Merrimack opens the second half with a 5-2 win over Army
Merrimack opened the second half of the season with a 5-2 win over Army on Friday night at Tate Rink in West Point. The Warriors scored four unanswered goals to close the game and outshot the Black Knights 50-23. This was the first time the Warriors had totaled 50 shots in a game in nearly three years.
“At the start of the season, we couldn’t get pucks to the net, but we’ve been doing a better job of it lately,” said Merrimack coach Scott Borek. “We earned some space tonight, we played hard and we had the puck a lot.
“I think earlier in the year, we just had a young group. They needed to get more confident playing with the puck and we’ve been able to grow that confidence. We’re moving our feet more on the attack and moving to get above the puck and in good defensive positions, which means we’re turning over the other team. It’s been a total growth in our details.”
Junior defenseman Zach Bookman had three points for the Warriors (1g-2a), and Ty Daneault scored for the Warriors, finding the back of the net for a second straight game.
“When you had a big freshman year like Ty had, I think you see this a lot, it can be hard out of the gate as a sophomore,” Borek said. “You can get away from your details and, not intentionally, but you see players try to be too fine instead of just playing downhill. We’ve had him with Caelan Fitzpatrick and Harrison Roy, which has allowed Ty to play more downhill and more aggressively physically, and it’s showing in his game. He could have had a couple more, too.”
Max Lundgren made 21 saves for the Warriors, including a big glove stop in the third period when the Warriors led 4-2.
“That’s the ‘when’ save we talk about,” Borek said. “We had a few times that we turned it over in tough areas, which made it hard for Max, but he made big saves. That save in the third, he hadn’t seen a lot of pucks and he came up huge for us there.”
The Warriors travel back to North Andover tonight and will face Dartmouth at Lawler Arena on Sunday afternoon.
