Terriers Comeback Falls Short in 4-3 Loss at Merrimack

By: Jake Reiser

NORTH ANDOVER, Mass. — The Boston University Terriers shipped up to North Andover, MA for a desperately-needed win against another Hockey East team in the Merrimack Warriors to start the weekend. The Terriers could not complete the comeback and were defeated 4-3.

Once again, the Terriers got off to a slow start and Merrimack capitalized just 48 seconds into the game as Brett Seney put a wrist-shot past BU starting goaltender Sean Maguire.

Just under halfway into the period the Warriors struck again. This time, it was Ben Bahe pushing one into the net to double the Merrimack advantage.

The Terriers went into damage control for the rest of the first period and began to get more offensive chances.

“I actually thought we had a great second half of the first period, we have to stop feeling sorry for ourselves when we get down 2-0.”

The second period started with a completely different Terriers team. BU continued to get more and more chances, until finally, John MacLeod slapped one through Collin Delia to put BU on the board.

Less than four minutes later Matt Lane took a backhand feed from Jordan Greenway and tapped it into the net, tying the game 2-2.

But BU wouldn’t hold the tie for long, as Hampus Gustafsson shot a puck past Maguire to give the Warriors the lead once again.

Ethan Spaxman would make it a two-goal lead 1:03 after Gustafsson’s score. That’s all it took for Coach Quinn to pull Maguire, sending Connor LaCouvee to goaltend the rest of the game

Brandon Hickey got his second goal of the season on a pinball play at 4:04 of the third and with 1:29 left BU got a much needed power play. Quinn pulled LaCouvee playing 6-on-4 for the remainder of the period, but the Terriers couldn’t get that crucial equalizer.

“We really liked a lot of our game tonight,” Coach Quinn said after the game. “Obviously we want to win hockey games, but it’s October, so much to like about what we did tonight, but one minute of the game cost us.”

BU drops to 2-3-0 (1-2-0 HEA), and comes back to Agganis Arena to face the Denver Pioneers tomorrow at 4 p.m.