Late Rally Falls Short for Hockey in 2-1 Loss to #4 Northeastern
Boxscore
NORTH ANDOVER, MA – The Merrimack hockey team rattled off
25 shots on goal in the final two periods, but its late rally came
up just short in a 2-1 loss to fourth-ranked Northeastern
University Saturday night at Lawler Arena.
Trailing 2-0 in the third, Chris Barton (Calgary,
Alberta) redirected a Rob Ricci (Brampton,
Ontario) shot past Brad Thiessen to cut the lead to 2-1.
Jesse Todd (Camrose, Alberta) earned the other
assist on Barton's fifth of the year.
But Merrimack's rally ended there, as Thiessen stopped 30
shots including 13 in the third period for the win. The Warriors
had a four-on-three power play late in the third for 1:45 but could
not manage the tying goal.
Northeastern scored first at 14:52 of the first when Randy Guzior,
with both teams skating four aside, knocked in a loose puck in
front of goaltender Andrew Braithwaite (Kingston,
Ontario) into the net for his first of the season. Rob
Rassey and Mike Hewkin, who took the original shot which
Braithwaite stopped, picked up the assists.
The Huskies doubled their lead on the power play in the second as
Rassey slammed home a rebound off the shot of Louis Liotti for his
fourth of the year at 13:40. Liotti's slapper from the blue
line was stopped by Braithwaite, but the puck went right to Rassey
who had the net wide open to the left of Braithwaite for the
goal.
Merrimack got its chances against Thiessen, who stopped 31 shots
Friday night against the Warriors, in the second period. Thiessen
stopped all 11 shots he faced in the second and got some help from
the post off a Barton redirect with Merrimack on the power
play.
Braithwaite stopped 31 saves, including 24 in the first two
periods. A day after going 1-for-4 on the power play with 11 shots,
Merrimack's power play was 0-for-4 Saturday with seven
shots.
Merrimack (5-10-3, 2-9-2 HEA) hosts #2 Boston University Friday
night at 7 p.m.
