NORTH ANDOVER, MA - Junior forward Mike Collins (Boston, Mass.) finished off his five point weekend for the Warriors with two goals on Saturday night in front of 2,317 fans at Lawler Arena. Merrimack came from behind in the third period for the second straight night to earn the point.
Merrimack (2-3-1, 1-1-1 HEA) will hit the road for a conference matchup with the Northeastern Huskies on Friday night at Matthews Arena at 7 p.m.
After a huge glove save by sophomore goalie Rasmus Tirronen (Espoo, Finland) kept the game scoreless, junior Mike Collins (Boston, Mass.) found the back of the net for the third time on the young season, and the first time on the night, as he took a perfect pass from Brendan Ellis (Kelowna, BC) to the left of the Vermont goaltender and slid home the puck, giving the Warriors the 1-0 lead with 3:05 remaining in the first period. Dan Kolomatis (Basking Ridge, NJ) picked up his fourth assist of the season on the Collins goal.
Merrimack dominated the first 20 minutes of action, outshooting the Catamounts by the score of 15-8.
Two Vermont goals within 30 seconds of each other gave the Catamounts the 2-1 lead with just over five minutes to play in the second period. Pete Massar scored the first goal after he stole the puck from the Merrimack defender and beat Tirronen five hole. 30 seconds later, Nick Luukko gave Vermont the lead on a delayed penalty call against Justin Mansfield (Arlington, Mass.). Luukko found the puck beside the net and scored over the glove of Tirronen, HT Lenz picked up the assist on the goal.
With the Warriors trailing with just over 13 minutes to play in the game, Collins equaled the score at two as he found the back of the net on the power play. Collins beat Brody Hoffman under the blocker after a nice pass from Connor Toomey (Billerica, Mass.) gave him a nice lane to the net. Kyle Singleton (Beaverton, OR) also picked up an assist on Collins' second of the night.
The Catamounts dominated the third period of action as they outshot Merrimack 14-6 but Tirronen stood tall, keeping the score tied at two heading into overtime action.
The Warriors had their best chance to win the game in overtime as the Catamounts took a bench minor for too many men on the ice but Merrimack was unable to score on three shots on goal. Hoffman turned away four shots while Tirronen turned away three in the final five minutes of action to secure the tie for both squads.
Tirronen finished the game with a career-high 31 saves in 65 minutes of action while Hoffman turned away 32 shots.
Merrimack limited their penalty kills chances as they only allowed one power play to the Catamounts while Merrimack finished going 1-4 on the power play including nine shots on goal for the night.
Merrimack improves to 8-0-3 against Vermont in their last 11 meetings, including going 1-0-1 against the Catamounts this weekend.