After he scored both the tying goal and shootout winner against Union in Saturday’s Coffee Pot tournament semifinal, Merrimack captain Bryan Schmidt’s mouth was saying one thing, but his ear-to-ear grin was saying quite another.<\/p>\n
“You’re down 4-1 and come back to tie it up 4-4, that’s huge,” said a relieved Schmidt, who lifted the Warriors into Sunday’s championship game against host Providence. “It’s a great feeling in general to come back like that. But it doesn’t feel like a win.”<\/p>\n
As far as the formal record is concerned, Schmidt’s right. The second annual tournament’s matinee opener at the Dunkin’ Donuts Center will be officially listed as a 4-4 tie. But for a struggling club like Merrimack, even the sharpshooting defenseman had to admit a victory any kind was of the much-needed variety. <\/p>\n
“It’s been a lot of pressure, especially since we’re close to having probably the worst record to start a season at Merrimack since we’ve turned Division I at 1-7 (in Hockey East),” Schmidt said. “Sometimes I put a lot of pressure just on myself, but I need the help of my players. They came out and did that today, which I really appreciate them for.”<\/p>\n
Schmidt, Mike Alexiou and Jordan Black all notched their sixth goals of the season after the Warriors fell behind 4-1 to the Dutchmen, who entered the tourney riding a six-game ECAC winning streak, with 6:23 left in the second period.<\/p>\n
Alexiou scored just 31 seconds after Union established its three-goal advantage on a nifty Jonathan Poirier wraparound jam at 13:37 after the Dutchmen survived four straight Merrimack power plays to start the second period.<\/p>\n
With the Warriors dominating territorially and holding a 19-3 overall shot edge for the period, Black cut it to 4-3 less than a minute later with a shorthanded goal, set up nicely on a steal at his own blue line by Matt Byrnes.<\/p>\n
Schmidt tied it 3:05 into the third on the power play off a feed from fellow defenseman Jeff Caron, who also scored Merrimack’s first goal with the man advantage.<\/p>\n
“I thought the second period was our best of the whole year, and we carried it into the third,” said Merrimack head coach Chris Serino, whose club snapped a four-game slide. “It’s a small step, but we’ll take the tie.”<\/p>\n
The key for the burdened Warriors this season has been scoring first. When doing so entering the Coffee Pot, they were a respectable 3-3-0. When they didn’t, they were a dreadful 0-5-0.<\/p>\n
Making matters worse, when Merrimack trailed after the first period through the first dozen games, it was 0-7-0, based mainly on the fact the Warriors have only led once all season at first intermission.<\/p>\n
So when Union scored the night’s first two goals, from freshmen Phil McDavitt and Josh Coyle, on its way to building a 3-1 first-period lead, Merrimack’s fate seemed sealed. But somehow the Warriors were able to summon the intensity they’ve failed to generate when needed over the past month, while the Dutchmen got a little bit too complacent.<\/p>\n
“In the second period, I thought two things happened,” surmised Union head coach Nate Leaman, whose team sits atop the ECAC. “First is I think we probably got a little too arrogant, and they started outworking us. The second thing was the first 10 minutes of the period we were killing penalties, include two two-man advantages, which really tired us out. We weren’t really able to get our wind back until the overtime.” <\/p>\n
Union owned all four of the five-minute overtime’s shots, testing Warriors goalie Jim Healey (25 saves) from the slot twice. Schmidt had a chance to win it in OT, too, but his 40-foot wrist shot went over the head of Union netminder Kris Mayotte (33 saves).<\/p>\n
In the shootout, Black, Merrimack’s fourth shooter, scored the first goal, but Union’s Scott Brady immediately answered it. Schmidt avoided a second five-player shootout by ringing in a wrister off the crossbar over Mayotte’s catching glove.<\/p>\n
“I wasn’t looking for a deke or anything because the ice was bad,” Schmidt said. “In a shootout like that, you’ve got to shoot. I got a good shot off, and it went in.” <\/p>\n
(Coffee) Pot Shots<\/b><\/p>\n
St. Cloud State won last season’s first Coffee Pot Tournament, which was held the weekend after Christmas, beating the host Friars, 6-1, in the championship game. … Merrimack lost last season’s meeting with Union, 3-1, giving up a trio of third-period goals, including the game-winner just 51 seconds after Schmidt tied the score. … <\/p>\n
Entering the tournament, Providence held an overwhelming 77-20-6 all-time record over this year’s participants. Merrimack owned the best mark against the Friars at 19-61-5, while Holy Cross was winless in five meetings. … The Warriors are now 101-54-3 all-time in tournament play with their greatest success (seven titles) coming in their own Thanksgiving tournament beginning in the late 1970s and throughout the ’80s.<\/p>\n
Kevin Conway covers college hockey for the Lawrence (Mass.) <\/i>Eagle-Tribune.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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