LOWELL, Mass. — The Northeastern men's hockey team bounced UMass Lowell, 8-2, on Saturday night as eight different goal scorers helped the Huskies complete their weekend sweep.
The Huskies got hot fast, opening the night with a three-goal period. Just 1:03 into the game, junior Eli Sebastian netted his second goal of the weekend off a perfect centering feed from freshman Amine Hajibi for the 1-0 lead. Sophomore Griffin Erdman added the secondary helper.
Just 50 seconds later, sophomore Joe Connor scored off a nifty backhand to extend NU's advantage to 2-0. The goal came from hustle work in the defensive zone from junior Tyler Fukakusa and freshman Noah Jones.
Scoring his first collegiate goal and tallying his second point of the night, Jones gave the Huskies the 3-0 lead heading into the first intermission. Hajibi, for his second assist of the night, fed a leading pass to Jones as he carried the puck from the neutral zone and threw it on net, where it slid just past the netminder.
Northeastern continued its early pressure, adding a fourth goal 8:29 into the middle frame. Freshman Jack Pechar changed direction quickly and passed the puck to freshman Dylan Compton as he skated into the slot for the finish. Freshman Matthew Maltais collected the second assist on the all-rookie goal.
Before the period closed, the River Hawks scored a power-play goal to make it a 4-1 game.
NU proceeded to score four goals in the final 15 minutes from four different goal scorers. The first Huskies power-play goal went to senior Austen May with a textbook one-timer off a pass from Hajibi, his third assist of the game. Connor started the initial sequence to pick up his second point of the night.
To make it 6-1 in the third, freshman Giacomo Martino played a strong forecheck to force a turnover, then received a drop pass from Fukakusa in the slot for the finish. With the assist, Fukakusa tallied his second point of the night.
Also recording his second point of the game, Pechar took the puck from the neutral zone, created space and notched his second goal of the season, assisted by May and Compton — both picking up their second points of the night.
With a late power-play opportunity, junior Matthew Perkins netted the Huskies' final goal of the evening. Junior Andy Moore rushed up ice and found Erdman on the boards, who delivered a quick cross-ice pass to Perkins for the finish from the right dot.
UMass Lowell made it an 8-2 final with a goal in the closing seconds.
In net, junior Lawton Zacher finished with 31 saves in 57:11 before being relieved by freshman Matt DellaRusso, who made two saves in 2:49 in his first action as a Husky.
Northeastern will play its final regular season Hockey East series next weekend against Maine. Friday's game (Feb. 27) will be played at Cross Insurance Arena at 7 p.m., while Saturday's game (Feb. 28) will be back at Tsongas Center at 7 p.m.
