Sophomore Greg Lauze led the Merrimack Warrior offensive front with a hat trick in a victory over Miami (0-1-0), 7-5. Merrimack (1-0-0) tallied four goals in the third period to put away the RedHawks even though it was outshot 48-29 in the contest.
Jason Deskins, put the RedHawks in front with the season’s first goal on a power play at 2:14 in the first period. Deskins also recorded two assists in the game to bring his career point
total to 98, two away from the 100-point plateau.
The Miami lead held until Lauze found the back of the net at 17:33 in the first period to knot the game at one apiece.
The Warriors took the lead, 2-1, just 1:06 later in the period when Marco Rosa beat Miami’s goalkeeper, David Bowen, on the power play. Bowen saved 22 Merrimack shots in the defeat.
Merrimack increased the deficit to two when senior Ryan Kiley netted his first goal of the season at 5:28 in the second stanza.
Undaunted by the Warriors advantage, Miami cut the lead to one when Evan Cheverie scored a short-handed goal at 7:06 in the second period.
With five seconds remaining in the second period Nick Jardine evened the game at three apiece after Michael Glumac and Deskins found him open in front of Merrimack’s goalie, Joe Exter.
Entering the third period tied 3-3, Merrimack went on the offensive by scoring three unanswered goals in the first 3:41 of the period. Lauze tallied his second goal of the game to get things rolling at :51 and Ryan Cordeiro and Anthony Aquino tallied two more goals at 2:06 and 3:41, respectively, to build a 6-3 Merrimack lead.
Joe Pomaranski kept the RedHawk’s hopes alive with his first career goal after Deskins found him wide open in front of the net at 6:28.
Miami cut the lead to one, 6-5, at 15:36 in the period when Hogeboom scored a power-play goal.
The RedHawks never managed to get any closer to the Warriors as Lauze registered the hat trick with 16 seconds remaining in the game on an empty RedHawk net. Merrimack’s goalie, Exter, stayed busy in the victory by registering 43 saves against a powerful Miami offense.
Miami and Merrimack will square off again tomorrow night, Oct. 13, at 7:35 p.m. to conclude the weekend series.
