#20 Men's Ice Hockey Outlasts #12 Quinnipiac in 4-3 Home Win Friday Night
Links: Box Score | Postgame Comments: Dennehy / Christie / Seney / Wyszomirski
NORTH ANDOVER, Mass. – Junior forward Brian Christie (West Chester, Pa.) lit the lamp twice to lead the 20th-ranked Merrimack College men's ice hockey team to a 4-3 home win over No. 12 Quinnipiac on Friday night at Lawler Rink.
The Basics
Score: #20 Merrimack 4, #12 Quinnipiac 3
Records: #20 Merrimack (12-6-2) | #12 Quinnipiac (15-7-1)
Location: Lawler Rink | North Andover, Mass.
How It Happened
Playing at home for the first time since Dec. 5, Merrimack used a burst of quick scores to erase a first-period deficit and untie the score midway through the second period before holding off the Bobcats in the third frame.
After a Sam Anas marker at the 14:08 mark of the first, Christie buried his first of two tallies on the night off a partial breakaway less than a minute later before junior Justin Hussar (Lancaster, N.Y.) tapped in the go-ahead strike just 1:35 after that to give the hosts a 2-1 lead after 20 minutes.
The Bobcats drew even midway through the second off a deflection goal by Landon Smith, but on the ensuing draw, senior Dan Kolomatis (Basking Ridge, N.J.) picked off a breakout pass and lobbed a bouncing pass that wound up back on the stick of Christie; the latter fired a quick strike that tickled the twine just 13 seconds after QU's equalizer, as the Warriors went back up, 3-2, at 13:53 of the second.
Just over three minutes later, freshman Brett Seney (London, Ontario) smacked in the game-winner right at the drop of the faceoff at 17:10, putting the hosts on top, 4-2, at the end of two periods.
That Seney strike proved to be the difference; the Bobcats benefited from back-to-back Merrimack penalties and skated with 50 seconds of 5-on-3. The Warrior PK fended off the first penalty but surrendered their first power-play goal in 22 attempts after Anas netted his second of the night on a bang-bang passing sequence at 10:38 to make it a one-goal game.
Despite Quinnipiac outshooting the Merrimack by two in the third period (10-8), Merrimack fended off the Bobcats over the rest of regulation to improve to 8-1-1 at home this season and will look to wrap up an undefeated year against the ECAC tomorrow night in Connecticut.
Inside The Numbers
- Junior Ben Bahe (Stillwater, Minn.) assisted on Christie's first goal of the game, while Seney and fellow freshman Mathieu Tibbet (Dover, Del.) picked up assists on Merrimack's second marker to account for a contingent of six different point-scorers for the Warriors
- Merrimack was outshot for the eighth time in nine games but improved to 5-4-0 this season when trailing in the shot chart department; the Bobcats finished with a 32-28 edge in shots on goal
- The penalty kill surrendered its first goal since Nov. 29 against Clarkson, snapping a stretch of 22 consecutive penalties that were turned away; overall, QU went 1-for-4 on the power play while Merrimack came up empty on its lone man advantage
- Merrimack won 32-of-57 faceoffs (56.1%) with Seney winning 8-of-10 (80.0%) of his draws
Up Next
Merrimack and Quinnipiac conclude the weekend series tomorrow night at the TD Bank Sports Center in Hamden, Connecticut. Puck drop is set for 7 p.m.
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