Warriors get swept by Maine; penalties prove costly in series finale
Maine 5, Merrimack 2
The Warriors dropped their third straight game Saturday night at Alfond Arena, falling to the Black Bears, 5–2.
Maine scored three power-play goals in the game, the difference on a night when special teams tilted the ice.
“Penalties,” Merrimack coach Scott Borek said. “We played well in the first period, but we lost momentum with penalties.”
The Warriors did play well early. Merrimack struck first when Caelan Fitzpatrick opened the scoring, and despite Maine tying the game on Josh Nadeau’s first-period goal, the Warriors carried a 2–1 lead into the intermission after Michael Emerson answered back.
But the game unraveled quickly in the second period.
Merrimack began the period shorthanded after Joseph Henneberry was called for holding at the 20-minute mark of the first. Maine wasted little time capitalizing, as Miguel Marques scored on the power play to knot the game.
After Owen Fowler gave the Black Bears the lead, the Warriors took back-to-back penalties, and Maine made them pay again. On its second opportunity, Nadeau scored his second of the night, pushing the margin to 4–2.
Any chance of a late push evaporated in the third period. With Merrimack trailing by two and just over five minutes remaining, Nick Pierre was assessed a major penalty for cross-checking along with a game misconduct, forcing the Warriors to kill penalties for the remainder of the night.
“Not great timing there,” Borek said. “It impacted our ability to pull the goalie and play with the extra attacker on the ice. It was unfortunate.”
The opening 20 minutes had been one of Merrimack’s sharper periods in recent weeks. The Warriors outshot Maine 13–5 in the first and controlled much of the play while holding a 2–1 lead.
“It was one of the best periods we’ve had in a while,” Borek said. “Especially a first period. But we couldn’t finish it off.
“[Penalties] had a lot to do with it. I don’t think they made a big adjustment, we just went from playing 5-on-5 to playing down a man a lot in that period.”
Notebook
— The Warriors ended the weekend in eighth place in Hockey East, holding the final home-ice spot for the opening round of the conference tournament. Merrimack will host Vermont (11th) next weekend for a two-game series before closing the regular season at home against UMass Lowell (9th) the following week.
— Justin Gill’s seven-game goal streak and 12-game point streak came to an end.