NORTH ANDOVER — Merrimack will welcome the No. 10-ranked team in the Pairwise and the defending national champions, Massachusetts, to Lawler Arena tonight for a 7 p.m. puck drop. The game will be streamed on College Sports Live.

UMass won a pair of one-goal games against the Warriors earlier this season. Colin Felix scored with four seconds left to give the Minutemen a 2-1 in regulation and the following night the Minutemen won an overtime game at the Mullins Center.

Zachary Borgiel will return to the lineup for the Warriors and he’s expected to start tonight’s game. Borgiel was in the COVID-19 protocol. He’ll make his first start since a 2-0 shutout win over Maine last month. Hugo Ollas started the last two games for the Warriors and he’s expected to backup Borgiel tonight with Troy Kobryn.

Defenseman Christian Felton will be out of the lineup; he broke his thumb, according to Merrimack head coach Scott Borek.

Hugo Esselin gets a chance to crack into the top-six forward rotation tonight. He’ll skate alongside Steven Jandric and Max Newton. Esselin will be making his third appearance of the season; he last played on Nov. 12 at Maine.

TV Stream: College Sports Live
Officials: Geoffrey Miller (R), Jim Curin (R)

Merrimack’s Lines

Forwards (13)

Ben Brar — Logan Drevitch — Alex Jefferies
Steven Jandric — Max Newton — Hugo Esselin
Filip Forsmark — Liam Walsh — Filip Karlsson-Tagtstrom
Mick Messner — Mac Welsher — Jake Durflinger
Devlin O’Brien

Defensemen (6)

Zach Uens — Zach Vinnell
Mike Brown — Declan Carlile
Liam Dennison — Ivan Zivlak

Goaltenders (3)

Zachary Borgiel
Hugo Ollas
Troy Kobryn

Scratches: Adam Arvedson (D), Christian Felton (D), Kevin Sadovski (D), Matt Copponi (F), Mark Hillier (F), Regan Kimens (F), Ryan Nolan (F), Jordan Seyfert (F)