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It has been nearly 10 years to the day since the Merrimack College men’s hockey team won a game at Alfond Arena. The Warriors have lost or tied 16 times in Orono since their 5-4 win on Nov. 14, 1998.
Unless the University of Maine hosts a Hockey East tournament quarterfinal series against Merrimack College, the Warriors will have to wait until next year’s trip to Orono for another shot at reversing the trend, as the Black Bears came away from a low scoring weekend with a win and a tie.
With the three points, the Black Bears are now 7-3-1 (4-2-1 Hockey East) heading into road games to the University of Vermont, Northeastern University and a rematch with the Warriors on Dec. 7. Merrimack falls to 3-6-3 (1-5-2 Hockey East).
The weekend saw superb goaltending from all four starters. Andrew Braithwaite, Merrimack’s starter Friday night, was the only goalie to give up multiple goals on the weekend, allowing two in the loss.
Three Black Bears scored their first goals of the season, as freshman Will O’Neill and junior Brett Carriere provided the scoring in a 2-1 win Friday night. Sophomore Keif Orsini’s goal was the equalizer in Saturday’s 1-1 tie.
Merrimack got to UMaine junior goalie Dave Wilson just 43 seconds into Friday’s game when center Jesse Todd found right wing J.C. Robitaille crossing in front. Robitaille was able to backhand the puck into the net to Wilson’s right.
“They passed it across, and I thought the guy was going to cut back short side, and then he ended up going far side around me,” Wilson said. “It kind of caught me off-guard because he kind of gave a head fake and I fell for it. I followed the puck pretty well, and I just didn’t get there and he squeezed it past my pad.”
Wilson got the start in net in place of freshman Scott Darling, who started the previous four games. Darling was serving a game suspension for a team rule violation.
“We have two goalies that are ready to go whenever we need them,” Carriere said. “The team has full faith in [Wilson], and I think he showed a lot of people what he can do tonight.”
Four minutes after the Merrimack goal, O’Neill put a wrister on net from the blue line that got through just under the crossbar. Freshman forward Spencer Abbott was credited with his third assist, setting up O’Neill.
O’Neill described netting his first collegiate goal as “a good feeling.”
“Spencer made a great play up the wall to me, and I just took a little wrist shot on net and got fortunate with screens in front of the net,” O’Neill said.
Carriere’s game-winner came midway through the first period, when sophomore defenseman Josh Van Dyk advanced the puck up the ice to senior center Jeff Marshall who fired a slapshot from the right faceoff circle. Marshall’s shot rebounded off Braithwaite’s pad, and Carriere was able to convert low to the short side.
“I was really happy for [Carriere],” said UMaine coach Tim Whitehead. “He’s played so well for us, and it’s great to see it show up on the score sheet too, because everyone on our team knows how well he’s been playing, but it’s great to see him get a big goal-a game winner.”
Merrimack came out of the second intermission with a sense of urgency, limiting the Black Bears to two shots in the second period. The Warriors had several scoring opportunities, particularly on a five-minute power play spanning the final minutes of the second period and the start of the third. The Black Bears’ penalty-kill unit, which has allowed just four power-play goals on the season, killed off all four Merrimack power plays. UMaine was 0-for-6 with the man advantage.
“Any time you’ve got a five-minute major, and the other team scores, it doesn’t take down the penalty. So it was definitely a momentum booster for us to kill it off and keep them shut out during that five minutes,” Carriere said.
In a desperate final minute, Merrimack pulled Braithwaite for a sixth skater and had three legitimate opportunities to send the game to overtime, but Wilson was up to the task. After the early goal, Wilson stopped all 19 shots he faced and improved to 2-2-0, while Braithwaite made 21 saves in the loss and falls to 2-5-0.
“Any time you’re down 1-0 right off the bat like that, it’s definitely hard mentally,” Carriere said. “But we knew it’s a long game, 60 minutes. So we knew that we had a lot of time to battle back, and just decided to work hard throughout the game.”
The teams showcased their talented freshmen goalies in the second game, as Darling got his seventh start and Joe Cannata countered for Merrimack. Darling and Cannata trained together during the off-season under former Boston Bruins goaltending coach Brian Daccord.
After a scoreless opening period, Merrimack broke through 14:07 into the second, when a puck misplayed behind the net by Darling rebounded off the boards to right wing Francois Ouimet in front, who buried the puck to Darling’s right while he was sliding into position.
“I was trying to throw it around the boards, get a good angle, go behind the net all the way around the boards, but I kind of just whiffed on it and just deflected it so it went right back out in front,” Darling described.
Merrimack held the Black Bears to eight shots through the first two periods, but could not build on the 1-0 lead. After being held scoreless for 54:14, the Black Bears tied the game when O’Neill sent a wrister from almost the same spot he scored from the previous night, but this time the shot to the left of the goal redirected off Orsini, who was positioned at the near post, and slid in between Cannata’s pads.
“Will [O'Neill] was able to just get a quick shot past his guy, and I just put my stick out, because I think it was going maybe a little wide, and I was able to squeeze it through his five hole,” Orsini said.
The Montreal native’s goal sent the game into overtime, where each goaltender was challenged multiple times but neither relented. UMaine’s best chance in the extra frame came on a slapshot from the blue line by senior defenseman Simon Danis-Pepin that rattled off the post.
Merrimack killed off a 5-on-3 power play early in the first period, but both teams went 0-for-4 for the game on power-play opportunites. Darling made 23 saves and is 5-1-1 on the season. Cannata stopped 16 shots and earned his third tie for a 1-1-3 record.
“We’re obviously disappointed that we didn’t complete the comeback and get two points,” Whitehead said, “but having said that, when you get three out of four points off at team playing as well as Merrimack, we’re pleased to get three out of four.”
The Black Bears return home Dec. 12-13 to host Union College.
