Late goal sinks ND

BOSTON – The Notre Dame hockey team erased a 2-0 third-period deficit, but Northeastern scored with 1:30 to go for a 3-2 win Friday night at Matthews Arena.

The Irish (10-12-3, 5-3-3 in Hockey East) and Huskies (9-11-4, 5-7-2 HE) will meet again at 7 p.m. Saturday night.

“In the third period we came out and we played hockey” Notre Dame head coach Jeff Jackson said. “We put ourselves in a hole. You can say whatever you want about what happened at the end of the game, we put ourselves in a two-goal hole. I thought in the third period, we started to play.”

Notre Dame broke through on the power play 3:11 into the third period, scoring a power play goal for the fourth consecutive game. Jordan Gross fed Mario Lucia for a one-timer and he fired it home to cut the Notre Dame deficit to 2-1. It was Lucia’s 16th goal of the season, tying for the Hockey East lead. It extended both his point scoring streak and Gross’ to nine games, each the longest for Notre Dame since 2007. Gross entered the game leading all freshman defensemen nationally with 16 points.

The Irish got the equalizer at 13:15 when Sam Herr fired a wrister through a screen set by Steven Fogarty. Jake Evans and Andy Ryan collected assists on the goal. The game remained tied until there was 1:30 remaining. Gross had his stick chopped out of his hands by Roy. The play continued with the Huskies Mike McMurty collecting the puck for a two-on-one break. McMurty fed a pass across the ice to Dalen Hedges for the game-winning goal at 18:30.

Cal Petersen made 37 saves, his most since Nov. 7.

Notre Dame  0  0 2 - 2

Northeastern 0 2 1 - 3

Scoring

1st Period: No scoring.

2nd Period: NU: Kevin Roy 11 (Dustin Darou, Matt Benning), 2:36. NU: Dalen Hedges 5 (Mike McMurty, Kevin Roy), PPG, 13:32.

3rd Period: ND: Mario Lucia 16 (Jordan Gross, Vince Hinostroza), PPG, 3:11. ND: Sam Herr 7 (Jake Evans, Andy Ryan), 13:15. NU: Hedges 6 (McMurty, Roy), 18:30.

Penalties: ND: 4 for 8 minutes. NU: 6 for 12 minutes.

Shots On Goal: ND: 25 (5-7-13). NU: 40 (16-16-8)

Goaltender Saves: ND: Cal Petersen (58:58) 37 (16-14-7). NU: Derick Roy (60:00) 23 (5-7-11).

Power Plays: ND: 1 for 6. NU: 1 for 4.

Attendance: 3,346