Men's Ice Hockey Eases by Princeton, 6-1, in Liberty Invitational Consolation Game
Links: Box Score
NEWARK, N.J. – Paced by six different skaters finding the back of the net, the Merrimack College men's ice hockey team piled up a season-high six goals en route to a 6-1 victory over Princeton in the Liberty Invitational Third Place Game on Sunday at the Prudential Center.
The Basics
Score: Merrimack 6, Princeton 1
Records: Merrimack (5-1-1) | Princeton (0-1-1)
Location: Prudential Center | Newark, N.J.
How It Happened
Merrimack exploded out of the gate with three markers in the opening stanza, its first three-goal period of the season. Rookie Alfred Larsson (Lungby, Sweden) redirected a perfect centering feed from senior Dan Kolomatis (Basking Ridge, N.J.) at 8:17 to get on the board before classmate Jace Hennig (Port Moody, British Columbia) used an agile wraparound move down the length of the goal line to double the lead at 15:36. Junior Ben Bahe (Stillwater, Minn.) picked up his second assist of the year on the latter sequence.
Finally, with just over two minutes to go in the period, junior Brian Christie (West Chester, Pa.) intercepted a pass in the Princeton zone and threaded a pass to Bahe who buried it to send the Navy and Gold into the first intermission with a 3-0 cushion.
Princeton helped the Merrimack cause with a slew of penalties at the start of the second, including back-to-back infractions 45 seconds apart to send the visitors to a two-man advantage. The Warriors quickly capitalized thanks to some pretty passing, as fellow Garden State native Vinny Scotti (Vineland, N.J.) set up Christie, who passed to Kolomatis for a rocket from the high slot that tickled the twine at 2:50, making it a 4-0 Warrior lead.
Less than five minutes later, at the end of Merrimack's first successful penalty kill of the day, the entire third line factored in to another quick strike, as Hennig fed classmate Mathieu Tibbet (Dover, Del.), who send a nifty pass up to rookie Brett Seney (London, Ontario), who deked to the backhand and beat Princeton netminder Colton Phinney at 7:43 to make it 5-0.
Penalties haunted the Tigers again in the third, as the hosts went down a man three times in a five-minute span. Merrimack was kept in check over that duration, but broke through at 15:48 for the sixth and final marker of the game after Tibbet received a backdoor feed from Seney and got it to go off a rebound to make it 6-0.
The Tigers spoiled the shutout at the 17:23 mark off a tough-angle shot that snuck by senior Rasmus Tirronen (Espoo, Finland), who finished with 24 saves. Fellow senior and New Jersey native Joe Pantalone (Hammonton, N.J.) came in and played the final 2:37 of the contest in his first career appearance in net.
Inside The Numbers
- In addition to the six different goal-scorers, Merrimack saw Christie (2a), Hennig (1g, 1a), Seney (1g, 1a), Bahe (1g, 1a), Tibbet (1g, 1a) and Kolomatis (1g, 1a) post multi-point efforts on Sunday
- Merrimack outshot Princeton by a 33-25 margin paced by its 11-3 edge in the first
- The Warriors finished 1-for-9 on the power play while keeping Princeton empty on its four tries
- Merrimack won 38 of the 71 contested faceoffs (53.5%), with Seney winning a team-high 12 draws on the day
Up Next
Merrimack returns to Hockey East action next Friday (Nov. 7) to battle No. 9/8 Providence College at Schneider Arena for the start of a weekend home-and-home series before returning home to Lawler Rink the following night. Puck drop both nights is set for 7 p.m.
--
For continuing coverage of Merrimack College Athletics, visit MerrimackAthletics.com and follow the Warriors on Twitter and on Facebook.
