Men's Ice Hockey Swept by Northeastern, 4-2, Saturday
Links: Box Score
NORTH ANDOVER, Mass. – The Merrimack College men's ice hockey had an early second-period lead, but visiting Northeastern responded with the next three goals to sweep both schools' home-and-home series after the Warriors fell, 4-2, on Saturday night at Lawler Rink.
The Basics
Score: Northeastern 4, Merrimack 2
Records: Merrimack (8-13-3, 2-7-3 HEA) | Northeastern (9-10-5, 3-8-3 HEA)
Location: Lawler Rink | North Andover, Mass.
Attendance: 2391
Game Duration: 2:15
How It Happened
- Northeastern had three early power plays and capitalized directly off a faceoff win while skating with a brief 5-on-3 advantage, as Adam Gaudette ripped home his 13th of the year off a one-timer feed from Garrett Cockerill to put the Huskies ahead 6:15 into the contest.
- But the home side evened things up 10 minutes later while on a power play of its own after freshman Johnathan Kovacevic (Granby, Ontario) snuck in a wrist shot from above the right circle, as his second tally of the year tied things up at 16:05 of the opening frame. Junior Jace Hennig (Port Moody, British Columbia) and senior Hampus Gustafsson (Ljungby, Sweden) helped set up the play along the right wing boards.
- The start of the middle frame featured an early pair of Warrior power plays, and the hosts capitalized on their second after Hennig collected a shot that caromed off the right end boards and stuffed it past NU goaltender Ryan Ruck for his fourth of the year at 2:26. Senior Chris LeBlanc (Winthrop, Mass.) put the puck in deep for the helper, while Kovacevic secured his 10th assist on the play, as well.
- Roughly four minutes later, the Huskies leveled the ledger after the nation's leading scorer, Zach Aston-Reese, picked up a loose puck above the right circle and fed Matt Filipe, who backhanded one through traffic from the right dot to tie things up.
- Northeastern's fifth power play opportunity of the night would give way to their third goal, as Aston-Reese waited out goaltender Drew Vogler (Florissant, Mo.) and tucked it by him after receiving the puck in front of the crease from John Stevens, propelling the Huskies in front, 3-2, and that score went unchanged heading into the third.
- The Huskies added an insurance tally with just over 10 minutes to play after Eric Williams toe-dragged and scored off a wrister from the slot to make it a 4-2 game.
- Merrimack pulled Vogler over the final 90 seconds in favor of the extra attacker and had another late power play for a 6-on-4 advantage, but Ruck had another 30-plus-save effort to backstop the Huskies to the sweep.
Notes & Notables
- Saturday marked Merrimack's first game with multiple power play goals since netting three against Mercyhurst back on Nov. 4 as part of a 5-1 home victory.
- Saturday was also the first time both Merrimack and its opponent each had multiple power play goals since a 5-5 tie at home against Boston College on Feb. 13, 2016; each school had two tallies with the man advantage that night.
- Northeastern became the second team this year to score three power play goals in a game against the Warriors; the first was New Hampshire on Oct. 29, 2016, in a 6-2 loss in Durham.
Merrimack Lineup
Hennig | Gustafsson | Irvine
Seney | A. Larsson | Tavernier
Coomes | L. Larsson | LeBlanc
Petti | Babcock | Tibbet
Biega | Carle
Kolquist | Cook
Lashyn | Kovacevic
Vogler
Pantano
Game Leaders (MC // NU)
Facts and Figures (MC // NU)
- Power Plays: 2-5 // 3-7
- Penalties: 6 Penalties – 12 Minutes // 8 Penalties – 16 Minutes
- Faceoffs: 38 // 27
- SOG: 7-14 // 19-13 // 9-8 // 35-35
Up Next
Merrimack will have a short turnaround before hosting the current No. 3/4-ranked team in Boston University next Tuesday, Jan. 24, at Lawler Rink. Following that 7 p.m. puck drop, the Warriors and Terriers will conclude the season series on Friday (Jan. 27) at Agganis Arena at 7:30 p.m.
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