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Thursday, January 25, 2001
| 1 | 2 | 3 | Final | |
| Northeastern | 2 | 1 | 0 | 3 |
| Merrimack | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
The Merrimack College Warriors are the kind of team that gives the Northeastern Huskies fits, much the same way the Providence College Friars do. Not the most powerful team in the conference, little Merrimack has caused more heart-ache on Huntington Avenue in the last three years than a dormitory full of unfaithful girlfriends. Hockey fans who are not in the know must learn that when it comes to these NU/MC match-ups, the Warriors are a big name team. Coach Chris Serino had never lost to NU at Matthews before this game, and the Warriors wanted to keep it that way. Played before a crowd of 2117, it was the Spirit of '96, or so it seemed to the diehard fans. Let's please stop scheduling midweek games.
The Huskies opened the scoring at 12:45 on Graig Mischler's (Willie Levesque, Jim Fahey) goal. At 19:56 Sean MacDonald (Trevor Reschny, Joe Mastronardi) would return his name to the score sheet when he put a timely goal past Merrimack's Tom Welby. The erstwhile Welby would suffer more abuse from the DogHouse than any goalie has in a long time. And that is saying a lot.
Merrimack got up on the scoreboard with their lone tally as 12:22 by Anthony Aquino (Nick Parillo, Tony Johnson). Northeastern responded at 16:44 when Mike Ryan (Jim Fahey, Graig Mischler) scored his first Hockey East goal of the season. The scoring ended there, but the fun didn't.
In the third period, Willie Levesque was called for a roughing minor when he bumped into Welby after the goalie covered the puck. Not happy with being bumped, Welby came up swinging, gloves thrown to the side, and popped Levesque in the mask. Only Levesque was called for a penalty, but the NU crowd rode Welby for the rest of the game. Welby became the first recipient of a five-round "Welby, Welby, Welby, You Suck!" chant. Not even Boston College goalies have received that at the old barn. Welby was unshaken by the abuse, however, and he would give up no further goals in the game.
Let's Go Huskies!
