances from Zach Aston-Reese and Kevin Roy that whistled wide.

UNH, however, would regain its two-goal cushion four minutes after the Snydeman tally when Goumas redirected a Brett Pesce shot from the point through traffic and past Witt for his second of the game.

Northeastern carried the play for much of the second period, holding a slight 7-6 edge in shots on goal and potting a pair during the middle frame to tie the game through 40 minutes of play. Pimm and McMurtry nearly connected early in the period when Pimm's centering pass intended for McMurtry was broken up atop the crease when McMurtry's stick was lifted by a UNH defender.

Szmatula would come up big for the Huskies less than five minutes into the stanza when he cleaned up the mess in front of the cage following an initial shot from Pimm, beating DeSmith for Szmatula's 14th goal of the season. Szmatula had another chance to tie the game minutes later when DeSmith was caught out of position with a loose puck in front of the net, but DeSmith was able to recover just in time to knock down Szmatula's bid from between the hashmarks.

With 5:33 to play in the period, NU tied the game at three when McMurtry redirected a centering pass from Colton Saucerman past DeSmith for McMurtry's sixth goal of the year.

Goumas completed the hat trick in the first five minutes of the third period with a power play tally to break the deadlock. After taking a pass from Eric Knodel, Goumas fired a slap shot through traffic that beat Witt in the top left corner.

NU got a power play of its own with 13:47 to play in regulation, and thought it had tied the score when a shot from the right side beat DeSmith, but after a lengthy review the original call on the ice negating the goal stood as called.

New Hampshire made it a two-goal game with less than seven minutes play when the Wildcats transitioned up ice two-on-one, and Matt Willows fired a pass over to Brett Pesce at the far post for a one-timer past Witt.

Szmatula gave the Huskies life less than three minutes after the Pesce goal with a strong individual effort through defenders before roofing a shot over DeSmith to make it 5-4.

Northeastern had a strong flurry after the Szmatula tally, and Pimm almost tucked a loose puck past a sprawling DeSmith. NU would pull Witt in favor of the extra skater with 1:25 left in regulation, but could not net the equalizer.