Warriors battle back from early deficit to salvage a point against New Hampshire

UNH 3, Merrimack 3 (UNH wins shootout)

Photo: Tyler McMahon/TMR

DURHAM, N.H. — After falling behind by two goals early in the first period, the Warriors clawed their way back to force overtime in a 3-3 tie against New Hampshire on Saturday night at the Whittemore Center. The Wildcats earned the extra league point by winning the shootout.

The Warriors were chasing the game almost immediately, allowing two goals in the first 3:45.

“We needed a better start. We didn’t shoot enough pucks,” Merrimack coach Scott Borek said. “I was glad to see we had a push in the third, but we were a little too cute with the puck. ... I think we were gripping the stick because we were chasing the game.”

The first period ended with the Wildcats ahead 2-1 after Justin Gill scored his 10th goal of the season midway through the frame. New Hampshire controlled much of the second period, but the Warriors stayed within striking distance and eventually tied the game with just under nine minutes remaining.

Ryan O’Connell scored the tying goal at the 11:06 mark of the third period, but the sequence began moments earlier with a game-saving play by defenseman Matthew Campbell. With the Wildcats pressing and Max Lundgren scrambling to cover the left post, Campbell dove from the hashmarks and kept the puck out of an open net.

“They do a good job of getting pucks off their sticks at the top, and Matty made a huge play there,” Borek said. “Then, at least to me, it’s no surprise who got the tying goal, right? [O’Connell] had a huge block earlier in the game. He couldn’t even move. But he comes back and just keeps playing, keeps working, and that’s how you get back in a hockey game. Your workers get you back in it. [O’Connell] did that for us.”

Two minutes later, Parker Lalonde cut to the middle and scored a highlight-reel goal, snapping a blistering shot under the crossbar to give the Warriors their first lead of the night.

That lead lasted until just over a minute remained, when the Wildcats tied the game on a familiar look. The play mirrored Friday night’s sequence, when Caden Cranston broke up a second-chance opportunity for Nick Ring at the back post. This time, Ring was able to convert.

“They tried the same play last night and [Cranston] got a stick on it to break it up,” Borek said. “It was the same play with the same kid. The difference this time is we laid down to block a lot of shots, and when you lose your feet, it’s hard to get back to the back pipe. I had no problem with how we worked in that final minute. The guys worked their tails off. We just lost our feet and couldn’t recover before the rebound.”

The Warriors generated several quality chances in overtime. Seamus Powell split the defense for Merrimack’s best opportunity with 1:10 left in the extra period. Then, in the final seconds, a centering feed deflected off a New Hampshire stick, floated over goalie Kyle Chauvette, and struck the crossbar.

“I thought we created some good chances in the overtime,” Borek said. “We attacked, we didn’t sit back. We defended well. They only had one chance, and I thought we had some really good chances.”

After surrendering two early goals, Lundgren settled in and finished with 31 saves.

Stonehill on deck for banged-up Warriors

The Warriors will practice on Monday before traveling for Tuesday’s road game against Stonehill at Warrior Ice Arena in Boston. Cranston left Saturday’s game with an injury, while Nathan King missed the contest due to injury, according to Borek.

“We’ll practice Monday,” Borek said. “We don’t have a lot of healthy bodies now. We lost [Caden Cranston] tonight, so we only have one extra healthy body. We’ll go light on Monday, get our spirit back up, and go play Tuesday.”

Notebook

• Nick Pierre (Soph.) and Gill (Frosh.) both now have 10 goals for the Warriors. This is the first time Merrimack has had two underclassmen score 10 or more goals since it had three in the 2014-15 season. Freshmen Brett Seney (11) and Jace Hennig (14), along with sophomore Hampus Gustafsson (11) were the three players.

• This was Merrimack’s first shootout since a shootout win over UNH on Oct. 18, 2024.

New Hampshire 3, Merrimack 3 (OT)
at Whittemore Center (UNH wins shootout 1-0)
Merrimack     (13-12-1):     1-0-2-0--3
New Hampshire (11-13-1):     2-0-1-0--3
First Period
1. UNH Kristaps Skrastins 2 (Ryan Philbrock, Connor DeTurris), ev, 3:04
2. UNH Marty Lavins 2 (Mordan Winters, Cy LeClerc), ev, 3:45
3. MC Justin Gill 10 (Filip Nordberg), ev, 11:03
Second Period
None
Third Period
4. MC Ryan O'Connell 2 (Daniel Astapovich, Joey Henneberry), ev, 11:06
5. MC Parker Lalonde 9 (Caelan Fitzpatrick, Matthew Campbell), ev, 13:47
6. UNH Nick Ring 6 (Kristaps Skrastins, Conner de Haro), ea, 18:43
Shots: MC 10-5-12-3--30; UNH 8-12-10-4--34
Saves: MC Lundgren (65:00) 31/34; UNH Chauvette (64:29) 27/30
Power Play: MC 0 for 2; UNH 0 for 3
Penalties: MC 4-8:00; UNH 3-6:00