Brar earns Iron Man status in Thursday's game at Providence

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Ben Brar's time at Merrimack is winding down. With two games left in the regular season, even with a deep playoff run, Merrimack is almost in his rearview mirror.

But when that time comes, he'll be able to look back on one heck of a legacy. Merrimack will remember him as one of the key pieces that helped change the momentum of a program spinning its tires.

In last night's 4-2 loss at Providence, Brar set a new program record for games played when he hit the ice for the 152nd time wearing a Merrimack uniform.

"I said something before the game and he hates that stuff," Merrimack coach Scott Borek said. "But it's impressive. It means a lot. Not only has he been loyal to Merrimack, but he's been available to play in all of those games. Almost every night he's out there, and he's not always 100 percent. He plays through a lot of stuff. He plays every game, and he plays every game the same way: hard, thorough, and simple."

Brar's never been about numbers. When individual numbers are brought up in interviews, he immediately credits his teammates.

You can do that with goals. But there's no deflecting Iron Man status. Maybe credit the trainers?

You can't sum up Brar's importance with just statistics. It's not that he hasn't put up plenty of numbers — he has 82 career points after an assist on Mark Hillier's goal Thursday — it's more that Brar's arrival at Merrimack was pivotal in Scott Borek's move to push the program forward.

There was just something about him.

"It's hard to pinpoint exactly what it was," Borek said. "There's just certain guys that you watch, and you know that they're a winner. There are a lot of great players out there. But Benny is a guy who you win with."

Brar committed to Merrimack during Borek's first season. The Warriors went 7-24-3 that year. Brar's freshman season (2019-20) wasn't much better. The Warriors went 9-22-3, but did so with several freshmen in the lineup. There was some promise for the future.

The Abbotsford, B.C. native had a nice freshman season, but it wasn't remarkable. Brar had 10 points (5 goals, 5 assists) and was outscored by defensemen Declan Carlile, Zach Uens, and forward Regan Kimens.

But it wasn't about the numbers then, and it's not about the numbers now. Borek knew that Brar would be critical to changing Merrimack's mindset.

Borek knew that for a while.

Merrimack was Borek's third crack at recruiting him.

When Borek was an assistant at UNH he tried to recruit Brar in 2015. He ended up at Denver. A few years later, Brar's recruitment re-opened, and Borek was at Providence. He tried again, but Michigan Tech was able to land him.

When Borek got to Merrimack and found out Brar was back on the market, he was among the first players he recruited. And the third time was the charm.

Brar headlines what I'll call Merrimack's "Big Four." Out of that 16-player class in 2019, only four played all five seasons: Brar, Mac Welsher, Liam Dennison, and Filip Forsmark.

"They're all unbelievable humans," Borek said. "Those guys give you everything every night. They've been a huge part of our growth. They have set a new standard now. The bar is raised. This year hasn't gone the way we've wanted it to, but their freshman year this would have been considered a big success. They've changed our standard. They're a reason we need to be better."

To this point, Brar's final season with the Warriors hasn't gone the way anyone expected. The Warriors are 10th in Hockey East, and he has five goals this season. If you subscribe to analytics (I do), he has 13 "expected goals," which points to bad luck more than anything else.

Besides, the only number he cares about is the one in the "win" column.

Merrimack has the Friars back at Lawler Arena on Friday night and then face BC in the regular-season finale next week. Once the slate is wiped clean in the playoffs, they're only two wins away from another trip to TD Garden, thanks to Hockey East's new playoff structure.

It's a ways off, but as a two-time captain and Merrimack's new Iron Man, Brar should be a future Merrimack Hall of Famer. For what he's mean to the program, he'd have my vote

Warriors drop first game of the series

The Warriors fell to the Friars 4-2 on Thursday night. Ty Daneault and Mark Hillier scored for the Warriors.

"Without the puck, I thought our game was strong today," Borek said. "We put ourselves in some good positions and unfortunately made a couple of soft plays and ended up in our net. We have to play better [Friday]."

Daneault scored early in the second period to tie the game 1-1 after the Friars took a 1-0 lead into the first intermission. But just over a minute later, Chase Yoder scored to give the Friars back the lead.

Trailing 3-1 after Providence scored a power-play goal in the third period, the Warriors made it a 3-2 game on Hillier's extra-attacker goal with 48.2 seconds left, but the Friars tacked on a last-second empty-netter for the 4-2 victory.

The teams will wrap up the home-and-home series on Friday at Lawler Arena.

"I thought our play was really was good five-on-five," Borek said. "We didn't carry the play, but we didn't get beaten up either.

"We had some really good chances [on our first power play], but the second one was a waste, right? We didn't ever get possession and get pucks to the net."

Providence 4, Merrimack 2

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