NORTH ANDOVER, MA - The Merrimack hockey team was defeated on Friday night by the #12/11 Boston University Terriers 3-1 in front of a sellout crowd at Lawler Arena. Merrimack (4-4-1, 3-2-1 HEA) will return to action tomorrow night as they will play host to the UConn Huskies at 7:00 pm at Lawler Arena.
Senior John Heffernan (Scituate, Mass.) was the lone Warrior to score, picking up a power play goal just 14 seconds into the final period after a nice pass from leading scorer, Mike Collins (Boston, Mass.). Kyle Bigos (Upland, Calif.) picked up his first assist of the season on Heffernan's second tally of the season.
Merrimack held the 35-25 advantage in shots on goal including outshooting the Terriers 13-7 in the final period.
The Terriers got on the board early in the second period as Ahti Oksanen beat Sam Marotta (Bridgewater, Mass.) on the blocker side after a great centering pass from Cason Hohmann.
The Boston University lead was extended to 2-0 just over seven minutes later as Wade Megan scored his fifth goal of the season, beating Marotta five hole after a pass off the boards from Matt Grzelcyk.
After Heffernan connected on the first goal for Merrimack, junior Shawn Bates (Saskatechewan, AB) had his tying effort goal disallowed as the referee ruled he kicked the puck into the net, keeping the score 2-1 in favor of the Terriers.
Just over two minutes later the Terriers sealed the game as Evan Rodrigues found the back of the net, making the score 3-1 with seven minutes remaining in the game. Rodrigues took the long rebound off of the point shot and buried the puck behind Marotta.
Merrimack finished the game 1-4 on the power play while the Terriers went 0-3 including only three shots on goal.
Marotta finished the game with 22 saves in the loss while Matt O'Connor improved to 5-0 on the season, making 34 saves.