Fifteen years of futility for Merrimack nearly came to an end on Sunday afternoon, but a disallowed overtime goal forced the Warriors to settle for a 2-2 tie at Boston College’s Kelley Rink, a place Merrimack hasn’t won since 1997.<\/p>\n
Fourth-line winger Kyle Singleton poked a puck into an open net with 12.9 seconds remaining in overtime. Referee Scott Hansen, though, ruled that Rhett Bly knocked the puck out of the air with a high stick immediately before Singleton knocked it home. After extensive review of the play on instant replay, Hansen couldn’t find substantial enough evidence to overturn the call. <\/p>\n
“I didn’t see it,” admitted Merrimack coach Mark Dennehy. “[The puck] was definitely redirected. The video was inconclusive because it was out of the play, so they have to go with what was called on the ice.” <\/p>\n
Had the goal stood, that would have been icing on the cake as Merrimack was fortunate to get the game to overtime. The Warriors fell behind, 2-0, rallied to within a goal and then Connor Toomey scored his second goal of the game with 1:10 remaining in regulation and the goaltender pulled for the extra attacker. <\/p>\n
“That’s our third extra-attacker goal of the season,” said Dennehy. “You put your hottest six on the ice and say a little prayer.” <\/p>\n
Prayers answered, Merrimack avoided what could have been a lost weekend in the Hockey East standings. The Warriors lost, 4-2, to Boston University on Friday, so getting a point was not just fortunate, it was critical. <\/p>\n
“It’s always good when you come back and tie a game,” said Dennehy. “I thought we played pretty well, so if we hadn’t come away with a point it would’ve been an injustice.”<\/p>\n
As good as Merrimack can feel getting the tie, Boston College is equally frustrated given that the Eagles had ample opportunities to pad its lead in the second period.<\/p>\n
“We had great offensive chances,” said BC coach Jerry York. “It’s hard for me to believe we only had a two-goal output, but goalies have a stake in that and [Merrimack goaltender Joe Cannata] played well.” <\/p>\n
After a scoreless first period in which both teams had some great looks at the net and were unable to score, the Eagles jumped out to a 1-0 lead on Paul Carey’s seventh goal of a season. Carey got behind the Merrimack defense and roofed a shot glove side on Cannata (21 saves) just 47 seconds into the second. <\/p>\n
The Eagles extended the lead while shorthanded at 5:10. Barry Almeida drew two Merrimack defenders, hesitated and then slid a perfect pass to Steven Whitney, who also buried a shot high glove side on the Warriors netminder. <\/p>\n
Merrimack, though, responded less than three minutes later. Ryan Flanigan forced a turnover at the right faceoff dot, cut to the net and fed Toomey, who one-timed a low shot past BC netminder Brian Billett (22 saves). <\/p>\n
As the third period wore on, it appeared the Eagles might escape with a one-goal win. Merrimack squandered three full and one partial power-play opportunity, mustering just two shots in the seven-plus minutes of power-play time. <\/p>\n
The rookie Toomey, though, helped earn Merrimack the point redirecting what he called a Jordan Heywood “knuckle puck” in the closing minutes to knot the game. <\/p>\n
The tie marked just the third time in the last 25 games at Boston College that Merrimack has earned any points. Still, the Warriors extend their winless streak (0-22-3) at Kelley Rink, a place the team last won on Oct. 20, 1997. <\/p>\n
The tie pulls Boston College (13-7-0, 9-4-1 Hockey East) into a deadlock with Boston University for first place. The single point for Merrimack (11-4-4, 7-3-2 Hockey East) places them three points behind BC and BU in third place. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Fifteen years of futility for Merrimack nearly came to an end on Sunday afternoon, but a disallowed overtime goal forced the Warriors to settle for a 2-2 tie at Boston College’s Kelley Rink, a place Merrimack hasn’t won since 1997. Fourth-line winger Kyle Singleton poked a puck into an open net with 12.9 seconds remaining […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":22374,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14297"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14297"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14297\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14303,"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14297\/revisions\/14303"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14297"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=14297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}