Men's Ice Hockey Blanked by UNH, 3-0; Will Take on Northeastern in HEA First Round
Links: Box Score | Dennehy Postgame Comments
DURHAM, N.H. – The Merrimack College men's ice hockey team put only 11 shots on net and opposing goaltender Daniel Tirone stopped them all, as the Warriors suffered a 3-0 shutout setback against New Hampshire in both teams' regular-season finale on Saturday night at the Whittemore Center.
The Basics
Score: New Hampshire 3, Merrimack 0
Records: Merrimack (14-16-4, 5-14-3 HEA) | New Hampshire (15-17-2, 10-11-1 HEA)
Location: Whittemore Center | Durham, N.H.
Hockey East Tournament Update
All teams qualify; top-four receive first-round bye; seeds 5-8 host 9-12 in opening round series
1.Boston U. 14-5-3 (31 pts)
2. Providence 13-8-1 (27 pts)
3. Boston College 12-7-3 (27 pts)
4. UMass Lowell 11-7-4 (26 pts)
5. Notre Dame 10-7-5 (25 pts)
6. Northeastern 11-9-2 (24 pts)
7. Vermont 10-9-3 (23 pts)
8. New Hampshire 10-11-1 (21 pts)
9. Connecticut 7-11-4 (18 pts) Won season series vs. Maine (1-0-1)
10. Maine 8-12-2 (18 pts)
11. Merrimack 5-14-3 (13 pts)
12. Massachusetts 5-16-1 (11 pts)
Merrimack is locked into the No. 11 seed and will play at the No. 6 Northeastern in a first-round best-of-three series on the road next week.
How It Happened
In a game that was essentially meaningless as far as the league standings went for Merrimack, which was locked into the No. 11 seed regardless of the outcome, the Warriors were held to their lowest shots on goal total in recent memory while suffering their third shutout this month.
The Wildcats built themselves a two-goal lead on a pair of markers from Grayson Downing and Andrew Poturalski, respectively, towards the end of the first period, and then Poturalski made it a three-goal game later in the second, and that was more than enough for Tirone, who picked up the clean sheet between the pipes while improving to 10-4-0 on the year.
Downing fired the first salvo for the hosts after redirecting a shot 22 seconds into a power play from Brett Pesce, making it a 1-0 UNH lead at 16:32 of the first. Just over two minutes later, the Wildcats sakted into the zone 4-on-4 and the sequence ended with Poturalski finding a behind-the-net pass from Tyler Kelleher and backhanding it home to double the lead.
In the second, the Wildcats rounded out the scoring with Poturalski's second of the game; the forward buried a Kelleher rebound to account for the final tally, and Tirone would hang on from there to round out the night.
Inside The Numbers
- Senior goaltender Rasmus Tirronen (Espoo, Finland) finished with 25 stops for the visitors while falling to 10-12-3 on the year
- UNH outshot Merrimack by a 28-11 margin and held an advantage on the shot chart in each period
- Merrimack was kept in check on all four power plays it had while UNH finished 1-for-4 with the man advantage
Up Next
Merrimack will travel to the No. 6 seed Northeastern in the league standings, in a best-of-three series in the league tournament opening round starting next Friday at 7 p.m. at Matthews Arena.
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