The Eagles came flying out of the gates on Friday. Twenty two seconds into the game, Brock Bradford swooped into the zone all alone to beat Merrimack netminder Joe Cannata early on the blocker side for an unassisted goal.
On the power play, the Eagles were swinging their bats at the rebounds and Brian Gibbons managed to put one deep in the back of the net off of an initial shot by Barry Almeida. All of this happened in the first five minutes and the score was 2-0.
Some swift passing on the power play set Merrimack’s Karl Stollery up above the left circle for a one time shot and he sent the puck into the back of the net for a goal at 5:49.
Fancy footwork and determination got Warriors forward John Jamieson in a 1-on-1 with the goalie and he hit the back of the net for his first collegiate goal. This evened the score off at two with three minutes left in the 1st period.
“It was nice to get the goal at home and get the point against BC,” said Jamieson.
Twelve seconds onto the power play the Eagles cycled the puck around once. Brock Bradford did a spin move with the puck and Ben Smith put it in for another power-play goal at 18:45.
It was his night: at 9:25 in the second, Brock Bradford found the open air in the back of the net to send the puck in for yet another power-play goal.
There was a tough play in front of the net, but John Jamieson managed to finagle the puck past John Muse for the second time tonight to make the score 4-3 in the second period.
With one minute to play in the period Brock Bradford put one past Joe Cannata from the top of the right circle. This was his third goal of the night, his first career hat trick.
“I felt like I was shooting the puck pretty well,” Bradford understated. “We can’t let a point in a game like this slip away, but we have a big game tomorrow against UNH so we have to put this behind us.”
Joe Cucci and Francois Ouimet ran a give and go on the way into the zone. Cucci went and zipped one past John Muse to make the score 5-to-4. The power outage delayed the game for 10 minutes, but when play resumed Merrimack took control.
Merrimack went on the power play after BC goaltender John Muse got called for interference. Chris Barton scored a power-play goal right in front of the net with help from Karl Stollery. The game was then tied.
The game went to overtime, but the score remained the same.
“What I am learning about this team is that they are not satisfied,” coach Mark Dennehy said. “Going into the third period down by two goals against the defending national champions it is hard to come back, but we clawed our way back into it.”
“We’ve seen Merrimack three times in the last two weeks. They are a very improved team. It was a bit of a disappointment tonight,” BC coach Jerry York opined. “We had a five to three lead and we gave up two goals in the third period. We drew a penalty late in the game and another one in overtime. We have to capitalize on our opportunities. Merrimack is a better team overall and they will surprise some teams throughout the league.”
Boston College’s next game is tomorrow vs. UNH. Merrimack will travel to Vermont on Nov. 16.
