Links: Box Score //
Highlights
NORTH ANDOVER, Mass. – The Merrimack College men's ice hockey team had a 2-1 lead after 40 minutes, but No. 2 UMass scored three goals in the third to earn a 4-2 win on Thursday night at Lawler Rink.
Senior
Derek Petti and junior
Ryan Cook scored in the second to give the Warriors the lead, while senior
Craig Pantano finished with 32 saves in net for the home side. Merrimack concludes the season on Saturday at Boston University.
The Basics
Score: UMass 4,
Merrimack 2
Records: Merrimack (7-23-3, 4-17-2 HEA) | #2 Massachusetts (25-7-0, 17-5-0 HEA)
Location: Lawler Rink | North Andover, Mass.
Attendance: 2,223
Game Duration: 2:29
How It Happened
- UMass found the back of the net less than four minutes into the contest while on the power play, with Cale Makar finishing off a sequence that saw the puck move from below the red line across the crease and to the weak side post.
- Merrimack would draw even just 27 seconds into the middle stanza off Petti's seventh of the year, finishing off a 2-on-1 feed from junior Sami Tavernier to even the ledger. Penalties then piled up midway through the period, at one point prompting 3-on-3 hockey before UMass had an extended power play on a major/misconduct call, but the score stayed deadlocked at a goal apiece.
- Then, with less than 90 seconds left in the period, it was Cook scoring his first of the year off a rebound after junior Johnathan Kovacevic put the puck on net, giving the Warriors a 2-1 lead heading into the second intermission.
- UMass scored twice in a 20-second span to turn a one-goal deficit into a one-goal lead; Bobby Trivigno tied things up at the 3:52 mark of the third before Jake Gaudet gave the Minutemen the lead 18 seconds later.
- Merrimack pulled Pantano with less than three minutes looking for the equalizer, but Makar sealed the victory for the Minutemen with an empty-netter in the closing minutes.
Notes & Numbers
- Both Tavernier and Kovacevic had two assists for the Warriors to lead all scorers.
- Cook's goal was the first since last Feb. 16 against New Hampshire.
- Senior Michael Babcock won 11 faceoffs to lead all players, while his two blocked shots.
- Goaltenders: Craig Pantano (31 saves, 6-13-2) // Matt Murray (18 saves, 8-3-1)
- Power Plays: 0-7 | 1-6
- Shots on Goal: 6-13 // 10-15 // 4-8 – 20-36
- Faceoffs: 31 // 37
- Blocks: 9 // 11
Merrimack Lineup
Forwards
Gresock | Petti | Tavernier
von-Ungern Sternberg | Babcock | Irvine
L. Drevitch | Kramer | McBride
Coomes | Seyfert | T. Drevitch
Olsen | Bales
Defense
Cook | Kovacevic
Dockery | Carle
McArdle
Goaltenders
Pantano | Vogler | Halladay
Up Next
Merrimack rounds out the 2018-19 campaign at Boston University on Saturday, with puck drop from Agganis Arena set for 7 p.m.
