The first penalty came 42 seconds into the game and the rest of the contest was tainted with infractions. Merrimack had a tough time executing on their power plays, while second ranked BU had little trouble capitalizing in a 4-1 win.
The first goal of the game was scored by the Terriers Jason Lawrence. BU managed some swift passing and set up Lawrence at the point with the man advantage. He put enough power behind the shot for it to sneak past the red line at 9:46.
Captain Matt Gilroy easily strode into the zone and sent the puck into the small open space above Joe Cannata’s right shoulder for a goal at 15:06. This goal made the score 2-0 in the Terriers’ favor.
Three minutes later, Cannata could not get enough the puck off of Andrew Glass’s shot to stop it from hitting the twine, making it 3-0 BU after one.
“I thought the game was a pretty good hockey game for a while,†Terriers coach Jack Parker said. “But certain things happened out there that made a mess of it. At the end of the game, I am glad that we got two points. I think certain players played well and our goaltender played extremely well.”
Ryan Flanigan was called for charging at 15:56 in the second and this set BU up with another chance.
On this power-play goal by BU there was just too much congestion in front of the net. The Terriers used all of the screens to their benefit and Jason Lawrence potted yet another goal making the score 4-0.
When Kevin Shattenkirk got called for a contact penalty and Eric Gryba for holding, Merrimack decided to call a timeout while on a 5-on-3 man advantage. They set up a play and capitalized on their power play chance. J.C. Robataille scored the first goal for Merrimack. Karl Stollery and Joe Cucci exchanged a few passes before Robataille found the back of the net for Merrimack’s lone extra attacker tally.
“The game was ugly and the game needs to take shape a certain way,†observed Merrimack head coach Mark Dennehy. “We were down after the power-play goal and they could go a lot deeper into their bench than we could. They are a good team and we have to be able to make plays when we have a man advantage.”
While BU readies itself for a clash with fierce cross-town rival Boston College, Merrimack is idle until next Thursday when they begin a home-and-home series with UMass-Lowell.
