NO. ANDOVER, Mass. - The Merrimack College men's ice hockey team scored two third-period goals, and that was enough for the Warriors, who posted a 3-1 home victory against nearby rival Bentley University on Friday night at Lawler Rink.
All even at a goal apiece heading into the final frame, Merrimack responded with a pair of tallies and outshot the Falcons by a 12-8 margin over that span before wrapping it up with an empty-net strike while Bentley was on a 6-on-3 man advantage to account for the final margin of victory.
Junior Quinn Gould (Fort McMurray, Alberta) continued his hot start to the season with his third goal of the year at 11:15 of the second before the visitors tied it on a late strike with 16 seconds left in the second period.
But midway through the third, while on the power play, freshman Hampus Gustafsson (Ljungby, Sweden) took a perfect feed from the slot toward the near circle and buried it for the game-winner at 10:32, and junior Dan Kolomatis (Basking Ridge, N.J.) intercepted a Bentley pass with five seconds to go and sent it the length of the ice from his own blue line to seal the deal.
In net, junior goaltender Rasmus Tirronen (Espoo, Finland) was the star of the night, recording several eye-popping saves against the Falcons while finishing with 22 stops on the night. His counterpart Branden Komm also finished with 22, in a game that Merrimack rebounded from an early shots on goal deficit en route to finishing with a 25-22 advantage in shots on target.