NORTH ANDOVER, Mass. - Sophomore defenseman Dante Fabbro capped his first collegiate hat trick with 4:29 left in regulation to lift the Boston University men's ice hockey team to a thrilling 4-3 road win over Merrimack on Friday evening at Lawler Arena.

The Terriers took a 3-1 lead into the first intermission after scoring three times in a span of 70 seconds. The home team tied the game with power-play goals in both the second and third periods before Fabbro capped his hat trick with 4:29 left in regulation to seal the win.

BU earned its first win at Lawler in over five years (Jan. 11, 2013) to improve to 10-11-2 overall and 8-7-2 in Hockey East play. Merrimack, which got two goals from Brett Seney, moves to 7-12-4 with a 4-8-2 conference mark.

HOW IT HAPPENED

• The Warriors opened the scoring on a wrister by Seney from the left dot just 4:39 into the contest.
• BU responded to the tune of three goals in 70 seconds as freshman Shane Bowers scored in between a pair of Fabbro tallies to suddenly give the visitors a 3-1 lead after the first period.
• Fabbro got BU on the board with a power-play tally at the 17:07 mark before Bowers converted on a rush 47 seconds later. 
• The Terriers completed their three-goal spurt at 18:17 when Fabbro secured his first multi-goal game as a Terrier with a wrister between the tops of the circles.
• A power-play goal from Marc Biega at 17:34 of the second cut the Terriers' lead to 3-2.
• Seney made it a 3-3 affair with a perfectly placed shot from the top of the left circle at 4:48 of the third on Merrimack's third and final man-up chance of the night.
• Fabbro finished off his career night from the right slot at the 15:33 mark following a backhand pass from behind the goal by freshman Logan Cockerill.

GAME NOTES

• Fabbro is the first BU defenseman to record a hat trick since Matt Grzelcyk in a 7-2 home win over UMass on Jan. 9, 2016.
• Merrimack held a 31-29 shot advantage as sophomore Jake Oettinger made 28 saves for his ninth win of the season.
• Craig Pantano made 25 stops in goal for the Warriors.
• Bowers assisted on the game-winner for a two-point night. 
• Senior Drew Melanson, junior Jordan Greenway, sophomore Patrick Curry and freshmen Cockerill, Ty Amonte, Cam Crotty and Brady Tkachuk each registered one assist.
• Friday marked the 100th career game for junior Bobo Carpenter.

UP NEXT

• The two teams will wrap up their weekend series on Saturday (Jan. 20) at Agganis Arena
• Game time is set for 7 p.m.