Merrimack Get's The Sweep

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Written By: Noah Cusack-Margolis
Merrimack gets the sweep


On Saturday night October 20th the Merrimack College men’s ice hockey program made history at Lawler Arena with a 4-0 shutout against Boston University. In the 118 matchups between the two team all-time meetings between the Warriors and Terriers, no Merrimack team has ever shutout the Terriers. Merrimack as well as BU are being coached by new coaches this season. (This season, Merrimack and BU are under direction from brand new coaching staff).  Merrimack is coached by Scott Borek who last worked at Providence as the assistant coach to Nate Leaman. Boston University’s head coach is not a new face in the locker room, but is new to the head coaching position. Albie O’Connell who is the new head coach of the Terriers was formerly David Quinn's assistant coach.

In net for the Warriors, was senior goaltender Craig Pantano who saved all 34 shots by the Terriers. Pantano gets his second shutout of the season both of which are the Warriors first two wins of the season. Pantano earned his second shutout of the season which also account for the Warriors two wins. The Warriors earned their first win of the season against Bentley University in Waltham Massachusetts posting 1 goal that led the Warriors to a 1-0 victory over the Falcons, being Pantano's first shutout of the 2018-19 season.

Not only did goaltending play a large factor in the 4-0 win, but the confidence on the power play really comes into play when talking about the outcome of Saturday night’s game. Following Saturday night’s game, I caught up with Merrimack head coach Scott Borek. " Whenever you score first particularly on the PP (Power Play) the bench gets up. In this case because it was our first Power play I (Coach Borek) thought it gave us some lift."

In the first period the warriors outshot the terriers 16 to 14 but in the end the terriers had 34 shots on goal while the warriors only had 28 shots on goal. “They’re an incredibly skilled team, but they’re [also] an incredibly young team.” (Albie O’Connell).

Playing at home was a confidence booster for the warriors. The arena was packed with loud energetic fans. The students and other Merrimack fans were chanting, the band was playing very loud and the hockey team fed off of that energy. “Lawler Rink is a great home atmosphere, possibly the best in the East. Playing at Home is a great experience for all of our players to feed off of and for Craig I would think it would be the same” (Scott Borek). 

Merrimack is now 2-3-0 overall and 1-0-0 in Hockey east. The warriors continue league play Friday night at the Mullins center to face the Umass Amherst Minutemen. Then they are back home Saturday night to host the Minutemen at Lawler arena for home coming in front of an expected sold out crowd.



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