Northeastern University senior left wing Alex Campbell had six shots on goal during Friday night’s 5-1 loss to the University of Maine including a pair of breakaways and a penalty shot.
But freshman goalie Albin Boija stopped all six.
Campbell got his revenge on Saturday night as he scored a pair of goals to lead the Huskies to an impressive 4-0 victory at Alfond Arena.
Junior center Justin Hrkyckowian had the game-opening goal on the power play; Campbell scored consecutive goals in the second period before graduate student left wing Brett Edwards added another late in the second period.
Northeastern improved to 15-14-2 overall and 8-13-0 in Hockey East. UMaine fell to 19-9-2 and 11-8-1.
It was NU’s eighth win in its last 10 games and UMaine’s fourth loss in five games and fifth loss in its last eight contests.
Freshman NU goalie Cameron Whitehead turned in a stellar 39-save performance. It was his third shutout of the season.
It was the first time UMaine has been shut out at Alfond Arena since a 1-0 overtime loss to Vermont on Dec. 3, 2021.
Boija wound up with 18 stops.
“You can only miss for so long, right?,” said Campbell, whose goals were his 17th and 18th of the season. “You keep getting those opportunities, eventually one of them is going to go in. Fortunately enough, tonight it happened.”
Campbell called it a “big bounceback win for us.
“We don’t want to lose two games in a row. We didn’t play bad yesterday. We couldn’t capitalize on our opportunities. Today it seemed like it went the other way. We scored on ours and they didn’t score on theirs,” said Campbell.
UMaine head coach Ben Barr said “it got ugly in that second period. Our first period was fine. We worked hard. They scored a power play goal.
“Northeastern did everything well tonight. They outworked us,” added Barr.
Justin Hryckowian scored the only goal the Huskies were to need at the 8:35 mark of the first period. It was his ninth of the season and the fourth power play goal for the Huskies in their three games against UMaine.
Jack Williams had the puck in the left faceoff circle and slid a pass across to Cam Lund in the right circle. Lund passed to Hryckowian just outside the crease and he pulled the puck around Boija and tucked it into the net.
Campbell made it 3-0 with goals at the 5:13 and 9:18 marks of the middle period.
On the first one, Campbell and linemates Justin and Dylan Hryckowian cycled the puck for an extended period of time in the UMaine zone before Campbell received a pass from Dylan Hryckowian in the left circle.
He made a nifty move to create a shooting lane and found himself in a one-on-one situation with Boija. He snapped a 20-foot wrist shot past Boija’s glove.
“Our line has been great with that (forecheck) down low. Hounding pucks, getting pucks back off retrievals, off shots, rebounds and cycling pucks. That’s kind of our game and it’s been working for us,” said Campbell.
Four minutes later, Sully Scholle tried to make a pass in the offensive zone but a diving Husky blocked it and it caromed off his shinpads out to center ice where Campbell chased it down, broke in alone on Boija and beat him to the low blocker side.
“Sometimes you get that luck. Fortunately, it was kind of a big goal for us,” said Campbell.
“(Campbell) was huge for us tonight. He’s a goal scorer,” said NU coach Jerry Keefe who added that Campbell’s line led the way and his team played to its identity.
Keefe said his team did a good job executing the game plan which involved getting the puck deep, cycling on the forecheck and neutralizing the top line of Lynden Breen, the Nadeau brothers, Bradly and Josh.
“You’ve got to make good lines play defense,” said Keefe. “Sometimes your best defense is a good offense.”
Edwards scored his fifth of the season when the puck squirted over to him at the bottom of the right circle and he flipped it over Boija.
UMaine generated a number of good chances but rarely got rebounds or high-percentage opportunities. The Huskies did a good job getting their sticks and bodies in passing and shooting lanes.
When they did get a decent chance, Whitehead was equal to the task and he did an effective job controlling rebounds.
“We didn’t get to the net front,” said Barr.
Barr said his team ias “trying to push through to that next level and its making certain guys worse right now. That’s the challenge that we have as a staff to try to keep pushing in a way to get us through this.”
Keefe said Whitehead was outstanding and made timely saves to protect the lead in a building where leads can disappear in a hurry with the energy generated by the fans.
NU went 1-for-3 on the power play while UMaine went 0-for-6.
UMaine will travel to Vermont for a pair of games next weekend while Northeastern will play a home-and-home series against UConn.