NO. ANDOVER, Mass. - Two three goal periods propel the Warriors to the 6-3 victory over the Vermont Catamounts on Friday night in front of 2,284 fans on opening night at Lawler Arena. Junior Rhett Bly (Regina, SK) led the way for the Warriors with one goal and two assists in the victory.
Merrimack (2-3-0, 1-1-0 HEA) will return to action tomorrow night as they will take on the Vermont Catamounts at Lawler arena to wrap up their weekend series. Puck drop is set for 7:00 p.m.
Merrimack recorded three goals in the second period as Connor Toomey (Billerica, Mass.) opened up the scoring for the Warriors on the two-man advantage midway through the period. Toomey received a great pass from line mate Mike Collins (Boston, Mass.) and batted it out of the air beating a sprawling Brody Hoffman. Brendan Ellis (Kelowna, BC) also picked up his first of two assists on the Toomey goal. Bly picked up his second goal of the season to tie the score at two with the assists going to Sean Robertson (Cobble Hill, BC), his first career assist, and Collins.
Vinny Scotti (Vineland, NJ) buried his first collegiate goal with just over 22 seconds remaining in the second period to give Merrimack the 3-2 advantage heading into intermission. Leading scorer, Josh Myers (Colorado Springs, CO) made a diving pass to a wide open Scotti after Ellis kept the puck in at the point to pick up the assists on the goal.
Merrimack dominated the first 12 minutes of action in the first, outshooting the Catamounts 10-2 but Vermont scored the opening goal of the game on the power play as Jonathan Turk beat Sam Marotta (Bridgewater, Mass.) five hole after a blocked shot by the Merrimack defense popped right to Turk open in the slot. Matt White picked up his second assist of the season on the goal at 15:02 of the first period.
The Catamounts grabbed the 2-0 lead early on in the second as Nick Bruneteau found the back of the net.
After Merrimack grabbed the 3-2 lead on three straight goals, Chris McCarthy brought the visitors back to even as he scored an even strength goal off of a Jacob Fallon assist.
Jordan Heywood (Regina, SK) scored his first game-winning goal of the young season with just over four minutes remaining in the third period as he took a great feed from Bly and buried the puck behind the Vermont goaltender. Bly and Kyle Singleton (Beaverton, OR) picked up the assists on the game-winning tally.
Myers scored another five on three power play goal for the Warriors late in the third after he drew a charging call on the Vermont defender. Collins and Heywood also picked up assists on Myers' third goal of the season.
Quinn Gould (Fort McMurray, AB) sealed the game for Merrimack as he scored on the empty net with seven second remaining in the game, making the score 6-3 in favor of the home squad.
Three Warriors finished the game with three point nights as Collins finished with three assists, Bly finished with a goal and two assists and Myers finished with a goal and two assists of his own.
Merrimack finished the game going 3-6 on the power play, scoring more power play goals then they did all season leading up to tonight. The Warriors improve to 8-2 overall in the last three seasons when connecting on three or more power play goals.
The Catamounts finished going 2-5 on the power play including going 0-3 after the first period of action.
Marotta finished the game with 29 saves, earning his second win of the season while Hoffman made 26 saves in the losing effort.
With the win Merrimack improves to 8-0-2 against the Catamounts in their last 10 meetings, with their last loss coming in 2009 at Lawler Arena.