NORTH ANDOVER, Mass.<\/b> — Providence drew first blood in its home-and-home series with Merrimack, riding a Noel Acciari shorthanded goal and Jon Gillies’s 23-save shutout to a 1-0 win. <\/p>\n
The sixth-ranked Friars now stand at 6-1-1 with a 2-1 mark in Hockey East.<\/p>\n
The game marked only the second time this year that they’ve left the comfortable confines of Schneider Arena, where it is 5-0-1. In its lone previous road game, the Friars blew a 3-0 lead to Boston University and lost 4-3. <\/p>\n
At the time, Providence coach Nate Leaman attributed it to a lack of mental toughness. That didn’t happen this time.<\/p>\n
“It was a gutsy road win,” Leaman said. “It’s a tough building to come in to a play. Merrimack definitely had their A-game tonight. I thought we showed a lot of resiliency.”<\/p>\n
Merrimack frustrated the Friars with a consistently strong defensive game.<\/p>\n
“We couldn’t get much through to the net,” Leaman said. “They were blocking so many shots tonight. We had some good zone time, some good possession time, but they did a really good job around their net front.”<\/p>\n
Merrimack coach Mark Dennehy felt encouraged by how well his team played despite the loss in its first Hockey East game.<\/p>\n
“There were guys giving up their bodies,” he said. “There were about ten thousand dollars worth of broken sticks on the ice. It was a hard-fought game, [but Providence] had an odd-man rush and made the most of it. That was the difference.<\/p>\n
“That’s a nationally ranked team and [it came down to] a bounce of the puck. They came in averaging 39 shots a game and [we held them] to seven on the power play and 12 five-on-five. <\/p>\n
“A pretty good job by our guys, but, hey, not good enough.”<\/p>\n
Sam Marotta finished with 18 saves in a losing effort. <\/p>\n
Merrimack opened the game with a territorial edge and finished the scoreless first period with a 10-6 shot advantage. Neither side, however, generated much in the way of grade A chances.<\/p>\n
Penalties dominated the second period as seven were whistled, none of them matching. At 13:29, the Friars went on a brief four-on-three power play that would soon transition to a minute-long five-on-three. Mark Jankowski appeared to capitalize on that opportunity at 14:42, putting in a rebound, but was instead whistled for interference and headed for the penalty box. <\/p>\n
With that golden opportunity by the boards, the Friar penalty killers then bailed out their power-play brethren, scoring a shorthanded goal at 16:09. Steven McFarland shot from inside the right hash mark, and Acciari buried the rebound.<\/p>\n
“McFarland made a good chip, beating his guy off the wall,” Acciari said. “He took a good shot and I just happened to be in the right place at the right time and put it in.”<\/p>\n
Gillies had to be particularly sharp in the third period, making a strong pad save on Hampus Gustafsson on the rebound and another on Mike Collins.<\/p>\n
A Providence penalty with 32 seconds left gave the Warriors a six-on-four with Marotta pulled. They swarmed around the net but couldn’t get one past Gillies. A penalty with four seconds remaining ended the suspense, sending the faceoff back to Merrimack’s defensive zone.<\/p>\n
The two teams play the rematch game on Saturday in Providence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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