#16 Men's Ice Hockey Secures Two-Win Week with 3-2 Win at Canisius Saturday Night
Links: Box Score
BUFFALO – The No. 16 Merrimack College men's ice hockey team scored three times in the first period and held on the rest of the way to secure a two-win week after besting Canisius College, 3-2, on Saturday night at the HARBORCENTER.
The Basics
Score: #16/RV Merrimack 3, Canisius 2
Records: Merrimack (5-1-2) | Canisius (2-5-0)
Location: HARBORCENTER | Buffalo, N.Y.
How It Happened
After making the eight-hour trek west to face Canisius, Merrimack showed little in terms of bus lag as it exploded out of the gate in the opening stanza to stake itself a three-goal lead.
Senior Justin Hussar (Lancaster, N.Y.) put the Warriors on the board only 30 seconds into the game; Hussar, who was playing a mere 30 minutes from his hometown of Lancaster, took a feed from classmate Ben Bahe (Stillwater, Minn.) and whipped a backhander on net that squeezed through on the near side to give the visitors a 1-0 lead.
Midway through the period, freshman Ethan Spaxman (Brantford, Ontario) doubled the lead after unloading a slapper with plenty of space to work from the top of the circle that found the back of the net. Sophomore Brett Seney (London, Ontario) found Spaxman wide open from behind the net, and classmate Jared Kolquist (Hermantown, Minn.) also assisted on the play.
Less than three minutes later, the newly formed line of Seney and freshmen Ludvig Larsson (Malmo, Sweden) and Mathieu Foget (Orleans, Ontario) tripled the lead while on the power play. Seney held on to the puck long enough on the right-wing side before threading a perfect pass through the crease to a wide-open Foget who promptly buried the puck into an essentially empty net for the latter's first career tally.
Canisius staunched the bleeding about 45 seconds later, as Dylan McLaughlin tipped in a centering goal-line feed at 14:14 to get the Griffins on the board. The hosts nearly got to within one later on in the period, but sophomore goaltender Collin Delia (Rancho Cucamonga, Calif.) made a highlight reel glove save while on his knees and lunging from right to left to rob Canisus' Shane Conacher.
After the Warriors totaled 20 shots in the first period, they were held to only five in the second despite a power play midway through the frame. Merrimack would then deny the Griffins on a late power-play opportunity, but with 1:35 to play in the middle stanza, Canisius made it a one-goal game after a misplay by Delia led to Mike Sabatini firing a slapper from the left point into an open net, as the Warriors saw their lead trimmed to 3-2 after 40 minutes of play.
Merrimack again was held to less than five shots in the third period and finished with 29 on the night after ringing up 20 shots in the first 20 minutes, but Delia's secured the Warriors' second win of the week. The California native denied all nine Canisus shot attempts in the final frame, including two back-to-back chances in tight while the Griffins had the extra skater on late in regulation to preserve the lead.
Inside The Numbers
- Merrimack sent a season-high 20 shots on net in the opening period but was held to only nine the rest of the way while still managing to outshoot Canisius by a 29-20 margin
- Seney and Kolquist finished with two assists to lead all Warriors, Hussar, Spaxman and Foget each tallied their third, second and first goals of the year, respectively
- Merrimack finished 25-29 on the draws with Seney winning 6-of-10 (60%)
- The Warriors scored their first power-play goal since the season opener on Oct. 16; the team was just 1-for-27 (3.7%) on the power play coming into the night, a mark that ranked 58th nationally
- Delia finished with 18 saves for the visitors and improved to 5-1-2; his counterpart, Simon Hofley, turned away 26
Up Next
Merrimack returns to league play next weekend when it faces off against two Hockey East opponents. The two-game set begins with a trip to Amherst to face the University of Massachusetts before the Warriors welcome the University of New Hampshire to campus on Saturday night.
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