BELFAST, Northern Ireland — After his team’s valiant 6-3 loss at Agganis Arena last Friday, Merrimack coach Scott Borek was asked if he was looking forward to a rematch with the Boston University men’s hockey team, one scheduled for exactly a week later in the first round of the Friendship Four.
“Not at all,” Borek said.
On Friday at SSE Arena in Belfast, No. 13 BU showed why.
Much like a week ago in Boston, the Terriers (7-5-1, 4-2-1 Hockey East) allowed the Warriors (3-8-1, 2-5-1 HE) to stick around. Yet in a fashion befitting of a team as vaunted as they are, BU didn’t let Merrimack get away with anything, scoring three first-period goals on its first five shots on net. It was enough to outlast its league rival, 6-2, and advance to Saturday’s final.
Borek’s comment came after freshman phenom Cole Eiserman and former Merrimack star Matt Copponi broke the Warriors’ hearts in a four-goal third period. In Northern Ireland, Merrimack was similarly impressive — only for sophomore defenders Aiden Celebrini and Gavin McCarthy and senior forward Tristan Amonte, three of BU’s least likely goal-scorers, to win the game for the Terriers.
“We understand,” Borek said then, “we’re playing one of the most talented rosters in the country.”
Two takeaways, plus how it happened, below.
BU was ruthless in the first period.
The Terriers finished the frame with just one more shot on goal than the Warriors, but left leading, 3-0. Merrimack wasn’t all that bad in the first — and BU wasn’t perfect — but the Terriers got four open looks at goalie Nils Walstrom’s net and buried three of them.
Furthermore — BU got its goals from two defenseman who had yet to score this season (one of them was short-handed, too) and a fourth-line center who’d only scored once.
That, if nothing else, looked like the deadly talented BU everyone thought they were getting before the season.
BU was imperfect and, at times, outplayed, but did what it needed to do to win.
The Terriers again committed frustrating turnovers in the first period, two of them on their own power play, leading to Grade-A chances for the Warriors. Those, plus another would-be tap-in that was whiffed by Merrimack, were blunders BU got away with, even in an impressive opening frame.
For most of the second period, however, BU was simply outplayed — in the first 12 minutes, the Terriers were outshot, 8-3. But senior netminder Mathieu Caron (32 saves) showed up when called upon, and BU’s penalty kill (which was needed six times) was mostly airtight, save for the Warriors’ opening goal.
And after Merrimack did break through, BU responded, dominating the rest of the period. Ditto for the third period — the Warriors cut the deficit to one only 21 seconds in, but the Terriers buckled the hatches the rest of the way to clinch a much-needed win.
How it happened:
Sophomore defenseman Aiden Celebrini scored his second career goal at 7:10 of the first to open the scoring — a one-timer from the circle off a back-handed pass from junior assistant captain Devin Kaplan. The puck slid through Walstrom’s five-hole.
Less than two minutes later, senior forward Tristan Amonte found himself wide open in the slot off a feed from freshman defenseman Cole Hutson, who used his patented coast-to-coast carry to bring BU into the offensive zone. Amonte corralled the puck and potted a wrister at 8:42.
Then, on a Merrimack power play at 15:07, sophomore defenseman Gavin McCarthy slotted a wrister on an odd-man rush to score BU’s third goal with just its fifth shot on net. Freshman forward Kamil Bednarik won a tie-up on the boards in the defensive zone and immediately sprang forward, receiving a pass from senior Matt Copponi. McCarthy ran the ice on the opposite wing and was wide open.
Merrimack controlled proceedings for most of the second and got a goal back on the power play at 13:57, when captain Antonio Venuto took advantage of a loose puck at the doorstep. BU woke up after conceding, but a few quality chances in the final five minutes came and went.
The Warriors cut the deficit to one 21 seconds into the final frame, when sophomore forward David Sacco fired one off the post on Caron’s glove side. His shot was uncontested from the slot.
But at 8:45, sophomore forward Quinn Hutson, returning from an injury suffered two weekends ago, tapped a rebound into an empty net to seal the win for BU. Amonte scored an empty-netter at 18:49, then sophomore captain Shane Lachance added an even-strength tally at 19:31.
This story will be updated.
