#16 Maine Completes Weekend Sweep of #4 Merrimack; MC Returns Home Friday
ORONO, ME – Sixteenth-ranked Maine became the first Hockey East team to take a season series from #4 Merrimack after completing the weekend sweep of the Warriors with a 7-1 victory Saturday night at Alfond Arena.
Merrimack (21-7-4, 15-7-3 HEA) will return to Lawler Arena for its final regular season home game on Friday against Providence College needing two points to clinch home ice in the Hockey East Quarterfinals. As part of Fan Appreciation and Senior Night, the very limited amount of tickets that remain are available for a special price of $1 and are available for purchase online at merrimackathletics.com or by calling the box office at 978-837-5324.
The Warriors dropped to fourth place in Hockey East, one point behind Boston University for third. Merrimack can clinch home ice next weekend with a win, a Maine loss, or a pair of ties.
The weekend sweep marked the first time all season Merrimack has dropped two in a row and is the first time since February of 2009 that it was swept in a weekend series by a Hockey East team.
"It was the perfect storm," head coach Mark Dennehy said. "That's probably as well as (Maine) has played all year, and it's as bad as we have played all year. None of us did a good enough job this weekend, including me. I didn't get these guys prepared enough for how tough it is to play (in Maine)."
Like Friday night, Maine started quickly, outshooting Merrimack 14-6 in the first and took the early lead as a slapper off the stick of Mark Nemec beat a screened Joe Cannata (Wakefield, MA) at 2:20 of the first. Brian Flynn made it 2-0 41-seconds into the second, taking a pass from Gustav Nyquist and beating Cannata during a delayed penalty. Moments later on the power play, it was 3-0 as a Jeff Dimmen blast from the point found the net for his fifth of the season.
Jeff Velleca (Waterbury, CT) broke Merrimack's five-period scoreless streak as the junior found a loose puck to the left of Dan Sullivan and buried it for fifth of the year at 2:49, assisted by Chris Barton (Calgary, AB) and Jordan Heywood (Regina, SK).
The Warriors looked to seize momentum following Velleca's marker, but the visitors were whistled for consecutive minors, and Josh Van Dyk made them pay, as his blast beat Cannata at 14:20 of the second. Just 2:27 later, Kyle Beattie put the game away, getting a rebound off a Robbie Dee wrister and burying it for his sixth of the year and extending Maine's lead to 5-1.
With Sam Marotta (Bridgewater, MA) in net for the third after Cannata turned aside 19 shots in the first two periods, Nyquist and Dummen notched early man-advantage tallies, giving Maine four power play goals in the game.
By virtue of shutting Merrimack out for the first 22:49 of the game, Dan Sullivan broke Maine's school record of consecutive minutes without allowing a goal (202:49), previously owned by Jimmy Howard (193:45).
Before Friday's game, Merrimack will honor its seven-member class of 2011, Fraser Allan (North Battleford, SK), Adam Ross (Red Deer, AB), Chris Barton (Calgary, AB), Joe Cucci (Melrose Park, IL), Francois Ouimet (Lorraine, QC), Bobby Kramer (New York, NY) and John Jamieson (Billerica, MA).
