NORTH ANDOVER, MA - The Merrimack hockey team and the Colgate Raiders skated to a 1-1 tie on Friday afternoon in front of a sold out Lawler Arena. Junior Mike Collins (Boston, Mass.) stayed hot for the Warriors, scoring the lone Merrimack goal on the afternoon.
Merrimack (4-6-2, 3-3-1 HEA) will play the Providence Friars twice next weekend with the first game on Friday at Lawler Arena at 7:30 p.m. and the second game at Providence.
Both Rasmus Tirronen (Espoo, Finland) and Spencer Finney played well in net making 21 and 23 saves respectively for the game.
Collins got the Warriors on the board just under half way through the opening period as he found a rebound in front of Colgate goaltender Finney and buried the puck for his team-leading seventh goal of the season. Sophomore Dan Kolomatis (Basking Ridge, NJ) found defensive partner Brendan Ellis (Kelowna, BC) open at the point for a shot that was turned away right to Collins for the tally. Kolomatis and Ellis both recorded their sixth assists on the season.
The Raiders controlled most of play during the second period after the Warriors outshot them 11-3 in the opening 20 minutes and they were rewarded with a goal. Joe Wilson dug out a rebound off of Brendan Corcoran's point shot that was blocked in front and tied the score at one with 4:51 gone in the second period.
The Warriors were unable to respond on a five minute major penalty just over three minutes later as they were only able to register three shots on goal and could not break the tie. The Warriors had their best chance of the game to break the tie in the third period as senior John Heffernan (Scituate, Mass.) found himself alone in front of the Colgate goaltender but his wrister was stopped by a sprawling Finney to keep the score knotted at one.
Ellis finished with a game-high six shots on goal in the tie while Collins, Kyle Singleton (Beaverton, OR) and Kyle Bigos (Upland, Calif.) each finished with three shots on goal.
Merrimack finished the game going 0-5 on the power play with six shots on goal while the Raiders went 0-4 with their man-up chances.
The two teams skated to a 1-1 tie last game they played on December 10, 2011 in Hamilton, NY. Merrimack now holds the 8-7-2 all-time record over the Colgate Raiders.