ECH “Out East”: Northeastern Upsets No. 13 UMass Lowell, No. 4 Maine Stands Their Ground & Sweeps UNH
BY ARIANA OTTRANDO AND BRENDAN LOCKE — FEBRUARY 18TH, 2025
Northeastern upsets No. 13 UMass Lowell
OTTRANDO, BOSTON — ECH returned to the historic Matthews Arena this weekend, the oldest ice arena still in use (for now), to witness Northeastern take on top-ranked UMass Lowell for the Friday game of their home-and-home series.
The No. 13 River Hawks were held off due to Husky freshman Joe Connor’s multi-goal performance, including a penalty shot, and freshman goaltender Quentin Sigurdon’s perfect collegiate debut, with his first collegiate win, point, and shutout.
“I know I can play at this level,” said Sigurdson post-game. “It’s a big boost in the confidence, hoping to keep that up.”
It wasn’t long before UMass Lowell was chasing the equalizer after Connor’s first goal of the night at 5:24, netting his own rebound. The game-winning goal (GWG) was Connor’s fifth goal of the season, assisted by Sigurdson and junior Joaquim Lemay.
“We always want to have one guy stay on the forecheck,” said Connor of the play. “I ended up getting the shot, and then it bounced straight out almost perfectly on my stick.”
The Huskies have had a track record of holding onto leads this season, with eight out of ten total wins coming after scoring the first goal.
Score aside, play was fairly even through the first frame with shots on goal (SOG) closing in at 13-11 UML. Four-on-four action carried over into period two with the best scoring chance coming from Northeastern—a post hit by Connor with four seconds left before intermission.
Continuing to put pressure in the O-zone, Northeastern extended its lead just two minutes into the second period thanks to none other than Connor. The New Hampshire-native drew a penalty shot after attacking the net yet again and sealed the deal for his sixth goal of the season.
“Getting those two [goals] were big,” said Connor. “Get my confidence up—getting those two definitely help out with that.”
🎥: by Ariana Ottrando
The rest of the frame was all Huskies, taking 17 SOG to UML’s eight for a 40-minute total of 28-21 NU. Both teams went scoreless on their respective power play opportunities to keep it a 2-0 game headed into the third.
UMass had a third man-advantage in the final stretch of regulation, but Northeastern killed it off for a 100% (three-for-three) PK on the night—a starkly different one from the Beanpot consolation game against Harvard just a few days prior.
“We changed our structure around a little bit this week,” said Northeastern head coach Jerry Keefe. “We were more disciplined tonight, we got the [penalty] kills when we needed [to].”
Sigurdson faced 13 more shots through the last period, for a game total of 34-30 UML, and kept the River Hawks off the board to secure his first collegiate win and shutout in his debut—the cherry on top of Northeastern’s first win on home ice since Dec. 7 against Brown.
“He gave our team a real big boost,” said Keefe of Sigurdson’s debut performance. “He’s gotten better all year, just waiting for his chance. Some guys take advantage of that, and that’s exactly what he did.”
Lowell clinched the series split with a 3-1 comeback victory Saturday night at their own Tsongas Center. The GWG came from UMass graduate Pierson Brandon 3:14 into the third period, unassisted, for his fifth goal of the season.
With roughly a month left of the regular season, each game becomes more dire for seedings—especially in Hockey East, arguably the hardest conference for college hockey.
For teams like Northeastern that have a younger squad with fewer returners than their conference counterparts, it’s certainly a disadvantage for building and maintaining chemistry going into the postseason. That being said, the Huskies can go head-to-head with any opposition and continue to build confidence in the freshmen—especially evident in games like this one.
“[Connor]’s a heck of a player—he really is,” said Keefe. “It’s not easy as a freshman, you’re trying to find your way … Over the last ten games, he started stringing together some points. Hopefully he can go on that swagger.”
This upcoming weekend, UMass Lowell will take on No. 8 Providence for a one-off conference matchup Saturday at Schneider Arena. The Hawks have a slight edge with 1-0-1 record over the Friars thus far this season.
Northeastern will face off against No. 9/8 Boston University in a home-and-home with a huge six points on the line. The Huskies and Terriers have not seen each other yet this season, including the annual Beanpot tournament where BU defeated Harvard and No. 1 Boston College for the title.
Maine Stands Their Ground, Sweeps UNH
LOCKE, ORONO — About six weeks ago, I referred to the scene prior to a hockey game at The Alfond Arena in Orono, Maine as something more befitting of an SEC football game than something we see in college hockey.
