NORTH ANDOVER - Last night's 3-2 loss to UMass Lowell was Merrimack's 10th one-goal loss of the season.
"We find ways (to lose)," said head coach Mark Dennehy. "It's unbelievable. We stop doing what we had success with the first two periods. Lowell didn't change how they played; they kept playing the same way. Whatever reason, we get some success and get going and we just stop."
Special teams have haunted the Warriors for much of the season. Despite its 5-14-2 record, Merrimack has outscored opponents 33-29 in five-on-five situations. On special teams, they are a minus-14.
"It comes down to execution," Dennehy said. "The power play is one of those things that looks great in practice and then the game starts, the bright lights are on, and we have trouble executing. It might be as simple as personnel. We might be rolling the same guys out there thinking they're the only ones that can do it and maybe there is someone else."
Merrimack outshot UMass Lowell 32-29 and out-attempted the River Hawks 59-34. What it comes down to was execution.
"Two things frustrate me about (last night) - urgency and execution," Dennehy said after the Warriors' 500th all-time Hockey East game. "I don't think we played with the type of urgency we needed to in the defensive zone. We gave them three d-zone goals in my mind. The second is execution.
"Obviously we've been in a lot of one-goal games and when you are, you have a lot of those 6-on-5 opportunities with the goaltender pulled. We work on that in practice. I was disappointed that we couldn't do simple things like get it in deep to get our goalie pulled or to support the puck. I take the blame for that as much as anyone. We need to work on it."
Execution also trickles down to basics.
"We're not easy to play against, we're a bear," said Dennehy, whose club has lost five straight games, four by one goal. "When we play the game we're capable of playing, we're a very hard team to beat. Look at (UMass Lowell's) power-play tonight. They didn't have a shot in their first three power plays. You earn your bounces and we still haven't gotten that bounce yet but that's because we haven't earned them. We need to work harder.
"We have 11 games left. We're capable of winning 11 games in a row. And, we're capable of losing 11 games in a row. We've had a chance to win every game since Christmas break except for one. We win some of those games and we're smiling and sitting pretty. But like I said, we need to earn it."
UMass Lowell 3, Merrimack College 2
at Lawler Arena, North Andover
UMass Lowell (11-12-0, 8-8-0): 1-0-2—3
Merrimack (5-14-2, 2-12-2): 0-1-1—2
First Period: 1. UML Matt Ferreira 4 (Michael Scheu, Paul Worthington), 2:08.
Second Period: 2. MC Chris Barton 6 (Rob Ricci, Jesse Todd), ppg, 13:41.
Third Period: 3. UML Mark Roebothan 2 (Jeremy Dehner, Scott Campbell), 4:50; 4. MC Mickey Rego 1 (Ryan Flanigan, Justin Bonitatibus), 11:14; 5. UML Mark Roebothan 3 (Scott Campbell, Mike Potacco), 12:40.
Shots: Merrimack 11-15-6—32; UMass Lowell 11-8-10—29
Saves: MC Cannata (3-6-3) 10-8-8—26; UM Hamilton (6-5-0) 11-14-5—30
Power play: Merrimack 1 for 4 (6 shots); UMass Lowell 0 for 5 (3 shots)
Attendance: 1,912
Next: Hosts Boston University Friday, 7 p.m.
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