McDonough plays Merrimack killer again
The following story will appear in Sunday’s edition of The Eagle Tribune
BOSTON — Unless the teams meet in the playoffs, Merrimack has seen the last of Northeastern forward Aidan McDonough.
That has to be good news. I’d imagine the Warriors will be happy if they never see him again.
The Northeastern senior scored the game-winning goal with just 1:32 left in the game on Saturday night, propelling the Huskies to a 1-0 win at Matthews Arena. McDonough’s goal — his 17th of the season — was almost an exact replica of the goal he scored on the final night of the regular season last March, when he took a feed from behind the goal line for a quick one-timer in the slot. That goal gave the Huskies the Hockey East regular-season championship. This weekend, the Huskies knocked the Warriors out of first place in Hockey East with a weekend sweep, capped off by McDonough’s goal.
But aside from that one goal, Merrimack provided plenty of pushback following the Warriors’ 5-1 loss to Northeastern on Friday night.
Almost every other statistical category aside from goals was advantage Merrimack.
“I thought we played well,” said Merrimack coach Scott Borek. “We had some great chances, we just didn’t get it done.”
Merrimack outshot Northeastern 37-24. By my count (it’s an unofficial stat) the Warriors also had more scoring chances at 5-on-5 as well as on the power play.
Entering the game the Warriors almost completely revamped their forward lineup. The only line that stayed together was Will Calverley’s line; he centered Ben Brar and Filip Forsmark.
“We haven’t done much offensively - not that we did today,” Borek said. “We didn’t think we were creating enough chances so I just felt that maybe our lines got a little stale. We wanted to try some guys with new linemates and see if they could make things happen.”
In addition, the Warriors moved Matt Copponi to the right wing. Copponi had played center most of this season.
“We wanted to get the defensive pressure of playing center off of him and let him use his legs more and I thought his line played well,” Borek said.
Merrimack’s staff made a similar move early in the season with Mac Welsher. Primarily a center through his first three seasons, he was moved to the wing this season and it has sparked him offensively; he’s on pace to set career highs in goals as well as points.
Welsher actually went down early in Saturday’s game. Mick Messner was dressed as the extra forward and he played almost the entire game on a line with Ryan Leibold and Copponi.
“It’s tough when he has to sit a few shifts like that and then come right off the bench and play,” Borek said. “It’s impressive because Mick has done that a few times for us. Every time he has been in that situation he has come out and performed really well. It’s a credit to him.”
Saturday’s game is the start of a five-game road trip for the Warriors. Merrimack is at Vermont twice next weekend. Then the Warriors will travel to UNH on Feb. 3 and Maine on Feb. 5 before a bye week. The Warriors won’t play again at home until Feb. 17 against Boston University.
“I’m not happy with the schedule at all,” Borek said. “No team should be getting into this part of the schedule and playing five games in a row. Especially with travel to Vermont and Maine. I’m frustrated with the league that it happened. But that’s our schedule and we’re going to play it. We’re going to go grind and try to get W’s. That’s what we were presented with so we’ll do it, but I find it to be disrespectful to Merrimack, personally.”