By Sarah Moomaw, News Staff
The men’s hockey team dropped their first home decision of the season, 5-2, to Merrimack College in the Game 1 of the weekend’s home-and-home series tonight at Matthews Arena.
Head coach Jim Madigan gave senior goalie Bryan Mountain the nod in goal for the second consecutive game, but it was Northeastern’s time in the penalty box that effected the outcome, he said.
“They played with a lot more intelligence and discipline than we were tonight,” Madigan said. “I wasn’t pleased with how we handled situations during the game, especially in the second and third period with our penalties … it cost us. We need to make sure that our older guys in our locker room take ownership on discipline and make sure we are playing intelligent at all times.”
Time in the box wasn’t limited to just the Huskies as both benches combined for 53 minutes from a Merrimack 10-minute game misconduct, a Northeastern five-minute major and 14 two-minute penalties.
The game opened scoreless through the first 11 minutes. Freshman defender Colton Saucerman cleared a puck from Warrior junior forward Mike Collins on a breakaway, preventing a point-blank shot on Mountain.
At 8:44, junior defender Jordan Heywood broke the game open with a shot from inside the left circle that beat Mountain for a 1-0 lead. Ten minutes later, sophomore forward Ludwig Karlsson tied the game on the power play with his first goal of the season.
The score wouldn’t hold as Heywood responded with his second goal of the game, but from the right side of the ice, bouncing in behind the keeper’s pads.
Northeastern took the shot advantage in the second period despite no goal change. The Huskies’ nine shots on goal brought their total to 18, matching the Warriors chance-for-chance at the second buzzer.
Braden Pimm took a five-minute major at 19:43 of the second period after a hard hit along the right side boards and was sent to the locker room.
The third period opened with the Huskies down a goal and two skaters. With one second left on Merrimack’s 5-on-3 man advantage, senior defender Kyle Bigos connected for his first tally of the season, increasing the goal deficit to two.
The Warriors picked up their second power play goal of the night at 10:15 when sophomore defender Brendan Ellis unleashed a wrister from just inside the blue line at center ice for his first goal of the season and a 4-1 lead.
Freshman forward Kevin Roy put senior forward Vinny Saponari’s pass over the head of junior goalie Sam Marotta for this third goal of the season.
With 1:14 left on the clock, the Warriors added an empty netter off the stick of sophomore defender Dan Kolomatis to set the final, 5-2.
The two sides will travel to Merrimack’s home ice tomorrow night to finish the season series. Puck drop is set for 7 p.m. in North Andover.
