Northeastern junior Mike McLaughlin found the back of the net halfway through the first period to put the Huskies on top in last night’s Beanpot opener at TD Garden. The forward struck again at the beginning of the second frame, keying a 4-0 victory over Harvard.

After narrowly losing to high-powered No. 3 Yale last week, Harvard men’s hockey team looked as though it had a good chance to upset unranked Northeastern in the first round of the 2011 Beanpot.

But nothing went the Crimson’s way, as the Huskies (9-11-6, 7-8-5 Hockey East) rolled to an easy 4-0 win over Harvard (4-18, 3-13 ECAC) in the tournament’s opener last night at TD Garden.

“[Northeastern] outplayed us in pretty much every facet of the game, from the net on out,” Crimson coach Ted Donato ’91 said. “Give them a lot of credit.”

Harvard kept it close at the beginning. In the first frame, the Crimson looked strong, applying consistent pressure on the Northeastern backline.

“We had some chances in the first period,” Donato said. “There were definitely some rebounds that were up for grabs.”

But despite outshooting the Huskies 17-10 in the first frame, Harvard failed to find the back of the net, thanks in large part to the play Northeastern goaltender, Chris Rawlings. Last month’s top netminder in the Hockey East conference, the 6’5” sophomore shut down every Crimson opportunity.

Holding Harvard scoreless in the two ensuing frames, Rawlings tallied 41 saves in all, registering his fifth shutout of the season.

“He played well,” said co-captain and defenseman Chris Huxley. “There were a lot of rebounds, but ... he made the first save, and he found the second.”

“It looked like anything that [Rawlings] saw he was going to save,” Donato added. “[He] got stronger as the game went on.”

On the Crimson’s defensive end, senior goaltender Ryan Carroll just couldn’t match up to his Huskies counterpart.

After shutting down the Bulldogs’ offense last Friday, Carroll had a tough time controlling Northeastern, stopping just 83 percent of shots that came his way.

His struggles began during a first period counterattack, when Northeastern junior Mike McLaughlin received the puck at the red line. Charging down the ice, McLaughlin split freshmen defenders Dan Ford and Danny Fick before hitting the puck past Carroll to give the Huskies a 1-0 lead.

And it only got worse from there for the Harvard netminder.

Just 1:47 into the second frame, McLaughlin slapped a savable shot towards the Crimson goal. But Carroll failed to grab it, and the puck hit his stick before jumping over his head and into the net.

To Donato, Carroll’s miscue marked a turning point in the contest.

“After the second goal, when they got a bounce, we couldn’t mount much of an attack,” Donato said. “We played a semblance of our game in the first period.”

Though Harvard managed 11 shots on goal in the second frame, most came from beyond the faceoff circles and hardly fazed the Northeastern goaltender.

But the Crimson had plenty of action in their own defensive zone.

Just nine minutes after the first score of the period, Northeastern senior Wade MacLeod found fellow senior Steve Silva in the slot, who powered the puck past the Harvard goalie to take a three-goal lead.

To cap the scoring rampage, the Huskies capitalized on a 5-on-3 advantage. After two Crimson players received interference penalties, the Northeastern front line moved the puck with ease before freshman Brodie Reid scored the third and final goal of the period from the right faceoff circle.

In the final frame, Harvard replaced the struggling Carroll with senior Kyle Richter, who started between the pipes at the beginning of the season. Richter helped keep the Huskies scoreless in the third frame, but by that time the match was already out of reach.

With the defeat, Harvard has now dropped 17 of its last 19 contests.

Both the players and the coach were unsatisfied with the team’s performance.

“We didn’t play a full 60 minutes,” Huxley said. “It’s hard to win a hockey game when you don’t play hard.”

“I don’t feel like we came out with the same passion that we’ve been playing with,” Donato echoed.

In addition to what the team saw as a lack of determination, offensive struggles plagued the Crimson as well. But that’s nothing new for the men from Cambridge, having scored two or less goals in eight of their last nine games.

“We just didn’t create enough traffic and enough scoring opportunities in front of the goal,” Donato said.

After the discouraging loss, it won’t get any easier next week, when Harvard will face an even tougher opponent in No.14 Boston University in the consolation match.

To keep that game competitive, Harvard has a lot of work to do.

“We just [have to] get back to the tape and see what we did wrong, learn from our mistakes, and try not to make them again,” Huxley said.