Da Costa, Cannata Lead #18 Merrimack to 2-1 Win over Northeastern
Video Highlights / Postgame Audio: Dennehy / Da Costa / Cannata
BOSTON, MA – Eighteenth-ranked Merrimack picked up its fifth win in six games, defeating Northeastern 2-1 Friday night at Matthews Arena behind 27 saves from Joe Cannata (Wakefield, MA) and a pair of points, including the game-winning goal from Stephane Da Costa (Paris, France).
Merrimack (7-3-4, 5-3-3 HEA) will host the Huskies (2-8-4, 2-5-3 HEA) Saturday night at 7 p.m. at Lawler Rink, where the Warriors are 4-0-1 this season. Limited tickets are still available for purchase online at merrimackathletics.com.
The Warriors improved to 5-1-2 in their last eight, defeating the Huskies for the first time at Matthews Arena since October 22, 2003, snapping a nine-game winless streak (0-8-1).
"Points are hard to come by especially on the road," said head coach Mark Dennehy. "We played well at times, but it's a sign of a good team to come in and scrape out two points."
Merrimack controlled the first, outshooting Northeastern 12-3 and took a 1-0 lead as captain Chris Barton (Calgary, AB) netted his 40th career goal, extending his scoring streak to seven games with an even-strength tally at 18:51. Da Costa started the play, skating down the left side, before dribbling back towards the blue line. The sophomore worked the puck to the crease where Jesse Todd (Camrose, AB) got it to Barton, who beat Chris Rawlings blocker side for the goal.
Da Costa made it 2-0 on the power play at 16:04 of the second, gathering a rebound off a Karl Stollery (Camrose, AB) shot and putting it past Rawlings for his sixth of the year. Joe Cucci (Melrose Park, IL), who had drawn the penalty to set up the power play, also picked up an assist, his eighth of the season, on Da Costa's power play marker.
The Warriors overcame four second-period minor penalties as Cannata turned aside 14 second-period shots, as the Huskies rattled off 12 of the first 15 shots of the period.
Steve Quailer cut the lead in half, knocking in a loose puck 5:07 into the third, but the Warriors held on from there, despite being outshot 11-5 in the third as Cannata made numerous point-blank stops, including a blocker save on Mike McLaughlin with 10 minutes to play. With Merrimack on a power play with two minutes left, the Huskies had a two-on-one break, but Stollery broke up the play with a diving stop, negating any scoring chance.
Cannata, ranked second in Hockey East in goals-against, had 24 of his 27 saves in the final two periods, while Rawlings finished with 23 stops.
"He's been great all year," said Dennehy of Cannata. "I've been singing his praise to anyone who will listen. He's flown under the radar in this league but look at how he finished last year and how he started thsi year. This is the guy we thought we had when we recruited him."
Da Costa, who was last week's Hockey East Player of the Week, extended his scoring streak to four games, picking up seven points during that span.
Merrimack tallied a power-play goal for the fourth straight game, finishing 1-for-6 on the man-advantage, while killing all four of Northeastern's power plays.
