Three Takeaways from BU’s Friday win at Northeastern

The Boston University men’s hockey team shut out the No. 16 Northeastern University Huskies at Matthews Arena by a final score of 3-0. Brady Gardner has the full recap of the game, but in the meantime, here are my three takeaways from the win. This goes without saying, but, all opinions are my own, always and forever.

It was a textbook road win for BU

The Terriers walked into Matthews Arena and completely outmatched the Huskies, outshooting Jim Madigan’s group by a 31-16 margin. It was a stifling, in-your-face type of effort from BU that completely shutdown Northeastern’s attack, aside from a few opportunities like Brendan Van Riemsdyk’s shot off the post and Matt DeMelis going wide on the doorstep,

Northeastern is on the ropes without Tyler Madden

Speaking of the dormant Northeastern attack, the Huskies just looked out of sync tonight, which as been a trend over the last few games as they are now in the midst of a five-game losing streak. After Tyler Madden went down on Feb. 14 in a win over Lowell, Northeastern is just 1-5-0 without their Hobey Baker nominee in the lineup. They’ll have their backs against the wall on the road at Agganis tomorrow, so expect some soul-searching on Huntington Avenue tonight.

BU had the strategic advantage

Aside from Northeastern clearly missing Tyler Madden, give credit to BU for their stinginess on both sides of the puck in the win. I was highly critical of BU’s breakout in the first half of the season, but the issues have not been nearly as glaring in the second half as the Terriers were able to break the puck out on their own terms, for the most part, highlighted by an end-to-end rush for the rangy Alex Vlasic. In the neutral zone, BU gave Northeastern absolutely nothing, bottling up the forecheck and stacking the blueline to stop the Huskies, who either turned the puck over or settled for dump-ins, in their tracks.

BU and Northeastern will meet again tomorrow afternoon at Agganis Arena at 4 p.m.