CHESTNUT HILL, MA – In the first game of a home-and-home
series, the Merrimack College hockey team dropped a 4-1 decision to
second-ranked Boston College Thursday night at Conte Forum.
The Eagles controlled play early, getting the game’s first
four power plays, one of them a five-minute major, and the first 13
shots. Andrew Braithwaite (Kingston, Ontario)
stopped the first nine shots he faced, but two straight shots from
Jimmy Hayes in 1:46 midway through the first beat the junior
goaltender to give the hosts the 2-0 lead.
Merrimack responded at 18:13 as Pat Kimball (Framingham,
MA) took advantage of a miscue by BC goaltender John Muse
and fired it into the open net for the unassisted tally, his second
of the season.
Just 37 seconds later, the Eagles were handed a five-minute power
play off a Warrior boarding major and took advantage as Brock
Bradford tallied his fourth of the year at 19:30, one-timing a
Brian Gibbons pass past a sprawling Braithwaite.
After a scoreless second period with each team getting seven
shots, Boston College struck on a power-play as Brian Gibbons beat
Joe Cannata (Wakefield, MA), who replaced
Braithwaite after the first, for his fourth of the season at 3:06
of the third.
Braithwaite stopped 12 of the 15 shots he faced before giving way
to Cannata for the second period. In 40 minutes of action, Cannata
stopped 15 shots and has allowed just two goals, both on the power
play, in 165 minutes this season.
Muse turned aside 18 shots, including a point-blank stop on
Carter Madsen (Calgary, Alberta) late in the
third, to improve to 4-1 on the season.
As they did in Niagara and Canisius, the Warriors struggled to
stay five-on-five, as they took eight penalties, four in the first
including the major, compared with just three infractions against
the Eagles. BC was two-for-eight on the power play.
Merrimack (2-3-1, 0-2-0 HEA) returns home Friday when they host
the Eagles at 7 p.m. at Lawler Arena.