Of the many trends that have developed during the Massachusetts hockey team’s 2003-04 season, the most distressing one of late is the Minutemen’s penchant for coming up just a little short.

After being skated out of the building to the tune of a 4-0 shutout Friday night by a Northeastern squad that was fighting for its playoff life all weekend, the Minutemen managed to make things much more interesting Saturday. However, despite the work of junior Greg Mauldin (two power play goals) and a defense that allowed 15 shots on Gabe Winer’s net, UMass was unable to rally past the Huskies (11-16-7, 5-13-6 Hockey East), surrendering a 3-2 victory at the Mullins Center. It was the third one-goal loss of the season for the Minutemen – including a 1-0 loss to UMass Lowell on Jan. 4 that was later forfeited by the River Hawks.

UMass falls to 16-11-6, and 12-9-3 in Hockey East.

It ended up a bittersweet night for everyone. The Huskies, who swept the Minutemen in the final weekend of the regular season, were knocked out of the Hockey East playoffs by virtue of Boston University’s 4-3 overtime win at New Hampshire. The Terriers will play first-place Boston College as the eight seed next weekend.

Meanwhile, the Minutemen haven’t won since Feb. 6, going 0-6-1 in seven games during that stretch. However, thanks to BU’s defeat of UNH, UMass retains the third-place spot over New Hampshire, and will take on UMass Lowell in the Hockey East quarterfinals, starting Thursday at the Mullins Center.

Northeastern goaltender Keni Gibson was the first star Saturday, in a game that saw the Huskies do everything they could to sneak past BU for the eighth and final spot. A handful of his 37 stops were the kind of quick-witted, physical saves he made in NU’s 4-0 shutout of the Minutemen the night before in Boston.

“Six words,” said Crowder, referring to the reason his squad was victorious, “Keni Gibson, Keni Gibson, and Keni Gibson.”

For the Minutemen, who had struggled through a 0-5-1 stretch over the past six games, a third-period comeback that fell short was a start, if not good enough to topple the visitors.

“The proper word is encouraging,” UMass coach Don Cahoon said. “It was interesting to try some things in the end. I think these games will serve us well going into the weekend. There were a lot of positives tonight, but we still weren’t good enough.”

The Minutemen will host Massachusettts-Lowell starting Thursday in the Hockey East quarterfinals.

Northeastern jumped out to a 2-0 lead after the second, despite being outshot 24-8 in the first two periods. Ray Ortiz ended up with the puck after it got loose in the UMass zone, and put it home from close range to give the visitors the two-goal advantage.

Steve Birnstill added to the total, scoring the eventual game winner on one of UMass’ worst defensive breakdowns of the night early in the third. Birnstill ended up on the right-wing side of Winer’s net with open space in front. He drew Winer out, and after a handful of stick dekes, slipped it past on the backhand, under the stick of a diving defenseman.

“Oh my lord, it looked like the seas parted,” Cahoon said of the play.

Mauldin then stepped in for the Minutemen, and scored goals on two consecutive power plays midway through the third. The first came off of good puck movement, with Stephen Werner giving Mauldin the feed down low.

The second was a blistering slap shot from the point off of a faceoff, with the assist given to Mauldin’s power-play blueline mate, defenseman Marvin Degon. As a result, the Minutemen were only down 3-2 with 12:30 to go.

Friday night at Matthews Arena in Boston, the two squads played even for the first 10 minutes of the game. After that, however, the Huskies completely took over, and the Minutemen were unable to generate any sustained attack in a 4-0 loss. Gibson made 38 saves to earn his sixth career shutout, and his fifth this season.

“[NU] played with a sense of urgency, and a stronger conviction than we did,” Cahoon said. “They scored some goals in tight areas, got some bloody noses trying to put pucks in cages. I didn’t think we played so bad, just not hard enough to win in this league. We made some nice plays, we had scoring chances, but we’re not bearing down. We’ve got to play with greater conviction.”

The Minutemen had a number of good chances early, but Thomas P