Late Rally Falls Short in 4-3 Loss to #10 UNH; Teams Battle Saturday at 7:30 p.m. on NESN
Boxscore
NORTH ANDOVER, MA – Freshmen Karl Stollery
(Camrose, Alberta) and Jesse Todd (Camrose,
Alberta) scored late in the third period, but
Merrimack's rally fell short as tenth-ranked New Hampshire
edged the Warriors 4-3 Friday night at Lawler Arena.
With the win, the Wildcats improve to 17-9-5 overall, 13-7-4 in
Hockey East. The Warriors drop to 8-19-4 overall, 4-17-3 in Hockey
East. The two teams will rematch Saturday night at the Whittemore
Center at 7:30 p.m. with the game airing live on NESN and being
replayed Sunday morning across Canada on Rogers SportsNet.
After Mike Sislo scored his 18th of the year just 4:20 into the
game to give the visitors the lead, Merrimack responded as
Ryan Flanigan (Rochester, NY) located a loose puck
in front of goaltender Brian Foster and knocked it into the net for
his second of the season at 10:17 of the first. Pat Bowen
(Marshfield, MA) took the original shot which Foster
stopped, but Flanigan was right there to knock it in. Joe
Cucci (Melrose Park, IL), who scored two goals in a 5-1
win last Sunday over Providence, picked up the other assist.
But UNH responded immediately as Greg Collins beat Joe
Cannata (Wakefield, MA) just 22-seconds later, taking
passes from Paul Thompson and Peter LeBlanc for his fifth of the
season.
Six seconds after the Wildcats killed their third penalty of the
night, and with just 54-seconds left in the second period, Jamie
Fritsch beat Cannata over his blocker from point-blank range as he
took feeds from Danny Dries and Bobby Butler and extended the
Wildcats' lead to two with his first of the season.
Collins added his second of the night, which proved to be the
game-winner, at 7:04 of the third. The goal gave the Wildcats the
4-1 lead as the visitors appeared to have the game in hand.
After Chris Barton's (Calgary, Alberta)
breakaway attempt midway through the third was foiled by Foster,
Stollery wristed a shot past the Wildcat goaltender on the power
play to cut the lead to two with 4:29 to play. Todd and Cucci
earned the assists on Stollery's fourth of the season.
Then, with Cannata pulled for the extra attacker, Todd redirected a
Bowen shot for his sixth of the season, cutting the lead to one
with 1:46 to play. Rob Ricci (Brampton, Ontario)
started the play as he worked the puck to Bowen on the point, and
the junior defender fired a shot to the right of Foster, and right
to Todd, who tipped it in for Merrimack's second goal of the
period.
But Merrimack's rally ended there, resulting in the 13th
one-goal loss of the season for the Warriors, setting a new school
record
Both goaltenders finished with 24 saves in the game as the Wildcats
held a 28-27 advantage on the shots.
Todd added two more points in the game, giving the freshman forward
13 points in the last 11 games. Bowen and Cucci each tallied a pair
of assists.
