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Harvard men’s ice hockey (0-0-0, 0-0-0 ECAC) brought home a 4-2 exhibition-game win on the road against the Northeastern Huskies (2-2-0, 1-0-0 HE).

The preseason matchup represented a chance for the Crimson to show off its rookie talent in the team’s last outing to the Matthews Arena before the buidling is set to be demolished.

Though the scoring came from Harvard’s upperclassmen, Harvard Hockey Head Coach Ted Donato ’91 said he was impressed by the freshman groups’ performance on the ice.

“There’s no big judgments just yet, but I think they brought a good energy and a willingness to get on the inside offensively and be responsible defensively,” he said.

Sophomore forward Mick Thompson — who had a stand-out rookie season last season— noted that mentorship by older players helps the younger ones adjust quickly. He specifically mentioned senior Casey Severo got him up to speed quickly.

“I think I learned from guys like Casey here, who kind of really took me in last year and kind of showed me the ropes,” Thompson said. “I’m doing that for the younger guys, trying to at least.”

Harvard’s last game against Northeastern came in the third place matchup at the Beanpot last year, where the team won 4-3 on the back of then-junior defenseman and Boston Bruins prospect Mason Langenbrunner’s two-goal performance, the first multi-goal game for a Harvard player in the tournament’s history.

The last time the team took the ice at Matthews Arena was four years ago in an overtime loss. Tonight’s game however, marked just its third appearance in the last 26 seasons.

Still, Donato has fond memories of the arena, having grown up in nearby Dedham, MA.

“Being from Boston, this is such a historic building. I remember hearing stories from my dad who came to games here,” he said. “I played here in high school. I remember in a state tournament game and got a penalty shot goal.”

“This is a special place, and in a lot of ways, it was nice to have a final chance to be able to come out here,” he added.

The game began relatively competitively with the teams trading goals and penalties in the first period, but was still a slower, less physical game than ordinary regular season play.

Severo described the mindset of the team going into the new season with tonight’s exhibition match.

“It’s just another game for us,” Severo said. “We’ve been waiting for so long that for us, we’re playing another team in different jerseys, and that’s the opportunity we get. I think, specifically for me and Mick, playing together last year for most of the year we came out this year expecting to be the tone setters.”

The opening period featured an early goal from Thompson, who made his presence known early after a season that saw him take home NCAA Rookie of the Month in March and rack up a total of 14 goals and 18 assists.

Sophomore netminder Ben Charette opened the game for the Crimson, stepping up as the team’s primary goaltender with Aku Koskenvuo signing a 2-year rookie contract with the Vancouver Canucks in the offseason. Fellow sophomore Evan Zhang, who played just one game last year in early January against the University of Connecticut, backs him up.

Charette’s performance consistently kept Harvard in the game. While letting up two go-ahead goals, he prevented a series of breakaway scoring chances by the Huskies with pucks repeatedly skipping over defensemens’ sticks and on the blades of Northeastern players.

“It was nice to see him play well, play under some pressure,” Donato said. “Have some high intensity minutes, whether it’s being out there against a good power play and at the end of the game being under pressure. I think those are all things that you hope to experience before the season starts.”

The Crimson found more ways to push the puck on net in the final period and managed a 16-5 shot differential.

Junior forward Cam Johnson tied the game at two goals with a shot from the middle of the offensive zone after a puck flew into the air and landed on his stick for him to sneak in before the Huskies realized where it had gone.

Northeastern, feeling the pressure, took a clumsy roughing penalty for a post-whistle shove to the ice of one of Harvard’s players, a sign the Crimson had finally managed to put the Huskies on its back foot.

Closing out the game for the Crimson was senior forward Philip Tresca who made the team’s final two goals, including one on an empty net, and securing him his third point of the evening in addition to his assist on Thompson’s goal.

Thompson returned the favor by assisting on the final go-ahead goal, with senior forward Casey Severo assisting on Thompson’s and the first of Tresca’s goals.

Asked after the game about personal goals for the season, Severo spoke for the team saying, “I think we don’t really set individual goals. I think we just want to win as many hockey games as possible, regardless of whether or not we’re on the score sheet. I think we just want to contribute as much as possible.”

Zhang finally saw action with time winding down in the final half of the third period and made three saves in the debut. But Charette came back out to defend against Northeastern’s empty-net opportunity.

The exhibition match gave Harvard its first chance to see how the team could piece together what it had learned in practice and the players will have nearly two weeks to continue practicing before the first regular season matchup on Halloween night on Oct. 31 against UConn in Storrs, CT.

—Staff writer Nate M. Bolan can be reached at nathan.bolan@thecrimson.com.