Offense in reverse for Huskies

Five games into the season, his assessment so far has been upside-down. The netminding and defense have been solid but the Huskies (0-2-3, 0-2-0) have only 12 goals in five games and generated just one last night in a 3-1 loss to UMass-Lowell (3-1-0, 1-0-0) in a Hockey East game in front of 4,049 at Tsongas Arena.

“Going into the season, the irony is, I was worried about our defense and our goaltending,’’ said Cronin. “I thought we had plenty of offense. It’s been an offensively-challenged team. [We’ve] got to get something going on the power play [1 for 4 last night]. Your power play has to click or you’re not going to win.’’

By contrast, the River Hawks have scored 14 goals in four games and were 2 for 6 on the power play last night.

“It was a hard-fought game for us,’’ said coach Blaise MacDonald. “We had a hard time getting into our game and our systems. We were fortunate that our special teams were pretty good tonight. I thought we had a phenomenal [penalty kill] all night. I thought our goalie [Carter Hutton] played really, really well.’’

After a scoreless first period, the River Hawks took a 2-0 lead heading into the second intermission. At 4:47 of the second period, Riley Wetmore took a pass from defenseman Ryan Blair and beat goaltender Chris Rawlings (30 saves) on a wrist shot from the edge of the crease to make it 1-0.

MacDonald said Wetmore, a freshman, has a lot of potential.

“He’s getting better and better and every day in practice we can see it,’’ he said. “He gets the way we play. He works hard, he’s got great commitment. He’s been a really pleasant surprise. He’s going to score a lot of goals and be a big player for us.’’

Penalty trouble for Northeastern led to the second goal. Matt Lipinski was called for a contact to the head minor at 17:24 and the Huskies’ shorthanded situation was compounded 12 seconds later when Greg Costa was whistled off for cross-checking, giving UMass-Lowell a five-on-three advantage for 1 minute 49 seconds. At 18:56, the River Hawks converted. This time it was sophomore center David Vallorani, who beat Rawlings from outside the right post for the two-goal lead.

NU cut the deficit in half with a power-play tally at 8:03 of the third when captain Tyler McNeely beat Hutton (24 saves) over the pads for his second goal of the season. But the team’s comeback hopes all but evaporated when Randy Guzior, playing his second game as a defenseman since being converted from forward, was assessed a five-minute major and a game misconduct for hitting from behind at 17:05, giving the River Hawks a power play for the remainder of the game. They cashed in with 43.2 seconds remaining as Paul Worthington potted an empty-net goal.

Cronin was unhappy with Guzior’s choice.

“I don’t know what he was doing, that was a five-minute call all day long,’’ said the coach. “You can’t hit a guy in the numbers. He’s just a force back there, he gives us a physical presence but he just made a bad decision.’’

Nancy Marrapese-Burrell can be reached at marrapese@globe.com.