Men’s Hockey: History Complete with Merrimack Sweep over BU

By: Jake Reiser

With a loss at Lawler Rink on Tuesday night in hand, the No. 1 Boston University Terriers knew they had to come back to Agganis Arena and put up a dog fight against the Warriors.

Unfortunately for the top ranked team, Merrimack got tougher and stronger as the game went on, locking a 4-1 victory on the road. Both Brett Seney and Michael Babcock had two goals against freshman Jake Oettinger, who faced 32 shots from Merrimack. It is the first time Merrimack has swept Boston University in a weekend series in either squad’s history.

Seney’s first tally came on the power play, taking advantage of a screen in front of Oettinger to wrist one to the back of the net. The Terriers only goal was also on the man advantage, with Patrick Harper taking a shot and Clayton Keller cleaning up a rebound to put past Warrior starter Colin Delia. In all, Delia faced 37 BU shots during the game.

With 7:56 to go in the first period, junior Nikolas Olsson took a hard hit from freshman defenseman Ryan Cook in the corner of the offensive zone, and had a hard time getting up. He left the game and did not return.

“Not good. It’s not good. We don’t know for sure, but it’s not good,” Coach David Quinn said on the Olsson injury.

Merrimack took the lead for good in the second period on Seney’s second goal, another seeing eye wrister with Terrier defensemen distracted in the defensive zone.

Things seemed like they were turning around in the third frame when BU got a power play chance, but Babcock beat Patrick Harper back to the opposite zone on a Warrior clear, skated in front of Oettinger and roofed the puck. He’d grab his second by beating Dante Fabbro at the blue line, who seemed indecisive about pinching to play a puck, speeding in alone and snapping one off the twine.

“A lesson learned for us, which I thought we had learned, but certainly wasn’t the case. We just got out-everythinged in a lot of ways,” Quinn said. “There’s not another sport where will and determination can lead you to victory and there was a huge gap in will and determination as the game went on.

The Terriers won’t sit on this loss for long, as they play No. 7 University of Massachusetts Lowell, which dropped its third straight game Friday at Tsongas Arena to Northeastern. Puck drop on Comm. Ave is at 7 p.m.