Men's Hockey Defeated At. No. 5 Northeastern, 6-3

Matt Germain and Ian O'Connor notch one goal and one assist.

Sophomore Ian O'Connor

Jan. 24, 2009

The Providence College men's hockey team was defeated, 6-3, by fifth-ranked Northeastern Saturday night at Matthews Arena in Boston, Mass.

In a penalty-laden first period, the Huskies emerged with a 2-1 lead after the first 20 minutes as they scored twice on the power play. Ryan Ginand opened the scoring at 2:15 as he fired a high wrist shot from the right circle and into the net. Wade MacLeod doubled NU's lead (2-0) at 7:37, scoring his ninth goal of the season. The Friars used the man advantage as well to cut the lead to 2-1. Sophomore Matt Germain (Rockland, Mass.) pounced on a rebound and fired in his fourth goal of the season at 14:13. It marked Germain's third goal in the last four games. Juniors Chris Eppich (Surrey, B.C.) and John Cavanagh (Warwick, R.I.) assisted on the goal.

The Friars spent the last few minutes of the first period killing off a five-minute major, including a two-man disadvantage that overlapped into the second period, had a chance to tie the game at 1:16 of the second period. The Huskies turned the puck over and it came around the left wing board just as freshman Matt Bergland (Faribault, Minn.) came out of the penalty box. Bergland collected the puck and skated in on a breakaway, but his shot was saved by NU goalie Brad Thiessen. Northeastern then scored the next two goals to increase its lead to 4-1. Dennis McCauley scored at 3:30, while Rob Rassey potted his sixth goal of the season at 9:53. Sophomore Ian O'Connor (Londonderry, N.H.) scored on a breakaway at 17:25 off a backhanded pass from Germain to bring the Friars to within, 4-2. However, Ginand scored with 51 seconds left in the period, his second of the night, to help the Huskies regain their three-goal lead (5-2) after two periods.

Ginand completed the hat trick at 9:44 when he scored from in close to increase NU's lead to 6-2. Sophomore Kyle MacKinnon (Walnut, Calif.) scored his fourth goal of the season at 13:36 to complete the scoring.

The Friars are back in action on Friday, January 30 when they host Boston College at 7:30 p.m. at Schneider Arena. The game will be televised live on NESN.