Marcus Antonelli
The Merrimack Hockey boys went into the break on Cloud 9, ranking as high as 3rd in the country on the College Hockey Pairwise Rankings. But coming out of the break, the Boys seem to have hit a few bumps in the road. When you don’t drive for a little and winter hits; you tend to go over some potholes and black ice.
Since coming back from the break the Warriors are 1-2-1 (W-L-T) and they’ve allowed 17 goals in those 4 games alone. To recap, the first 2 games back were at the Ledyard Bank Classic up in Hanover, NH. MC had a hard fought OT win vs 61st ranked Dartmouth, then lost 6-1 to Providence on New Years Eve and went 1/7 on the power play.
Then the boys came back home to host 56th Yale where MC came back late to send the game to OT where it ended at a draw 3-3. A day after that 43rd Brown demolished us 6-1. Including Colgate, Clarkson and St. Lawrence, the Warriors are 3-3-1 vs ECAC teams this season.
So what are the Warriors making of these games? Coach Borek explained it in the best way possible. “Our response needs to be a positive one. We have been disappointed with the beginning of our second half for sure, but at the same time we are focused on making these games good stepping stones for the remainder of our year, It is a long season and prior success does not guarantee future success, I am confident in our room as we move forward.” Says Borek.
Providence has yet to visit Lawler Rink. The Friars are a big challenge for Merrimack, they have been so far this season as the season series is split 1-1. As MC won in their barn but the Friars got their revenge in Hanover. They’ll play twice more both in North Andover this weekend, the 13th and 14th.
Providence has some scary qualities for a hockey team: young, speedy and well coached. Forward Mark Hillier understands this too; “We know this weekend will be tough, we just need to make sure we do our part and trust each other,” Hillier tells, “I think having trust in one another is key to getting back to where we want to be as a group.”
When talking to defenseman Adam Arvedson he tells some encouraging news of the team in this week’s practice. “We talked about finding our way back to our humble mindset and our swagger game we had before the break,” Adam continues, “We started the week off with a great practice that saw good competitiveness and maturity which I think is really important.”
Arvedson would tell that the team’s mindset going into this week and the coming weekend is that the boys are set on securing dubs and they want to do it together. It’s always great to hear how close the team is with each other. Mark your calendars Warriors! The spring semester is upon us, let’s pop out a little early to support our boys! Get Lawler Loud!
