Hoskin makes his presence felt in his return to the Warriors' lineup
Merrimack 5, Vermont 4 (SO)
NORTH ANDOVER — Trevor Hoskin doesn’t spend much time out of the lineup. Before the past two weekends, injuries had cost him only a handful of games — a single contest earlier this season and one last year while he was at Niagara. This stretch was different.
Hoskin missed the Warriors’ last two weekends with a lower-body injury, including games against Boston College and a road trip to Maine. When he returned Friday night, he wasted little time reminding everyone what Merrimack had been missing. By Saturday, he was front and center, scoring twice — also adding a tally in the shootout — to lift the Warriors to a 5–4 shootout win over Vermont at Lawler Arena.
“It’s good to be back,” Hoskin said. “You get to a point where you just want to be out there so bad.”
The weekend capped a turbulent few weeks for Hoskin. Two weeks ago, a doctor suggested surgery might be necessary, prompting involvement from the Calgary Flames, who selected Hoskin in the fourth round of the NHL Draft.
“After I was told ‘maybe surgery,’ I talked with the Flames and I went out to Calgary,” Hoskin said. “It was good just to have them look at it. They didn’t think I needed surgery, which was the best news for me, and I can probably just rehab it.”
Any lingering concerns disappeared quickly during a two-goal Saturday night.
“I’m just really happy to be back, especially with playoffs coming,” Hoskin said.
With his pair of goals, Hoskin reached the 10-goal mark, giving Merrimack five players with at least 10 goals this season. It’s the most by the program since 2010–11, when seven different Warriors hit double figures.
“He had a little extra jump,” Merrimack coach Scott Borek said. “When you skate like he does and can shoot the puck like he does, good things happen. He was explosive all weekend. Sometimes when you’re forced to sit out like he was, you come back a little hungrier. You also get a little refreshed. He was excellent.”
Warriors win the shootout
After overtime ended deadlocked, Merrimack went to a shootout for the second time this season — and this time, the result flipped. The Warriors had fallen to UNH in a shootout last month, but on Saturday they secured the extra Hockey East point with goals from Hoskin and Parker Lalonde. Max Lundgren stopped two of the three shooters he faced.
“We don’t really practice shootouts, but the guys do one every Thursday in practice,” Borek said. “It’s more for them. They get competitive. Our guys go out and want to win that shootout on Thursdays, which helps in situations like we had in this game.”
Notebook: Warriors’ magic number for home ice down to one point
— The Warriors finished the weekend with 31 points in the Hockey East standings, sitting alone in eighth place and one point behind Northeastern for seventh.
Merrimack can clinch a home game in the first round of the Hockey East playoffs with just one point Thursday against UMass Lowell. Essentially, the Warriors lock up at least eighth place — the final home-ice spot — with either one point earned or one point lost by UNH over its final two games.
The only scenario that sends Merrimack on the road is a regulation loss to UMass Lowell on Thursday night combined with UNH regulation wins over both UConn and UMass next weekend.
— The Warriors improved to 16-15-2 overall. Dating back to the 2021–22 season, Merrimack has now won at least 13 games in each of the past five seasons — the first time the program has accomplished that feat in 30 years (1990–95).
Friday night’s win gave the Warriors 84 victories over the last five seasons, the most in any five-year stretch during the Hockey East era, surpassing the previous mark of 83 wins set from 2008–13.