BOSTON - Massimo Lombardi and Ryan Miotto each scored two goals Friday night leading the Catamounts in a 5-4 win over Northeastern in the Hockey East Game of the Week on NESN. Vermont scored three third period goals in 68 seconds to secure its first road win at Matthews Arena since 2016. With the win, the Catamounts improved to 10-8-1 overall and 4-4-1 in Hockey East while the Huskies fell to 6-11-2.
COACH'S QUOTE
"This is a tough place to win hockey games," Head Coach Steve Wiedler said. "Our guys did that tonight so we have to be proud. At the same time, we have to learn the lessons within this game and those third period penalties are never a recipe for success. We've talked about winning in all different ways and we had to win in a different way tonight. That's the positive. We will go about learning from the negatives and get ready for another really tough game tomorrow."
HOW IT HAPPENED
- The Huskies opened the scoring 5:57 into the first period. From behind the Vermont net Justin Hryckowian found a cutting Alex Campbell for a one-timer right in front that found the back of the net for his team-leading 11th goal of the year.
- Miotto responded for the Catamounts with a great individual effort 11:31 into the opening frame. Miotto stripped the puck from a Northeastern defender in the neutral zone and skated in alone on the Huskies Cameron Whitehead. As Miotto approached the crease he wired a wrist shot under Whitehead's blocker for his sixth goal of the year.
- The Catamounts took the lead with just a second left in the first period. A Ralfs Bergmanis point shot was blocked in front by a Huskies defender but the puck caromed right to Andrei Buyalsky below the faceoff dot to the left of Whitehead. Buyalsky one-timed the bouncing puck home for his third goal of the season. Jérémie Bucheler extended his point streak to five games with the secondary assist on the tally.
- The Huskies tied the contest at two with 1:50 left in the second period. Matt Choupani won a battle along the boards and pushed the puck to Vinny Borgesi at the point. Borgesi quickly passed across the zone to Jackson Dorrington who one-timed a slap shot past Gabe Carriere.
- 5:29 into the third period Lombardi reestablished the Catamounts lead. He took a short pass from Buyalsky in the UVM zone and took off. He blew past two Northeastern defenders before beating Whitehead with a snap shot labeled for the top corner.
- Off the ensuing faceoff the Catamounts struck again. Bucheler dumped the puck into the Northeastern zone and Jens Richards was first to the puck. He centered a feed towards the net with a no look backhand effort and Miotto was cutting down the slot at the perfect time. He one-timed it home to make it 4-2 just eight seconds later. Follow Miotto's second of the night the Huskies pulled Whitehead and replaced him with Connor Hopkins.
- Exactly one minute later Lombardi struck again with a beautiful breakaway move. Ralfs Bergmanis fed Lombardi in the neutral zone and again his speed was too much for Northeastern. As he cut in alone on Hopkins he faked a wrist shot before neatly tucking a backhand through his legs for his first career multi-goal game.
- With 2:47 to play the Huskies cut the Vermont lead to two. Cam Lund fired from a sharp angle and was able to somehow sneak it in and past Carriere.
- Then on a four-on-three power play extended to a five-on-three with the extra-attacker Lund struck again with 1:08 to play. In the final moments Vermont didn't allow another shot on goal, to earn their fourth league win of the season.
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
- Graduate defenseman Jérémie Bucheler's had two assists to extend his point streak to a career-best five games. Bucheler has two goals and six assists in the Catamounts last five games. He leads the team in scoring with 16 points this year.
- In the last eight games the Catamounts are averaging 4.13 goals per game. They have scored 33 goals in their last eight games. They have scored five goals in three of their last five games.
- With tonight's 5-4 decision, Community Bank N.A. will donate $375 to Special Olympics Vermont. Community Bank, N.A. donates $75 per goal to Special Olympics Vermont for every goal the men's and women's team scores this season.
- The Catamounts won tonight which means Vermont Mutual Insurance will be donating $100 to the Vermont Children's Trust Foundation. A special thank you to Vermont Mutual Insurance for their support. Vermont Mutual Insurance, protecting Vermonters since 1828.
UP NEXT
The Huskies and Catamounts will faceoff again Saturday night at 7:30 p.m. from historic Matthews Arena. Saturday's contest will air exclusively on ESPN+. As always, Adam Lafleur will call the action on WVMT from the Handy Toyota Broadcast Booth.
