Northeastern spoiled Boston College’s Saturday night again, and this one came with a familiar sting for the Eagles.
The Huskies beat BC 4-3 in overtime on Halloween, riding another huge night from Lawton Zacher and enough timely finishing to survive a barrage of Eagles shots. BC finished with a 49-24 edge in shots, but Northeastern got the goals that mattered most and left with the win for the second straight Halloween.
Freshman forward Alex Pelletier and junior forward Dean Letourneau powered BC’s offense. Pelletier posted a goal and two assists, while Letourneau added two points as the Eagles took their first conference loss.
BC got on the board first after Northeastern opened with pressure and then took the game’s first penalty for too many skaters at 4:13 of the first period. Letourneau, who has now found the scoresheet in every game this season, finished the opening goal at 4:40. After Pelletier gathered a pass from sophomore forward Oscar Hemming on the zone entry, Letourneau drifted into space in the slot and buried a sharp catch-and-release wrister off Pelletier’s seam pass.
The Huskies answered with sustained pressure of their own, forcing sophomore goaltender Louka Cloutier into several tough stops. The first period also turned chippy late, with Joel Kjellberg going off for holding at 17:07 and Pelletier joining him 10 seconds later for tripping. The teams skated four-on-four until the closing seconds, and the period ended tied in shots, 11-11.
Northeastern carried that momentum into the second period and quickly found the equalizer. After Cloutier turned aside a pair of chances on a Husky two-on-one, Hemming was whistled for boarding at 8:07 to give Northeastern its first power play. On that man advantage, Giacomo Martino and Joaquim Lemay set up Jacob Mathieu, who tied it at 8:29 with a one-timer past Cloutier.
The Huskies struck again on another power play after freshman forward Matthew Grimes was called for delay of game at 11:54. This time Martino again found a teammate alone in the slot, and Amine Hajibi ripped a one-timer by Cloutier’s blocker at 13:20 to make it 2-1.
BC answered on its own power play at 16:26 when Noah Jones held senior forward Will Vote. Letourneau worked the puck low-to-high to sophomore defenseman Luka Radivojevic, whose shot created a rebound Zacher couldn’t control. Pelletier jumped on it and scored his first career NCAA goal about 10 seconds later.
The Eagles weren’t done. Just over a minute later, junior forward Jake Sondreal set up freshman forward Casey Mutryn as BC entered the zone.
Mutryn then found Pelletier with a short seam pass at speed, and Pelletier’s shot produced another rebound that Sondreal finished to put BC ahead. The Eagles went to the second intermission up 29-18 in shots and with real momentum.
That edge didn’t last long. Three minutes into the third period, Mathieu cut into the BC zone and fired a shot that deflected off sophomore defenseman Kristian Kostadinski’s shin pad and back to his stick. With the lane reopened, Mathieu snapped home his second goal of the night to tie it.
The final period turned into a grind, with both teams skating four-on-four after matching minors to Letourneau and Hajibi less than a minute later. BC generated chances, but the defining save came when Zacher made a huge post-to-post stop to deny junior forward Teddy Stiga from below the right circle.
BC had one more chance late when Dawson Sharkey slashed Kostadinski at 17:34, sending the Eagles to a power play. Zacher held firm through the final whistle, finishing with almost 50 saves and helping Northeastern escape regulation still tied.
In overtime, Oscar Hemming had a chance to end it after receiving a cross-crease pass, but he chose to pass instead of shoot. Northeastern turned that into a counterattack the other way, and Tyler Fukakusa finished the game for the Huskies.
BC’s offensive output was there all night. The execution in its own end wasn’t. The Eagles’ defensive-zone coverage, especially on the power play and in transition, opened the door for Northeastern to do enough damage despite surrendering only 24 shots.
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