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Box Score //
Highlights
BURLINGTON, Vt. – The Merrimack College men's ice hockey team scored two goals in the final four minutes of regulation, including an extra-attacker tally with 10 seconds left, to force overtime, but the University of Vermont won it in heartbreaking fashion with 1:20 left in the contest, as the Catamounts downed the Warriors by a 4-3 score on Saturday night at Gutterson Fieldhouse.
After junior
Tyler Irvine put the Warriors on the board in the second period to make it a one-goal affair, tallies from sophomore
Dominic Dockery – the first of his collegiate career in his 54
th game – and junior
Sami Tavernier forced the extra session. But Max Kaufman scored right off the faceoff to give Vermont the weekend sweep.
The Basics
Score: Vermont 4,
Merrimack 3 (F/OT)
Records: Merrimack (7-19-1, 4-13-0 HEA) | Vermont (10-13-1, 3-10-1 HEA)
Location: Gutterson Fieldhouse | Burlington, Vt.
How It Happened
- Vermont potted a pair in a 90-second span to put the hosts up two goals with less than 10 minutes gone in the first. On the other end, the Warriors were limited to only six shots on goal, as the Catamounts out-shot the visitors by eight in the period (14-6).
- After earning a power play late in the first, the Catamounts started the middle frame on the man advantage, but the Warriors fended it off and then earned a chance of their own at the 11-minute mark after some solid looks over the course of the ensuing 10 minutes. Merrimack snapped a nearly 90-minute scoring drought from the first period of Friday night's game when Irvine banged home a second chance at the left goal line to get the Warriors within one at 13:17 of the second. The marker was his sixth and came just after a power play expired.
- Vermont thought it restored its two-goal lead early in the third, but its would-be third goal of the game was overturned after review, keeping Merrimack's deficit at 2-1. The Catamounts would, however, get a third goal with 9:16 left while on a major power play, to go up by two. Merrimack would kill off the rest of that major and then, after back-to-back Vermont penalties, had a major power play of its own with under five minutes left. Dockery got one back with the visitors skating with a 4-on-3 edge before Tavernier lit the lamp while on a 6-on-4, extra-attacker advantage, to force overtime.
- Kaufman won it for the hosts right off a faceoff win at the 3:40 mark to end the match.
Notes & Numbers
- Freshman Chase Gresock extended his team lead in scoring to 19 on the year after his two-point night (both assists), while Dockery posted his first career two-point game (1g, 1a).
- Merrimack fell to 0-3-1 in overtime games this season.
- Merrimack posted two power play goals for the fourth time this season and first time since Nov. 9 at Bemidji State.
- After winning a season-high three straight games from Jan. 5-12, Merrimack has now lost four straight has been outscored by 15 goals (21-6) in that stretch.
- Merrimack suffered its fourth straight loss to Vermont and dipped to 17-19-7 all-time against the Catamounts. Its last win was on Feb. 25, 2017, in Burlington.
- Goaltenders: Logan Halladay (34 saves, 0-2-0) // Stefanos Lekkas (28 saves, 10-13-1)
- Power Plays: 2-5 | 1-4
- Shots on Goal: 6-14 // 14-9 // 10-11 // 1-4 – 31-38
- Faceoffs: 25 // 38
- Blocks: 9 // 9
Merrimack Lineup
Forwards
von Ungern-Sternberg | Babcock | Irvine
Olsen | Kramer | McBride
Gresock | Petti | Tavernier
Simeone | T. Drevitch | McKay
L. Drevitch
Defense
Cook | McArdle
Heidt | Kovacevic
Dockery | Carle
Goaltenders
Pantano | Vogler | Halladay
Up Next
Merrimack will enjoy a brief respite and then return from its bye week with a road trip to Hartford to battle the University of Connecticut on Saturday, Feb. 9 at 5 p.m.
