Merrimack salvages weekend split with 4-1 win over UMass

Ed. Note — Due to travel, coverage on Saturday (1/13) for men's basketball and men's hockey was limited (and late). I was in Buffalo this past weekend and traveled Saturday night to beat the major winter storm hitting the area. Our coverage will resume, as usual, this week.

The Merrimack Warriors Men's Hockey team rode a strong second period to pull away against the University of Massachusetts Minutemen by a score of 4-1 in front of a sold out Lawler Arena crowd on Saturday night.

After a scoreless opening 20 minutes, the Warriors would score quickly in the second as Ty Daneault would score his eighth of the season just 65 seconds in. Merrimack would double the lead after Liam Dennison forced a turnover and he would find Mark Hillier who would score his fourth goal of the year three minutes later.
 
After UMass would score on a point shot at 8:14 of the frame, Alex Jefferies would steal the puck in his own zone and would take the puck end to end and he would ring one for the Warriors third goal of the period that would stand after a review.

In the final period, the Warriors would place the finishing touches on the win after Matt Copponi would score two minutes into the third after some slick passing from Ivan Zivlak and Filip Forsmark.