Sports Writers – Patrick Casey/Marcus Antonelli
Photo by Lauren Hearn
NORTH ANDOVER, Ma – In October, Coach Borek and his Merrimack team were getting rocks while they trick-or-treated through their schedule in October.
Even seeping into November, The Warriors headed into Friday night coming off a weekend where they had been swept up in Orono against the Maine Black Bears.
Their opponent, UConn on the other hand, split with Vermont prior to this game and were off to a decent start to this season. If Merrimack wanted a turnaround to begin, they’d have to do it against a hard-nosed Husky team.
THE RECAP
It was a great start for the Warriors as they generated a ton of chances. But as time went on it felt like UConn started to find their game and generated a few opportunities of their own. After a very tightly checked period, the two teams would go into the first intermission tied 0-0.
Merrimack had a pep in their step to start the second when the captain, Antonio Venuto, buried one a minute into the frame, making it 1-0.
After that the story was pretty much the same as the first, both teams really committed to defense, until MC went to the box… UConn went to the power-play and zipped the puck around the zone. Defenseman Trey Scott fired the zipped puck under the armpit of Warrior netminder Max Lundgren and we were tied at 1 for the remainder of the period.
In the third, Merrimack suddenly took off. A miscued pass that missed Husky defenseman Viking Gustafsson Nyberg trickled into the neutral zone. David Sacco took advantage of his speed and won a race to the loose puck. He walked in alone and made it 2-1 Warriors not even 3 minutes into the third.
“SB has been on us about, weak-side winger–if you see one rim to your side, you gotta be the first one to the puck,” said David Sacco, “I just kind of saw the puck jump. And luckily enough, the defenseman who was going for it kind of stumbled for a second.”
Ethan Bono got rewarded tonight as well. He found himself on the receiving end of a quick zone entry pass from Michael Emerson. With a flash of a move, he tucked it in on Tyler Muszelik to give Merrimack that 2-goal cushion. After checking the back of the net, he followed up with a celebration of passion.
“Bones has had a ton of chances—hasn’t seen one go in,” said teammate Sacco, “I was really happy for him. Obviously he’s a big, powerful kid, but he lets his skills show when he needs to and you guys saw that tonight.”
Merrimack finished with a 4-1 victory over UConn, a much needed victory behind some great transition goals and a good defensive showing in front of Max Lundgren, who stopped 34 shots in the victory.
“He was really good in there and the thing he did most was he was just on pucks,” said Coach Borek, “so it never looked hard. He got hit in the chest a lot which meant he was tracking pucks really well. When that happens, it gives your team a lot of confidence.”
The Warriors will trek down to Storrs where they’ll look to sweep the weekend at Toscano Ice Forum on Saturday Matinee at 3:30.
