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NORTH ANDOVER, Mass. – Cayden Primeau stopped 29 shots and Adam Gaudette scored his team-leading 12th goal of the season as the No. 8 Northeastern men's hockey team (10-5-2, 8-3-1) went into the holiday break with a 1-1 tie at Merrimack (4-9-4, 2-6-2) on Saturday afternoon at Lawler Rink.
 
The tie moves Northeastern within one point of Boston College for first place in the Hockey East standings with 17 points. NU concludes the first half of the season with 10 wins in 17 games, its best start since 2008-09.
 
The Warriors jumped out to a 1-0 lead with a goal from Jace Hennig to give the hosts a 1-0 lead through 20 minutes. Gaudette leveled the score with his 28th career power play goal late in the second period, and the goaltenders took it from there as Merrimack netminder Craig Pantano made 32 saves, including 16 in the third period as the Huskies searched for the game-winner.

Northeastern outshot the Warriors 33-30 in the game, was 1-of-3 on the power play and won 31-of-58 faceoffs. Merrimack, meanwhile, was 0-of-3 on the man advantage 
 
Goal descriptions
FIRST GOAL (1-0 Merrimack) – Jace Hennig – FIRST PERIOD – 14:41
Merrimack drew first blood with 5:19 to play in the opening period on Hennig's seventh goal of the year, taking the puck after a face-off win by Brett Seney and whipping a shot past Primeau five-hole for the score.
 
SECOND GOAL (Tied 1-1) – Adam Gaudette – SECOND PERIOD – 13:08 – PP
The Huskies knotted the game at one with 6:52 to play in the second period on Gaudette's team-leading 12th goal of the year with the Huskies on the power play. Jeremy Davies started the play by battling to keep the puck in the attacking zone as Merrimack tried to clear. He then dished to Nolan Stevens in front, whose shot from the slot flew over the crossbar. The puck would deflect off the glass behind the net and back out in front, where Gaudette batted it out of midair and past Pantano to tie the game.
 
Stats of the game
• Gaudette recorded his 28th career power play goal, and is three away from tying the school record held by Rod Isbister and J.F. Aube.
 
• Gaudette has four goals and two assists in his last three games, while Stevens (four games; two goals, three assists) and Davies (three games; one goal, two assists) also extended their point streaks
 
The road ahead
Northeastern will have two weeks off for the holiday break before returning to the ice on Dec. 30 when the Huskies host AIC at 7 p.m. Tickets to the game, and all games at Matthews Arena, are available by visiting tickets.GoNU.com