NORTH ANDOVER, Mass. – Vinny Scotti and Marc Biega scored less than a minute apart late in the third period, helping Merrimack College to a 2-2 draw in exhibition play Sunday against the StFX X-Men.
Despite dominating the shot chart, Merrimack found itself trailing by a 2-0 margin in the final four minutes of regulation.
With his team down by two, Scotti put the Warriors on the board after burying a rebound in the right side of the net after Ben Bahe set him up. Justin Hussar earned the secondary assist on the scoring play at the 16:07 mark of the third period.
Less than a minute later, Merrimack was the beneficiary of a turnover after Hampus Gustafsson picked off an errant pass. He fed Quinn Gould, who drew in 2-on-1 with Biega; after a give-and-go feed, Biega tapped in the equalizer at 17:05 to send it to overtime.
In the sudden-victory session, Merrimack generated the majority of chances but was held in check, as both sides settled for the 2-all draw.
Despite being outshot 20-2 in the first period, it was the X-Men who held a 1-0 lead after 20 minutes as second year forward Blake Gal scored on a point shot through traffic at 5:32. Cole Grbavac and Ted Stephens picked up assists on the play.
Shots evened out in the second period, 8-6 in favor of the X-Men, though neither team could find the back of the net.
Freshman defenseman Trey Lweis gave StFX a 2-0 advantage when he scored on a wrister from the left point at 13:43, again from Stephens and Grbavac.
The Warriors were able to fight their way back into the game late in the period and earn the 2-2 draw.
Merrimack had more scoring chances, outshooting the X-Men by a 49-20 shot margin.
Rasmus Tirronen played the first two periods in goal for Merrimack, totaling 10 saves over that span; while Collin Delia played the third period and overtime and also stopped 20 shots.
Morgan Clark turned aside 47 pucks in an impressive outing for the X-Men.
Both sides came up empty on the power play, with Merrimack finishing 0-for-4 on the night and StFX going 0-for-3.
Next on the schedule for the X-Men is their AUS regular season home opener when they will host the CIS ranked No. 9 Saint Mary's Huskies Saturday night, October 11th at the Charles V. Keating Centre. Puck drops at 7:00 pm.