Huskies escape with close victory over Falcons

The contest was sold out and of the 4,666, 2,724 were students. In the end, their loyalty was rewarded with a 3-2 nonconference victory at newly refurbished Matthews Arena.

“I give a tremendous amount of credit to Bentley,’’ said NU coach Greg Cronin. “We played on the power play for most of the first two periods and they played well when it was five on five. They did a good job in the third period controlling the puck and they had us on our heels. We were lucky to get out of there with a win.

“I think in the first two periods we were good. We had the puck the whole time. I think we got a little too seduced by our puck handling. We were more like the Harlem Globetrotters than we were a hockey team. Bentley did what they had to do, they blocked shots. We missed the net repeatedly with hard shots that triggered easy clears by them and they stayed in the game. To [Bentley coach Ryan Soderquist’s] credit, they came out in the third period, they had a chance to win the game, and they played like that.’’

It appeared Bentley had scored at 1:34 of the opening period, but after a review, it was ruled no goal because the puck was kicked in. The Falcons got on the board for real at 8:51 during a power play when senior right wing Marc Menzione, in the slot, redirected a shot from the right point that eluded freshman netminder Chris Rawlings (27 saves).

But the Huskies rallied to tie the game at 11:10 on the first of three goals scored on the man-advantage when freshman center Justin Daniels potted his first collegiate goal with a shot from the right side of the slot that beat junior goalie Joe Calvi (27 saves).

The Falcons appeared to go back on top at 4:15 of the second while shorthanded when sophomore left wing Jamie Nudy had the puck just outside the right post. It went in off his skate and the tally was nullified because it was ruled it had been kicked.

Northeastern went ahead to stay at 6:09. Junior right wing Wade MacLeod centered a pass to freshman defenseman Jake Newton in front and Newton buried it for his first career goal.

“He was kind of feeling his way around in Colorado last weekend,’’ said Cronin, referring to two games against Colorado College. “But I thought tonight he was terrific. He carried the puck well, he made good decisions, he was strong on the defensive side of the puck, and he was good on the power play. It was good to see him emerge.’’

The Huskies cashed in again at 14:59. Junior center Steve Silva potted a rebound of a Newton shot to make it 3-1. Bentley made it interesting with 15.3 seconds remaining in regulation.

With the Falcons on a power play and Calvi pulled for an extra attacker, junior left wing Erik Peterson pulled the team to within one, but it ended there.

Soderquist said it was unfortunate there were two disallowed goals, but he didn’t think that is the reason the Falcons lost.

“I thought we gave a great effort,’’ he said. “In the second period, us taking some penalties that we didn’t need to take, and they capitalized, that was the difference in the game. You can’t give a good team that many penalties and expect to win.’’