The Warriors will hit the road Saturday night for a quarterfinal showdown with top-seeded Providence College in the Hockey East playoffs.
Merrimack and Providence split their regular-season series, though the teams haven’t met since November. The Friars earned a first-round bye, while the Warriors advanced by eliminating UMass Lowell in Wednesday night’s opening-round matchup.
When: Saturday, 7 p.m.
Where (Friday): Schneider Arena (Providence, R.I.)
TV/Stream: Watch (NESN) » Watch (INTL)
— Merrimack head coach Scott Borek believes that a good start is key to the Warriors’ success against the Friars.
“Our goaltending and special teams need to be very good,” Borek said. “They obviously won the league. They are a very good team. They’re very deep. We’ll need all four of our lines and all seven defensemen to be going. If we can get out of the first period, it will be a ballgame. You know they’ll have a good start, because they were able to sit back and watch us play tonight, so we need to have a good start to match that.”
— The Warriors and Friars have only met once in the Hockey East Tournament. Providence swept Merrimack in a quarterfinal series during the 2015-16 season. The Friars shut out the Warriors in Game 1 behind 20 saves from Nick Ellis. Craig Wyszomirski scored in Game 2 for the Warriors, but the Friars won 3-1.