Dartmouth Lowell box at end.
 
 
Well, on the down side, my Lowell Riverhawks lost both games and HockeyEast was
0-2 vs. ECAC. On the up side, I enjoyed the pleasurable company of Hockey-L'er
Rick McAdoo as well as Dartmouth-netminder Jason Wong's dad John. I also got to
visit Dartmouth's campus and Thompson Arena. I spent some time in Dartmouth's
library on Tuesday .. enjoying the mural which I would have never caught if it
wasn't for another Hockey-L'er.
 
I arrived in time to catch the third period plus overtime of the
Northeatern-St. Lawrence game. I saw the Huskies battle backto tie and
generally outplay the Saints even in the overtime frames. The winning Saint
goal was hard-earned but did come from one of the few Saint attacks. Not that
the Huskies had any great advantage, but they were playing good enough hockey
to win this one.
 
Anyhow, the game I came to see that night was Dartmouth-Lowell and the first
period was pretty entertaining ... until the end. ;( Sitting with John Wong and
another Dartmouth dad (father of Curtis Wilgosh) ... it wasn't all that much
fun hearing their constant bias assessment of HockeyEast ref Cole's
performance. Rick's unbiased support of their comments wasn't comforting either
;) Dartmouth got the first power-play at 9:30 on a Libbett cross-check but the
Green couldn't convert. It was excellent up-and-down play throughout the period
with Jason Wong and Lowell's Marty Fillion exchanging some awesome saves.
Lowell's Nicholishen had presented Dartmouth with the game's second power-play
at 17:33 and this time Dartmouth's Sturgis put one by Fillion at 18:15.
Lowell's Cappalletti made things worse by slamming Sturgis after the goal and
Dartmouth went on another power-play. This time Dartmouth's David Whitworth
scored on a long slapper that I thought Fillion should have had. The problem
was that Dartmouth was having trouble entering the zone and quickly turn around
a Lowell advance just outside the Lowell blue line. Whitworth let go a real
quick one that caught Fillion still inside his crease. The low slapper was
about 18" off the ice and about 1" inside the post. Fillion couldn't get his
pad out there fast enough ( or far enough as it seemed). All of a sudden,
Dartmouth was up 2-0 and the period ended. Dartmouth had outshot Lowell 15-8
but I don't think the shot total was indicative of the play.
 
The second period was definitely Lowell's best. Neil Donovan was able to get
one past Wong on Lowell's first power-play at 5:50. Dartmouth's Dave Risk was
whistled for interference at 5:38. The play had been in the Dartmouth end and
a Lowell player had lost his stick about 25' out in front of Wong. Risk decided
he'd sweep the stick out of the way and got whistled for it. Less than two
minutes after the Donovan goal ... Lowell rookie Greg Koehler scored to tie it
up. The teams traded a power-play oppurtunities to no avail. Lowell clearly
played it best hockey in this period but Dartmouth got the lead back on a
Lowell mistake. Dartmouth had managed to get the puck outside their zone when
one of our defensemen tried to get the play back in the Dartmouth end. However,
his glove-batted attempt to push a lifted puck back toward the Dartmouth blue-
line landed in the stomach of Dartmouth's Whitworth who was already skating
toward the Lowell end with some speed. IN no time at all, he had broken free
and skated in alone on Fillion. Going right to left, he got in real close, got
Marty to go down and put the puck up with authority ... Rick made a point at
recognizing who scored as he had pointed out Whitworth as the guy to watch
before the game. ;) Game-winning goal on what should have been a better
transition play. It was another example of a late period goal hurting Lowell
and the period ended with Dartmouth up 3-2. Lowell outshot Dartmouth 13-12, but
once again another deceptive shot tally.
 
The third period wasn't as good an effort for Lowell. Dartmouth's Chaytors
scored his first of two at 3:37 and Lowell never really showed a great attack
for the rest of the period. Dartmouth didn't put the game out of reach until
15:07 when Chaytors made it 5-2 ... 49 seconds before Dartmouth's Carnelli
finished the scoring at 6-2. Lowell outshot Dartmouth 15-6 ... and that was
incredibly surprising. There were no more than 3 or 4 quality chances for
Lowell in that period.
 
At one point, John had proudly remarked "That's my boy!" after one of Jason's
great saves ... which prompted a few Dartmouth Amlumni to lavish John with
praises about his son. It appears that the Big Green faithful are somewhat
excited about the performance so far with Jason. Rightfully so ... he looked
very sharp, composed and skillful.
 
Lowell's defensemen should stop taking so many chances at the opposing blue
line. Too many times they're creating odd-man rushes where a forward is often
left to help defend. Lowell's forward aren't that adept to handle it .. And
Lowell's defensemen aren't that skilled at handling bouncing/transition pucks
to try too many risky things. "Step back and defend" should be their policy.
Fillion is a great goalie, but he needs some support.
 
Fillion nearly killed a Dartmouth player by tripping him as he was making the
turn behind the net at high speed. The player crashed into the boards real
hard. The player was alright and Marty only got 2 minutes.
 
The Lowell freshman are coming along EXCELLENTLY!!! Storozuk is really
developing nicely. Leblanc is becoming more of a playmaker and Brown is getting
consistently better. Koehler and Bell are continuing to prove themselves as
strong offensive threats. Sophomore Mike Mulligan is really working hard and
producing good chances.
 
Lowell still has a good chance at making a tourney bid. They have a lot of
games left against ranked teams so their likely poor RPI ranking could change.
If the defense could only come around, we'd be in good shape to make a
challenge. From here on out is what really counts for tourney selection. The
"last-20" probably won't include either loss from this week as long as Lowell
makes the final round of Hockey East playoffs.
 
 
Stay tuned for more ramblings on the Northeastern game.
 
- Paul G.
 
---------------- 1st period ------------------------
Lowell penalty    2:30 Cappelletti (High stick)
Dartmouth penalty 2:30 B. Retter (Interference)
Lowell penalty    6:31 Donovan (Holding the stick)
Dartmouth penalty 6:31 Chaytors (Hooking)
Lowell penalty    9:30 Libbett
Lowell penalty   17:33 Nicholishen (Holding the stick)
Dartmouth Goal   18:15 Sturgis from Hughes PPG
  1 - 0
Lowell penalty   18:15 Cappelletti (?)
Dartmouth Goal   19:11 Whitworth from Hughes and Wong PPG
  2 - 0
---------------- 2nd period -------------------------
Dartmouth penalty 5:38 Risk (Interference)
Lowell Goal       5:50 Donovan from Nicholishen and Sandholm PPG
  2 - 1
Lowell Goal       7:33 Koehler from Sandholm and Basaraba
  2 - 2
Dartmouth penalty 9:38 Kelleher (Holding the stick)
Lowell penalty   13:49 Nolan (Holding the stick)
Dartmouth Goal   18:29 Whitworth unassisted
  3 - 2
---------------- 3rd period -------------------------
Dartmouth Goal    3:37 Chaytors from Wercinski and Buckley
  4 - 2
Lowell penalty    6:39 Fillion (tripping) served by Sandholm
Dartmouth penalty 8:35 Hughes (?)
Lowell penalty   12:59 Cappalletti (Holding)
Dartmouth penalty  "   Chaytors (Roughing)
Dartmouth Goal   15:07 Chaytors from Buckley and Wercinski
  5 - 2
Dartmouth Goal   15:56 Cernelli from Peet
  6 - 2
 
Saves        1   2   3   T
   Fillion  14  12   6  32
   Wong      8  13  15  36
 
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