NORTH ANDOVER, Mass. -- The Merrimack men's hockey team travels to the top-seeded Providence Friars for the Hockey East quarterfinals at Schneider Arena on Saturday night.
The No. 8 Warriors (18-5-2) advanced after an opening round win, 5-3, against No. 9 UMass-Lowell on Wednesday behind two goals from
Trevor Hoskin. Providence (23-9-2) won the Hockey East regular-season title and received a first-round bye. Puck drop is set for 7 p.m. and it will be broadcast on NESN+ and ESPN+.
The Warriors and Friars split their two-game season series with Merrimack beating Providence, 4-2, on November 14 before the Friars returned the favor, 3-2, the next night.
"Goal tending and special teams," head coach
Scott Borek said when asked what it'll take to beat Providence. "Obviously, they won the league. They're a very good team. They're a very deep team. We're going to need all four lines. We're going to need all seven defensemen to be successful. And really, if we can get out of the first period, it's going to be a ballgame. But we have to have to have a good start, because you know they will because they just watched us play. So we just have to have a good start."
Merrimack goaltender
Max Lundgren, who made 23 saves in the win against Lowell, continues to be key between the pipes for the Warriors. Lundgren ranks second all-time in single-season wins by a goaltender (18) and is the third goaltender in program history to eclipse the 1,000-save mark in a single season -- he has 1,002 and counting. Lundgren is 17 saves away from breaking the single-season mark, which previously was set by Joe Exter during the 2002-03 campaign.
Lundgren's season-high 40 saves came against Providence on Nov. 15.
Justin Gill and
Parker Lalonde, who both were named to the Hockey East All-Rookie Team on Wednesday, have provided a jolt on the offensive end for the Warriors.
Gill's 16 regular-season goals made him the first Merrimack player to hit that mark since Hampus Gustafsson (2015-16). Gill also joins
Trevor Hoskin as the lone Warrior with a one-point-per-game average, a product of the longest point streak on the team this season (13 consecutive games). He finished the regular season with the sixth-most goals in Hockey East, though that mark improved to second in the conference among freshman.
Lalonde enters the quarterfinal matchup with 33 points (13 goals, 20 assists) in 34 games. He scored his first collegiate hat trick against New Hampshire in mid-October, and had nine multi-point games during the season.
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