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NORTH ANDOVER, Mass. – Multi-point nights from Zach Aston-Reese, Matt Filipe and Dylan Sikura along with 33 saves from Ryan Ruck sent the tone for the Northeastern men's ice hockey team (9-10-5, 3-8-3), which earned its first weekend sweep of the season with a 4-2 victory at Merrimack (8-13-3, 2-7-3) on Saturday night at Lawler Rink.
 
Aston-Reese reached the 40-point plateau with a goal and an assist on the evening, becoming the 17th player in team history to record at least 40 points in consecutive seasons. He's now tied for the most points in the nation (41), and also leads the country with 22 goals.
 
Northeastern jumped out to a 1-0 lead six minutes into the game with a goal from Adam Gaudette, his 13th of the year, before Johnathan Kovacevic tied it up late in the frame to send the teams into the locker tied at one. The Warriors took a 2-1 lead on Jace Hennig's power play goal less than three minutes into the second, but it was all Huskies from there as Northeastern scored the game's final three goals with tallies from Filipe, Aston-Reese and Eric Williams.
 
Ruck stopped 33 shots for the third straight game to earn his ninth win of the year and 29th of his career, good for eighth on Northeastern's all-time wins list.
 
Drew Vogler got the start in goal for the second straight night, making 31 stops. Shots were even at 35 apiece while each team did significant damage on the power play with NU going 3-of-7 and Merrimack 2-of-5.
 
Goal descriptions:
• Northeastern struck first just 6:15 into the contest when Gaudette ripped home his 13th goal of the year with the Huskies on the power play. After MC was called for a pair of penalties, giving the Huskies an abbreviated five-on-three skating advantage, Sikura pushed the ensuing face-off back to Garret Cockerill at the point. Cockerill then waited for Gaudette to get into position before feeding him a pass into the left face-off dot for a one-timer that beat Vogler.
 
• Merrimack tied the game at one with 3:55 remaining in the opening frame with a power play tally of its own. Midway through a holding the stick infraction on the Huskies, Hampus Gustafsson sent a pass over to Jace Henning, who in turn slid it up to Kovacevic at the right point. Kovacevic then fired a shot through traffic that beat a screened Ruck for his second of the year.
 
• The Warriors potted a second power play goal less than three minutes into the second period on Hennig's fourth of the year. With MC controlling the puck in the attacking zone, Chris LeBlanc whipped a shot that caught the end glass and bounced back in front of Ruck where Hennig was able to spot the puck and bang it home for the 2-1 Merrimack lead.
 
• Northeastern brought the game back to even with 13:05 left in the period on Filipe's fourth of the season. Just as a Merrimack penalty had expired, Aston-Reese caused a turnover in the offensive zone and dropped a pass to Filipe in the right face-off circle. Filipe then tossed a soft backhand towards the cage that appeared to fool Vogler and get by him for the score.
 
• Aston-Reese put the Huskies back on top with 7:24 left in the period on Northeastern's second power play goal of the night. After Stevens drew a boarding call on Marc Biega to give NU the man advantage, Stevens took a pass from Sikura and fired a shot on goal that Vogler stopped. Aston-Reese, though, was waiting on the doorstep and hammered another shot that Vogler knocked down before sticking with it and tucking the rebound in for his 22nd of the season.
 
• The Huskies potted another power play goal midway through the third period off the stick of Williams, his second of the year. Jeremy Davies began the play by handing the puck up to Filipe entering the zone. Filipe then headed towards the left corner and found Williams creeping in from the blue line. Williams received the pass, got a Merrimack defenseman to go down before threading a low shot through a screen and past Vogler for a 4-2 NU lead.
 
Stats of the game:
• Northeastern is now 54-42-10 all-time against Merrimack, and has won five straight regular season games against the Warriors for the first time since 2009. NU's two straight wins at Lawler Rink are also the first since 2010.
 
• Aston-Reese reached the 40-point plateau for the second straight season, becoming the 17th player in team history to record 40 points in consecutive seasons.
 
• Aston-Reese moved into sole possession of 25th on Northeastern's all-time scoring list with 126 points (57 goals, 69 assists), and tied for 30th in Northeastern history for career assists (69).
 
• Aston-Reese's second period goal gave him 11 power play goals on the season, the most for a Husky since J.F. Aube had 13 during the 1993-94 season. The school record for power play goals in a season is 14, held by Rod Isbister in 1984-85.
 
• In the last 13 games, Aston-Reese has 27 points (16 goals, 11 assists) and Sikura has 25 points (nine goals, 16 assists).
 
• Gaudette has a goal in each of his last three games, and points in seven of his last eight games overall (five goals, nine assists).
 
• John Stevens has seven points (one goal, six assists) in his last five games, and is four points away from becoming the 49th player in program history to reach 100 career points.
 
• Davies has a point in each of his last three games (two goals, one assists), while Filipe recorded his first collegiate multi-point night (one goal, one assist).
 
• The power play unit has scored at least one goal in 13 straight games, and scored three power play goals for the third time this season.
 
• Merrimack's first period goal broke up a streak of 15 straight penalty kills for the Huskies, and became just the third team this season to score multiple power play goals against the Huskies (Quinnipiac on Oct. 8 and Arizona State on Oct. 21).
 
The road ahead:
• The Huskies will be back in action next Friday when Northeastern travels to No. 5/5 UMass Lowell for a 6 p.m. puck drop at the Tsongas Center. The game will be aired live on NESN, ASN and TSN 2.