North Andover, MA-- The #8 seeded Merrimack Men's Hockey team will face the #9 seeded UMass Lowell Riverhawks for the fourth time this season and for the second time in less than a week in the opening round of the Hockey East Tournament on Wednesday night at Lawler Arena. The game can be seen on both NESN Plus and ESPN+. In the postseason, these teams have met six times, with a 3-3 split, but the Warriors were victorious in the last playoff matchup, 2-1 in double overtime to reached the Hockey East Championship.
The Warriors enter the postseason with five players at the ten or more goal mark for the regular season, as
Justin Gill,
Parker Lalonde,
Caelan Fitzpatrick,
Nick Pierre and
Trevor Hoskin all achieved that mark, the most since the 2010-11 season, when they reached the Hockey East Final and NCAA National Tournament in which that team had seven qualifying players. The Warriors are also joined by the Providence College Friars in this stat, as the only two teams to have five 10+ goal scorers on a team, no other Hockey East team has more than three.
Max Lundgren made 34 saves in the win against Lowell, his 17th of the season and it was his 20th game making 30 or more saves, including all three games against Lowell, where he went 2-1-0, posting a .926 save percentage and a 2.67 GAA. Max played in every minute of every game in which a goalie was in net for the Warriors' this season and was the first goalie since Joe Canatta in 2011-12 to start every game for Merrimack in a season, and sits 21 saves away from 1000 in a single season (979) which is enough for 3rd all-time in program history. (1,016 is the record)
Justin Gill scored twice in the 5-3 win, putting him over the 15 goal mark in the regular season, becoming the first Warrior to hit that mark since Hampus Gustafsson did in so in 2015-16. He also sits atop the team lead in points with
Trevor Hoskin (32), Gill sits tied for fifth place in Hockey East goals and points and 2nd in goals in conference by a freshman.
In their last game against Lowell, Merrimack scored three or more goals in a period for the ninth time this season, going 8-0 in those games.
The Warriors have played plenty of free hockey in their recent postseason history, as four of their last five playoff games have gone past regulation. Merrimack has gone 2-2 in that stretch, with a two double overtime wins against Boston College (1-0) and the aforementioned UMass Lowell (2-1).
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