Toomey Scores Twice as #6/7 Merrimack Rallies for 2-2 Tie at #4 Boston College
CHESTNUT HILL, MA – Connor Toomey (Billerica, MA) scored twice, including the game-tying goal with 1:10 to play in regulation as #6/7 Merrimack tied #4/4 Boston College 2-2 in front of 7,114 fans at Conte Forum Sunday afternoon.
Merrimack (11-4-4, 7-3-2 HEA) will return home for a big two-game set with the University of Maine, who trails Merrimack by one point for third place, next Friday at 7 p.m. and Saturday at 5 p.m. at Lawler Arena. Limited tickets remain for both games and are available at merrimackathletics.com and at the Merrimack box office. Saturday's game, which was moved to 5 p.m. to accommodate the Patriots playoff game, will also be televised live in high definition on WBIN-TV.
With the extra attacker on the ice and time winding down, Jesse Todd (Calgary, AB) worked the puck to Jordan Heywood (Regina, SK) on the point, who's wrist shot was deflected in front by Toomey past Brian Billett for his team-leading seventh of the season at 18:50.
In the overtime frame, Cannata made three big stops on Jimmy Hayes, Issac MacLeod and Chris Kreider before Kyle Singleton (Beaverton, OR) thought he had given Merrimack the victory with 12.9 seconds left. Heywood's wrister from the point was knocked down by Rhett Bly (Regina, SK) and Singleton knocked the puck past Billett for what was thought to be the game winner. But following video review, Bly was ruled to have knocked the puck down with a high stick, negating the goal.
Bly would win the next faceoff in the Merrimack zone, preserving the tie.
The tie gave the senior class points in every Hockey East arena, but BC remains the lone Hockey East venue that the Class of 2012 has not won at. In fact, Merrimack has not won in the last 24 games at Boston College (0-22-2) dating back to October 31, 1997.
Merrimack outshot the Eagles 8-7 in a scoreless first period with Bly getting the best chance nine-minutes in, but the sophomore was robbed by the left pad of the freshman goaltender.
The Eagles opened the scoring 47-seconds into the second as Paul Carey notched his seventh of the year, taking a feed from Brian Dumoulin.
Steven Whitney then made it 2-0 with a shorthanded goal at 5:10 of the second as he was left alone in front of Cannata and buried it glove side for his seventh of the year.
Trailing 2-0, Toomey cut the lead in half with his sixth of the year at 7:48. Elliott Sheen (Lethbridge, AB) and Ryan Flanigan (Rochester, NY) worked to force a turnover in the BC zone and fed Toomey who was stationed in the slot to the left of Billett, and the freshman buried it, beating his former teammate in juniors at New Hampshire (EJHL), to cut the deficit to one after two periods.
BC outshot Merrimack 12-9 in the second, but Cannata stood tall, making big point-blank stops on Pat Mullane, Bill Arnold and Johnny Gaudreau during Eagle power plays.
Outshooting BC 6-1 in the third and controlling much of the possession, Merrimack was awarded four straight power plays in the final period but failed to cash in on the tying marker until Toomey scored with Cannata on the bench for the extra attacker.
Merrimack outshot the Eagles 24-23 for the game, as Cannata made 21 saves. The Warriors were 0-for-6 on the power play, while BC was 0-for-3.
In a weekend where Merrimack visited the top-two teams in the league, the Warriors outshot both BU and BC yet failed to emerge with a win. The Warriors were 9-0-2 before this weekend when they outshot their opponents.
