The Huskies, now 21-13-5 for the season and a blistering 19-1-2 the last three months, will meet UMass-Lowell Saturday night at the Garden for the league’s championship.

Led by a potent, opportunistic power play, the Huskies moved to a 4-2 lead by midway through the second period on back-to-back power-play strikes by Nolan Stevens and Eric Williams.

The Northeastern Huskies, the hottest team in NCAA Division 1 hockey the last three months, Friday night inched ever closer to securing an NCAA playoff berth with a dogged 5-4 win over Boston College in the Hockey East semifinals at TD Garden.

Prior to Friday night’s action, the Huskies were virtually assured they would land an NCAA Tournament bid with a win over BC. The winner of the title game is guaranteed a playoff berth, although the Lowell River Hawks were assured a bid prior to the start of the playoffs.


“We want to win the Hockey East championship, Northeastern coach Jim Madigan said. “The NCAA Tournament is great, and obviously we want to get there. But we want to win this.”

Despite falling behind by a goal only 15 seconds into the first period, the confident, energized Huskies kept the Eagles on the back of their Tacks throughout the period and entered the break with a 2-1 lead on goals by Zach Aston-Reese and Adam Gaudette.

Miles Wood provided the quick strike for BC, snapping off a wrister from near the left-wing dot only 15 ticks into the action.

Set up by linemate Chris Brown, Wood fired home his ninth of the season, beating Ryan Ruck through the five hole.

The Hounds, a sizzling 18-1-2 (.905) as they entered the night, needed some five minutes to land their first shot on BC tender Thatcher Demko. But once they found the BC end of the ice they stayed there for much of the period, turning TD Garden into their own Occupy Causeway Street.


The trend continued through the night, NU finishing with a 32-25 shot edge.

“A very impressive win by Northeastern,’’ said York. “They were gutsy and determined — a very impressive team effort. From our perspective, we weren’t really sharp, especially with our breakout plays and play in our neutral zone — that was kind of our Achilles’ heal.

“We also didn’t get enough shots on goal. At one point in the third period, I looked up and we had only 14 shots on net — not enough for our team.”

NU’s tying goal, 1-1, came with 14:08 gone in the period, Aston-Reese slipping by defenseman Ian McCoshen low in the slot and finishing off with a top-of-the-crease wrister for his 13th of the season.

A Florida draft pick, McCoshen is rarely fooled, but Aston-Reese blew by him with a nifty move between the circles and picked his spot between Demko’s big pads. And with only a fraction of a second left in the period, Gaudette popped in the 2-1 NU lead with help from Mike McMurtry and Dylan Sikrua.

As McMurtry and Dylan Sikura traded passes, the clever Gaudette, who grew up in Braintree, curled out from behind the right post and popped in a doorstep backhander ahead of a diving Demko.

In the second, the Eagles again were quick to score when Ottawa draft pick Colin White snapped in a 15-foot wrister off of Matthew Gaudreau’s seeing-eye backhand feed off the rear wall at 1:10.


BC had only five shots, but Ruck was off to an uncharacteristically slow start in the NU net.

The Huskies then put together a pair of power-play goals only 8:00 apart to move out to a 4-2 lead midway through the period.

Nolan Stevens provided the 3-2 lead with BC’s Steve Santini in the penalty box for roughing. Stevens, with help from his older brother John, carried down the left side and beat Demko with a wrister from near the faceoff dot at 2:55, only 1:45 after the Eagles had pulled even.

The Huskies were playing with pluck. Freshman defenseman Eric Williams gave the Huskies their first two-goal lead of the night at 10:55, a little over a minute after Casey Fitzgerald was whistled off for holding.

With Williams parked at the top edge of the right circle, McMurtry set a screen at the right post and Williams put the hammer down on a slapper that fired the puck to the top right corner, glove side on the near-defenseless Demko.

The Eagles pulled back to within a goal, 4-3, with 6:06 left in the second period when Wood struck again, this time on a power play (John Stevens off for a slash).

Dropping to his left knee near the right post, Wood finished off a bang-bang play as Ryan Fitzgerald dished over from low in the left circle. Demko, beaten on four of the Huskies’ first 18 shots, came up big in the final seconds of the second period, making a pad save on Sikura on a Grade A chance at the left post. Had he not been at his best, the Huskies would have carried a two-goal lead into the break.


NU moved to a 5-3 lead midway through the final period when Lincoln Griffin, from Walpole, banged in a backhander off a bad BC turnover high in the zone. The Eagles answered with an Alex Tuch goal under a minute later at 10:50, but the Eagles, plagued with penalty problems early in the season, picked up late penalties and never could cobble together a late assault on the NU net.

Kevin Paul Dupont can be reached at kevin.dupont@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @GlobeKPD.