Merrimack closes the first half with a win over Northeastern

NORTH ANDOVER — Harrison Roy, Ty Daneault, Ethan Bono, and Seamus Powell scored for the Merrimack men’s hockey team in a 4-1 win over Northeastern on Saturday night at Lawler Arena. Max Lundgren stopped 26 shots as the Warriors closed out the first-half schedule with a victory.

Here is everything you need to know from Merrimack’s win over Anchorage, with TMR insight and analysis:

Storylines

Roy finds the net for his first as a Warrior, Daneault scores first since opening night

Grad transfer Harrison Roy scored his first goal as a Warrior in the third period, taking a feed from Ty Daneault to give the Warriors a 3-1 lead with seven minutes left in the game.

“It felt great,” Roy said. “It was a long time coming. More importantly, it helped us win a game. That felt huge. Fortunately, I was able to make an impact, but what’s most important is we got the win, and hopefully that gives us some momentum.”

Roy had 24 points (8 goals, 16 assists) in 38 games for Lake Superior last season.

“We’ve had some lows in the first half but what’s stuck out to me is how close this group is,” Roy said. “We’re gonna stick together here no matter what. It’s not easy, some of the stuff we went through in the first half. And things not going our way is the responsibility of the players, myself included. We haven’t played according to our standard every night. Tonight, you got a good glimpse of what we can do when we play to our standard. We need to keep doing that, and we’ll have success.”

Roy’s linemate, Ty Daneault, scored his first goal since opening night against Stonehill.

“It was a great feed by Seamus [Powell],” he said. “I finally caught some wood on one and found the back of the net.

“[The goals] been a long time coming for a lot of guys, and finally tonight two of us found the net. Hopefully, that sparks us for the second half.”

Warriors hope to have Borek back soon

Merrimack head coach Scott Borek has been away from the team since last week, battling an illness. The hope is that Borek can rejoin the team when they resume play next month.

“Scott’s presence, not just as a head coach but as a human, is immense,” said associate head coach Dan Jewell. “We miss having him here on a day-to-day basis, but his presence in the locker room oozes through every guy. It’s one of the best things about working for Scott — and he would hate me saying that I work for him, he says we work with him, which tells you a lot about him — but one of the best things about working with Scott is his personality. His values, his relationships, they emanate through our locker room. He’s an elite leader because of that.”

Merrimack learns how to win

The Warriors’ bench exploded late in the game when David Sacco blocked a shot in the final minute.

Genuinely, it was one of the most emotional explosions we’ve seen on the Merrimack bench this season.

“Our buy-in on that last shift was great,” Jewell said. “The detail within our structure and selling out to block shots as a group. We could have been better in the offensive zone, and maybe we were a little tight at times, but that’s a younger team learning how to win.”

The Warriors blocked 14 shots on the night.

“We managed that final few minutes well,” Jewell said.

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Instant Analysis: Taking a look at the league standings

— Despite a sluggish 5-10-1 start through the first half, the Warriors have put themselves in a decent position within the league standings. With the win on Saturday, the Warriors are 8th in Hockey East in total points and points percentage. The only team that has games in hand on them is UNH, and the Wildcats (at least for now) have a worse points percentage.