Men's Ice Hockey Honors Seniors, Then Rallies for 4-4 Draw against Maine in Regular Season Home Finale

Men's Ice Hockey Honors Seniors, Then Rallies for 4-4 Draw against Maine in Regular Season Home Finale

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Links: Box Score // Highlights

Postgame Comments: Dennehy

NORTH ANDOVER, Mass. – Two goals from junior Jace Hennig (Port Moody, British Columbia) helped erase an early two-goal deficit and help the Merrimack College men's ice hockey secure a three-point weekend, as the Warriors skated to a 4-4 tie against Maine in the final home game of the regular season on Saturday night at Lawler Rink.

The Basics
 Score: Merrimack 4, Maine 4
Records: Merrimack (13-13-6, 7-7-6 HEA) | Maine (10-18-4, 4-14-2 HEA)
Location: Lawler Rink | North Andover, Mass.
Attendance: 2549
Game Duration: 2:38

Hockey East Playoff Picture
 All teams qualify for postseason; seeds 1-4 earn first round bye; seeds 5-8 host 9-12 in best-of-three first round; winning teams advance, bracket is re-seeded, and seeds 1-4 host best-of-three quarterfinal series; winners advance to Championship Weekend at TD Garden

1. Boston College (13 league wins/29 points) – H2H vs. PC,
2. Boston U. (12/27) H2H vs. BC, PC
3. Notre Dame (11/26) H2H vs. UVM, UNH, NU
4. UMass Lowell (12/25) H2H vs. UVM, UNH, MC
5. Providence (10/23) H2H vs. UML, UNH, UC
6. Vermont (9/22) H2H vs. NU
7. Merrimack (7/20) H2H vs. BC, BU, PC
8. Northeastern (8/19) H2H vs. MC
9. New Hampshire (7/18) H2H vs. MC, NU, ME
10. Connecticut (6/16) H2H vs. UML
11. Maine (4/10) H2H vs. UMA
12. Massachusetts (2/5)

  • Merrimack can finish as high as fifth and no lower than ninth

Wins = 2 pts, Ties = 1 pt
H2H = Team has won head-to-head tiebreaker vs. abbreviated team
Tiebreakers: Head-to-head; # of wins in conf. play; Record vs. first-place team, then second-place team, etc.; Coin flip

How It Happened

  • Before the game, Merrimack honored its three members of the Class of 2017 in Hampus Gustafsson (Ljungby, Sweden) Jonathan Lashyn (Saskatoon, Saskatchewan) and Chris LeBlanc (Winthrop, Mass.).
  • Similarly to Friday's start, Maine grabbed the first goal of Saturday's contest while on the power play after Cedric Lacroix pushed in a puck from in front of the crease to give the visitors a 1-0 advantage at the 7:16 mark.
  • The Black Bears doubled their lead with just under five minutes left in the first on a play that started from their own zone; Patrick Holway chipped the puck off the glass and out to the neutral zone to Brendan Robbins, who carried it into the corner and fed Blaine Byron who finished the play from the crease to make it 2-0.
  • Penalties began to pile up in the middle frame, as nine combined whistles were called against both sides. The Warriors capitalized on their first two power plays in succession, as freshman Sami Tavernier (Morzine, France) one-timed home a shot from the top of the near circle to get the hosts on the board.
  • Then, after another Maine penalty put the hosts back on the power play, Hennig found the puck at the back post and jammed it home to tie things at 9:03 of the second.
  • But Maine's Rob Michel would score on a 4-on-3 situation at 11:33 to cap off the furious scoring sequence, sending Merrimack into the second intermission down a goal.
  • Both sides exchanged another lightning-quick scoring sequence halfway through the third; first, sophomore Ludvig Larsson (Malmo, Sweden) saw the puck bounce onto his stick near the crease and scored from the hash at 7:34, but Maine's Ryan Smith picked off a clearing pass and scored from the right point to give the lead right back to the Black Bears 14 seconds later.
  • Hennig's weekend heroics would continue, though, after he tipped in a shot from sophomore Alex Carle (Anchorage, Alaska) at 9:32 to level the game at 4-4 and send it to overtime.
  • Merrimack had a handful of chances over the remainder of regulation and outshot Maine, 3-1, in overtime and saw an opportunity at the buzzer miss wide of the net to give both sides a point in the league standings.

Notes & Notables

  • Merrimack's unbeaten streak moved to eight games (5-0-3), its longest such streak since a 10-game unbeaten stretch to start the 2011-12 season.
  • A day after setting a new season-high in shots on goal (44), Merrimack topped that mark again with 45 against the Black Bears on Saturday.
  • Tavernier now leads the team with 10 points (2g, 7a) since Jan. 24.
  • Merrimack improved to 2-11-3 when trailing after 40 minutes this season.
  • The Warriors are now 12-0-2 when scoring three or more goals in a game.

Merrimack Lineup
Seney | Gustafsson | Tavernier
Hennig | L. Larsson | LeBlanc
Babcock | A. Larsson | Tibbet
Petti | Drevitch | Irvine

Biega | Carle
Kolquist | Kovacevic
Lashyn | Cook

Delia
Vogler
Pantano

Game Leaders (MC // ME)

  • Points: Hennig/LarssonLeBlanc (2) // Ten players (1)
  • Goals: Hennig (2) // Four players (1)
  • Assists: LeBlanc (2) // Six players (1)
  • Shots: Hennig/Larsson (5) // Cam Brown/Blaine Byron (4)
  • Faceoffs Won: Hampus Gustafsson (15) // Byron (12)
  • Saves: Collin Delia (23-for-27) // Matt Morris (41-for-45)

Facts and Figures (MC // ME)

  • Power Plays: 2-5 // 2-6
  • Penalties: 7 Penalties – 14 Minutes // 7 Penalties – 14 Minutes
  • Faceoffs: 38 // 35
  • SOG: 13-14 // 18-7 // 11-5 // 3-1 // 45-27

Up Next
 Merrimack concludes the regular season with a two-game road trip against the University of Vermont next weekend (Feb. 24-25). Puck drop each night from Gutterson Fieldhouse is 7 p.m.

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For continuing coverage of Merrimack College Athletics, visit MerrimackAthletics.com and follow the Warriors on Twitter and on Facebook.

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