All season long coach Bill Thorn has preached to his team the importance of playing a full 60 minutes .

Had the Huskies (2-2-1, 1-1) followed through with his advice, their Friday night loss to the University of Missouri St. Louis (8-0) might have ended differently.

At the end of the first intermission, the Huskies were tied 1-1 with the Rivermen. Then came the period when everything fell apart for NIU.

“We got some dumb penalties in the second period, and they jumped all over us,” said forward Joe Townsend.

The Huskies committed a season-high 10 penalties in the second period, and the Rivermen were quick to take advantage of NIU’s short handedness, as they added two goals.

“It’s hard to play when you’re short the whole time,” Thorn said. “[We] were getting frustrated.”

During the intermission, Thorn explained to his players what needed to be done.

“I told them to let the crap go and concentrate on the game,” Thorn said.

Thorn’s advice was taken by his players, but before they knew it they were down 5-1 with little time to go.

That’s when the Huskies came out blazing, but Thorn said it was too little too late.

“We just ran out of time,” Townsend said. “Give us two more minutes and we tie the game.”

Eric Dicarlo’s last-second goal was not enough, as the Huskies paid for a dismal second period with a 5-4 loss. Other goal scorers for the Huskies were Townsend, Matt LaCavera and Jeff Hohlman.

Take away the second period and Thorn thinks the team played well, but it still has a long way to go. Thorn added that the Huskies can’t continue to lose conference games. Up next for the Huskies on Friday is non-conference opponent Northwestern University.

“We are the defending champs, so everybody is gonna come out and play hard against us,” Townsend said. “We have to respond.”