Despite a scoring two goals in the last four minutes of the game, Northeastern’s late rally fell short and Boston College advanced to the Hockey East Final for a sixth time in the last seven years, defeating the Huskies 5-4 at the TD Garden in Boston on Friday night.

The Huskies struck first and got a little bit of help on their first goal as Tyler McNeely fired a shot onto Eagles goaltender John Muse. Muse made the save but the rebound bounced right off BC captain Joe Whitney and into the net. NU led 1-0 and the good start definitely gave NU a momentum boost.

McNeely’s goal, which was assisted by his senior linemates Steve Silva and Wade MacLeod, was his thirteenth of the season and final goal as a Husky.

Less than three minutes ticked off the clock before BC retaliated with a goal of their own to tie the score. Brian Gibbons fired a turnaround wrist shot that got under the blocker of Chris Rawlings, putting the Eagles on the board.

In the second period, the Eagles took their first lead of the game on their first of three power play goals on the night. Kevin Hayes fired one past Rawlings 6:56 into the period for his fourth goal of the season, making it 2-1 BC.

But the Huskies wasted no time in knotting the score once again. It was leading scorer MacLeod who wristed one past Muse from the top of the right circle just :25 seconds after Hayes had given BC the lead to tie the game at 2 apiece.

Later in the period, the Eagles took the lead for good when Steven Whitney scored a highlight reel goal. While rushing toward the net, NU defenseman Jamie Oleksiak tried to take Whitney down and squash the play. But Whitney didn’t give up and as part of an outstanding effort, backhanded the puck just under the crossbar and into the top right corner of the net as he was falling to the ground, beating Rawlings and putting his team up 3-2.

With just :49 left in the second, NU’s Braden Pimm got whistled for a questionable interference penalty, and BC wasted no time in taking advantage. Eagles defenseman Tommy Cross beat Rawlings for his seventh goal of the season with just :18 left on the clock to give BC a two-goal lead going into the third period.

In a bit of a twist, the Huskies changed goaltenders to start the third period, pulling Rawlings in favor of freshman backup Clay Witt. Huskies head coach Greg Cronin said after the game he hoped the move would give the team a bit of  a sense of urgency.

But a third Eagles power play goal by Pat Mullane put the Huskies were down 5-2 and the game looked like it was over. However to the Huskies credit, just like they have all season, they kept playing.

With 3:16 remaining in the game, sophomore Garrett Vermeersch found the back of the net for a power play goal that cut the deficit to 5-3.

A few minutes later it was MacLeod who struck for the second time on the night, taking a pass in front from McNeely and with 1:03 left on the clock, the Huskies were down just 5-4.

But the comeback was too little, too late and the Huntington Hounds ran out of time, falling short and ending their season.

It was an honorable run for NU, who made it back to the Garden for the second time in three seasons after a dismal 1-7-2 start to their campaign, but as Cronin said after the game, they weren’t satisfied.

“I really was hoping we’d get to the tournament,” said Cronin. “I thought if we got to the NCAA tournament we could’ve done some damage. Our team had been through so much adversity. There was a lot of believability with that group.”

BC and Merrimack will battle for the Hockey East Tournament Championship tomorrow night at 7 p.m. at the TD Garden.

Jared Shafran Hockey BC, Hockey East Semifinals