Well, they upstaged themselves.
Students began lining up for tickets at 10 a.m. for a 7 p.m. game, wrapping around a fanfest that was headlined by Maine head coach Ben Barr, and ECH’s very own, James Murray.
I ran into one of the staff members for Maine hockey who was at the pre-game festivities.
“You guys are lunatics”
“Maineiacs, and just wait, we’re coming”
The Black Bears are here, and they aren’t moving. Their primary concern at this point has to be making sure that Ben Barr never steps foot behind another team’s bench.
As Maine has returned, so has the Border Battle; The faceoffs between Shawn Walsh and Dick Umile remain the stuff of legend. And the more northern of the two loves to mention a certain overtime game in the spring of 1999.
Maine took game one in stunning fashion—playing without their “A game,” and scoring with under 60 seconds remaining in the game before getting the better of the Wildcats in the shootout.
Game two got off to a slow start with UNH trying to muck up the speed of the Black Bears.
In the first 40 minutes, UNH was in complete control of the game. Ross Mitton exited the game in the 2nd period with a lower-body injury. The big power forward has been excellent in a middle-six role for the Blackbears and will be something to note if he misses extended time as the season begins to wrap.
The longer that the game stayed 0-0, the more it favored UNH, but Brandon Holt quickly put a stop to that, picking the corner on Jared Whale through a screen.
The roof at The Alfond nearly blew off, cue the “Naked 5.”
UNH would not take long to battle back and take the lead. After tying the game with a Ryan Commy powerplay goal at the halfway mark of the 2nd, UNH found themselves ahead 2-1 with four minutes remaining in the 2nd.
Kristaps Skrastins got on the board after blasting a sandwedge over the shoulder of the Richter Award semi-finalist Albin Boija. The Wall from Sundsvall does not get beat dead to rights often, if ever. So Skrastins opened up his clubface, took a hack, and it just popped over Boija’s shoulder.
After the opening minutes of the 3rd were relatively quiet, it became the Nadeau show.
Josh Nadeau has struggled without his younger brother Bradley as his linemate, but he had a 20-minute stretch that put him among one of the all-time great individual efforts from a player to wear a Maine jersey.
Longtime Blackbear reporters and staff members were left shaking their heads, saying things like: “I haven’t seen anything like that in 25 years.”
Ben Barr had to put a little fire under the Black Bears’ tails to upstart it.
“I probably lost my composure in between the periods [second and third], but the reaction to it was good … The way we came out and played in that third was really inspirational,” said Barr.
A hooking penalty on Cy LeClerc set the stage for a Maine powerplay and despite the flurry of chances from the powerplay unit on Maine, they could not solve Whale. That was until Charlie Russel fit the puck into a tuna can over Whale’s shoulder as the man advantage expired.
In the final seven minutes, Maine proceeded to put on an offensive exhibition led by Josh Nadeau, starting by setting up Sully Scholle. Nadeau picked the puck up along the half boards and fired a no-look pass through skates and sticks. Once the wide-open Scholle located the puck through the masses he just had to hit the net, and the sophomore made no mistake potting his first goal since October.
“It felt great, great pass by Josh [Nadeau] there,” said Scholle.
It wouldn’t take long for Maine to find another. Just 12 seconds after Scholle’s goal, Thomas Freel banged it in past an outstretched Whale, set up below the goal line from Nadeau.
UNH wouldn’t go down easy after giving up two goals in less than 15 seconds, and they got set up with a gift as Nadeau got called for a taunting penalty skating past the UNH bench, setting up a powerplay right after Maine took a two-goal lead.
“I just stared them down,” said Nadeau after the game, confused about the penalty call. He was helpless after a brilliant third period as the Wildcats tried to find a way back in the game, but Nadeau would make up for it just seconds after getting out of the box. “I was frustrated and had to get it back for the team.”
He did it in about five seconds.
Nadeau earned that goal by setting up each of the previous three. Capping it off underneath the balcony to sweep your hated rival for the first time in six years must have made it all that much sweeter.
Maine continues to churn out results despite a stretch of less-than-stellar play in January, but that is a weekend that can catapult them to do special things. With BC dropping a game to UMass over the weekend, the Black Bears are now joint top of the standings with the Eagles and have a chance to capture their first regular season Hockey East title since the 1995 season.
UNH has a home-and-home with UMass this upcoming weekend, looking to pull back above .500 on the season to qualify for the NCAA tournament. Maine has one game set in Storrs with a top-ten-ranked UConn team on Friday.
