Huskies best in show over Terriers

BOSTON – Ending a remarkable Beanpot losing streak to BU, Northeastern outhustled the Terriers, 3-2, at TD Garden on Monday.”I’ve heard all the facts and figures,” said a talkative Northeastern coach Jim Madigan, whose program defeated BU in the Beanpot for the first time in 15 games. “At the end of the day, they don’t win hockey games.”For the curious, the previous time the Huskies topped the Terriers in the Beanpot was 1988 ? the last time Northeastern won it.This year, Northeastern will play BC in the final. The Eagles defeated Harvard in the other semifinal Monday night.The man of the moment for the Huskies last night was freshman Kevin Roy, whose hat trick gave Northeastern the offensive punch it needed to advance to the final.”For sure, it’s a bigger stage,” Roy said. “When the pressure is higher, I get the better performance.”His coach agreed.”Kevin, the bigger the stage for him, the bigger the event, he likes to rise to the occasion,” Madigan said.Northeastern (8-13-3, 4-11-3 HEA) landed the first blow when Roy found the net just 2:09 into the first period off assists from Vinny Saponari and Garrett Vermeersch.Yet BU (13-11-1, 10-7-1 HEA) countered off some pretty passing to tie things at 1-1. Danny O’Regan potted the equalizer at 5:53 with assists from senior captain Wade Megan and Evan Rodrigues. The game remained tied after one period.However, Northeastern moved ahead for good when Roy penetrated and scored unassisted for a 2-1 lead at 12:36 of the second period.”The game is played so fast now,” Roy remarked. “Get the puck on net, get guys through – we try to model our offense on (that).”The Terriers had a golden chance to pull back even, and possibly do even more damage, when two Huskies went to the penalty box within four seconds of each other: Colton Saucerman and Dax Lauwers, both for boarding, at 16:44 and 16:48, respectively. Yet an energetic Husky penalty kill prevented the Terriers from scoring.”We charge down the slot, then we kill a 5-on-3,” Madigan said. “For my heart, you don’t do that. At the end of the third, once we killed it off, it did a lot for our momentum, the calmness and composure on our bench.”We got tighter a little bit on the 5-on-3. We blocked shots, took them out of their shooting lanes a little bit.””That’s a huge letdown,” Megan said. “You’re not going to win games if you get opportunities like that and you’re unable to cash in. It was probably the turning point of the game.”We’ve got to start scoring power play goals. If we can’t do that, we’re in trouble.”In the third period Roy got what proved a vital insurance goal when he scored – with one knee on the ice – off assists from Vermeersch and Josh Manson to make it 3-1 with under five minutes to go (15:22).BU had, of course, rallied from a two-goal deficit before, such as in the 2009 Frozen Four title game against Miami of Ohio, when it did so in the closing minute and then won in overtime.”You always think you’ve got a chance,” BU coach Jack Parker said.The Terriers got halfway there when Sahir Gill scored off a Matt Grzelcyk assist at 18:49. With goalie Matt O’Connor out of the net, BU sought the equalizer, but it didn’t happen.O’Connor finished with 23 saves for BU while counterpart Chris Rawlings made 32 stops for Northeastern.NOTES: Husky hockey hero Wayne Turner addressed this year’s team on Saturday. “It resonated,” Madigan said, noting that sometimes a coach’s words might not have the same effect as someone else’s: “It’s like being a parent. Your kids don’t always listen to you.” ? The quotable Northeastern coach also mentioned going to the movies “for the first time in 25 years” to see “Silver Linings Playbook,” and brought up the word “Excelsior,” used in the film as a way of “taking the negative out.” He said, “I was a coach on the ’88 team. It makes a good story. (But it’s) this team at this time. We don’t have a great history. I had good teammates in the 1980s. We won four (Beanpots), I was part of three. We’re just in the