Merrimack and Maine battled it out in a highly contested Hockey East matchup. Each team is seeking to secure home ice advantage once the playoffs start. Maine controlled the tempo early but survived a late Merrimack counter to win 4-2.
“We came in, we played hard, they’re a hard team and they get after it,” said Maine coach Dennis Gendron. “Our team played the way we want to play.”
The game’s opening period saw Maine score two quick goals late to put the pressure on the home club early. Merrimack couldn’t seem to find an answer to Maine’s attack in the opening frame.
Maine’s penalty kill was the story early in this game, as the Black Bears killed off two of Merrimack’s early power plays in the first half of the period.
Mark Hamilton got Maine on the score sheet with four minutes to go in the period on a shot from the point that was assisted by Stu Higgins and Brady Campbell. Just 50 seconds later, Steven Swavely fed a pass to teammate Ben Hutton, who roofed one over Rasmus Tirronen to give Maine the 2-0 advantage to end the opening frame.
Devin Shore got the scoring going again early in the second when he took a loose puck off of a scrum and deked his way past Tirronen to give the Black Bears a 3-0 lead just five minutes in.
Merrimack however, answered quickly when John Gustafsson turned and fired a puck past Matt Morris to give the Warriors life and cut the Maine lead to 3-1.
With 10:56 remaining in the second period, Jace Hennig jammed home a loose puck in front of Morris to make it a one-goal game.
The Black Bears almost extended it to a two-goal advantage when Conor Leen went in on a partial breakaway, but was denied by Tirronen.
Will Merchant gave Maine the 4-2 cushion when he rocketed a shot that found the back of the goal with four minutes remaining in the second.
The third period saw Merrimack battle back to almost tie the game, but it would not be enough. Merrimack’s special teams’ play kept the Warriors in it throughout the final period, as it succeeded in killing off six Maine man-advantages.
Things got chippy midway through the period when Craig Wyzomirski got into it with Jake Rutt.
With less than a minute to go and the goaltender pulled, Brian Christie gave the home crowd life when he scored with 17.8 seconds remaining to bring the score to 4-3.
It would prove to not be enough, as Maine would come away with a 4-3 win and two big Hockey East points.
“When you lose a game there are no moral victories,” said Merrimack coach Mark Dennehy. “I thought we did a lot of good things tonight that we haven’t done in a while, offensively. We just had some big time breakdowns.”
