Photo Credit: Courtney Adams
FINAL SCORE: Merrimack 5, #7 Vermont 2 | Box Score
Sneddon Postgame Audio

NORTH ANDOVER, Mass. - Sophomore Joe Cannata made 25 saves, five different Merrimack players scored a goal and the Warriors won their third straight game with a 5-2 victory over No. 7 Vermont at Lawler Arena in Hockey East action on Friday night. Junior Kyle Medvec (Burnsville, Minn.) and senior Brayden Irwin (Toronto, Ont.) scored goals in the loss for the Catamounts who dropped to 2-2-0 (1-1-0 HEA).

“They’re a very good team,” Vermont head coach Kevin Sneddon said. “They out muscled us, they out hustled us and out willed us in a lot of facets of the game and that’s probably the most disappointing part. I really can’t find a positive with the way we played tonight.”

Merrimack (3-2-0, 1-0-0 HEA) out shot Vermont 29-13 in the final 40 minutes and improved to 2-2-2 in its last six home games against the Catamounts.

Vermont took a short-lived 1-0 lead 20 seconds into the game on a wrist shot by Medvec from the top of the left circle. Juniors Kevan Miller (Los Angeles, Calif.) and Wahsontiio Stacey (Kahnawake, Que.) both assisted.

Junior John Jamieson tied the game 1-1 for the Warriors at 3:02 of the first and they never trailed again.

Merrimack took its first lead at 2:04 of the second period when Francois Ouimet broke free behind the Vermont defense on a stretch pass from senior captain Pat Bowen and beat Rob Madore (29 saves) with a backhander to make it 2-1.

Irwin tied the game 2-2 just 55 seconds later with a wrister in transition from the slot. Miller and Stacey each picked up their second assists of the game on Irwin’s team leading fourth goal.

However, Merrimack took the lead for good at 5:58 of the second on a power-play goal by junior Chris Barton.

Sophomore Simon Demers added a power-play goal in the final period and sophomore Elliott Sheen capped off the scoring with an empty netter with 1:15 remaining.

Vermont went 0-for-4 on the power play while Merrimack was 2-for-6. UVM dropped to 8-3-2 against MC since joining Hockey East.

Vermont returns to action next Friday at Maine at 7 p.m.

“Hopefully this will be a learning experience,” Sneddon said. “We have a long time to sit on this one being a single-game weekend. Hopefully we’ll be chomping at the bit by the time we get to Maine next week. Because we have a lot of room for improvement.”

NOTES: Vermont out shot Merrimack 14-5 in the first period but was out shot 34-27 for the game … Brayden Irwin had a team-high five shots and went 13-for-20 on face offs … Ten different Catamounts have scored goals this season … Former Catamount Duke Stump ‘89 made his debut on the WVMT radio broadcast.