NORTH ANDOVER — It doesn’t take long to notice the youth on Merrimack’s roster.
The Warriors’ top seven scorers are freshmen or sophomores. In fact, the program didn’t even hold a senior night ceremony this season — and few likely noticed. There is only one senior on the roster, Mark Hillier, a graduate student who was honored last season during his senior year.
But on Wednesday night, in the opening round of the Hockey East playoffs against UMass Lowell, the Warriors looked anything but young.
Yes, all five Merrimack goals were scored by underclassmen. But what stood out most was the poise the Warriors showed late in the game. After building a 4-1 lead, they watched Lowell push back and trim the margin to 4-3 in the third period. Earlier in the season — particularly in October and November, when Merrimack’s third-period struggles were well documented — that was the type of game that might have slipped away.
This time, the Warriors held their ground.
They shut down Lowell’s comeback bid and advanced to the Hockey East quarterfinals, where they’ll face Providence on Saturday night.
“We got the result,” Merrimack head coach Scott Borek said. “We controlled most of the game, and I thought we played well. They made a push in the third, but I was impressed with how we responded.
“The first half of the year, we weren’t a great team in the third period. We tried to hold on when we had leads in the third. This was another new experience for our group. We’re young, and we haven’t really been in this situation in the playoffs before with this group. You don’t know how you’ll respond in those situations. But we handled it well. We kept it direct; we kept the puck moving forward. Even when they made it 4-3, I thought we handled it great.”
The Warriors received goals from Trevor Hoskin (2), Nick Pierre, Nolan Flamand, and Parker Lalonde.
Justin Gill added two assists and set the tone physically, serving as a gritty, sometimes menacing presence. He’s an old-school, hard-nosed forward, unafraid to battle in the corners or establish position at the top of the crease.
Hoskin, meanwhile, has provided a spark since returning from injury two weeks ago. Since rejoining the lineup on Feb. 27 against Vermont, he has six points (4 goals, 2 assists) in four games.
“This felt like a do-or-die game,” Hoskin said. “We were prepared for that. We were working toward that all week.”
Gill added, “End of the day, it’s a hockey game. We need to play how we need to play, and I never had a doubt that we were going to win the game.”
“I wish I felt that way,” Borek joked.
Still, there is something different about this Merrimack group. In recent seasons — including the last two — if the Warriors fell behind, it often felt like they didn’t quite have the firepower to climb back.
That hasn’t been the case this year. And what makes it even more intriguing is that nearly the entire roster still has significant eligibility remaining.
The Warriors have scored 114 goals this season and are averaging 3.3 per game — more than the Merrimack team that reached TD Garden in 2023 (3.1). In fact, by goals per game, this is Merrimack’s second-best offensive team since at least 2001, the earliest season for which readily accessible data exists. There was more scoring in the 1990s, so teams from that era very likely scored more, but in the modern era this group ranks among the program’s most productive offensively.
Only the 2010–11 team, which averaged 3.7 goals per game, has been better over that span.
It also marks just the sixth time in the past 25 years that Merrimack has surpassed 100 goals in a season. Teams coached by Mark Dennehy reached that mark from 2009–12. Borek’s teams have now done it in 2022, 2023, and 2026.
The Warriors also moved up to No. 26 in the NPI rankings. While Merrimack is mathematically eliminated from at-large consideration for the NCAA Tournament — meaning the Warriors will need to win Hockey East to advance — finishing inside the Top 30 remains a notable accomplishment. Merrimack has ranked No. 29 or better in just five other seasons (2023, 2022, 2012, 2011, 2003).
The season isn’t over yet. But this group has already carved out a notable place in Merrimack’s Hockey East history.