Men's Ice Hockey Falls at Northeastern, 4-1
Links: Box Score | Dennehy Postgame Comments
BOSTON – The Merrimack College men's ice hockey team dropped its ninth straight game after falling to Northeastern, 4-1, in the finale of both teams' weekend home-and-home series on Saturday night at Matthews Arena.
The Basics
Score: Northeastern 4, Merrimack 1
Records: Merrimack (7-13-5, 2-7-5 HEA) | Northeastern (9-12-4, 4-8-3 HEA)
Location: Matthews Arena | Boston, Mass.
How It Happened
For a period that featured seven combined penalties, it would've been safe to assume that more than eight combined shots on goal would have been recorded. But that was exactly what happened, as Northeastern outshot Merrimack by just a 5-3 margin, while each side had close to five minutes' worth of power play time.
The Huskies struck first while skating with a 5-on-3 power play at 11:22 after Adam Gaudette picked up a loose rebound that had deflected off the end glass and right to him at the back door, as Northeastern carried a 1-0 lead into the first intermission.
Both sides committed costly turnovers that led to goals midway through the second period; first, freshman Mathieu Foget (Orleans, Ontario) stole the puck in the Northeastern zone to set up a 2-on-1 feed with sophomore Brett Seney (London, Ontario), who sniped home his second tally of the weekend from the far dot to even the contest at the 8:25 mark of the frame.
But three minutes later, Zach Aston-Reese took the puck away deep in the Merrimack zone and fed a wide-open Nolan Stevens, who slid across the crease and buried it to restore the Huskies' lead at 11:44, and the score went unchanged over the rest of the stanza.
The hosts upped their lead to two less than three minutes into the third by means of their second power play goal of the night. Mike McMurtry won the draw to Garret Cockerill, who fed Dylan Sikura for a close-range slap shot from the edge of the circle to make it 3-1 Huskies at 2:56.
Held to just four shots on goal in the third, Merrimack used its timeout with just under two minutes left but Northeastern's relentless forecheck kept the Warriors pinned down before Aston-Reese got his own rebound to go for his seventh of the season, icing the contest and the weekend sweep.
How They Scored
NU #1 (PPG) | P1 11:42 – Gaudette jams in a rebound that bounced off the end board and to the weak side of the crease.
MC #1 | P2 8:25 – Foget steals the puck in the defensive zone to set up a 2-on-1 rush; Foget goes circle-to-circle and finds Seney at the far dot, and his wrister beats Ruck for the tying tally.
NU #2 | P2 11:44 – John Stevens forces a turnover deep in the Merrimack zone, taps it ahead to Nolan Stevens in the low slot who cuts across the crease and slides it into an open net.
NU #3 (PPG) | P3 2:56 – Northeastern wins the draw at the far circle, Cockerill passes to Sikura, who walks in and fires a slap shot near the hashes and goes high glove.
NU #4 | P3 18:57 – Aston-Reese fires from the near circle, gets his own rebound back, and goes low blocker side for the final goal.
Notes and Numbers
- Merrimack has now lost nine straight games for the first time in nine years; the last time it did so was when it dropped the final nine games of the regular season in the 2006-07 campaign – the Warriors finished 3-27-4 that year and did not qualify for the Hockey East Tournament
- After starting the year 3-0-1 on the road, Merrimack has now gone 0-8-1 in games played away from Lawler Rink since the middle of November (7 away games, 1 neutral-site game)
- Merrimack was held to its lowest shot total of the season (16), recording only three shots on goal in the first period and four in the third frame
- Seney finished with two goals on the weekend, upping his season total to six, while Foget recorded his first point in eight games after last registering an assist at UConn on Dec. 11
- Goaltenders: L - Collin Delia (21 saves, 6-10-5) // W - Ryan Ruck (15 saves, 7-9-3)
- Power Plays: Merrimack 0-5 | Northeastern 2-6
- SOG (MC-NU): 3-5 // 9-9 // 4-11 // 16-25
Up Next
Merrimack returns to action next Friday (Jan. 29) when it plays its lone league game of the week at No. 11 Boston University, as the Warriors head to Agganis Arena for a 7:30 p.m. puck drop.
--
For continuing coverage of Merrimack College Athletics, visit MerrimackAthletics.com and follow the Warriors on Twitter and on Facebook.
