This email has been sent to you by Deron Treadwell ([log in to unmask]).
Comments from Sender:
This story can be found online at:
http://www.portland.com/sports/college/hockey/020405solloway.shtml
==============================================================================
Friday, April 5, 2002
COLUMN: Steve Solloway
He answers call, with some help from his friends
Copyright 2002 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc.
ST. PAUL, Minn. - He stood in front of his goal, looked up at the huge scoreboard and shook his head. Most likely, Mike Morrison was simply loosening his neck muscles.
Or maybe he was trying to make sense of numbers that didn't add up.
Maine 7, New Hampshire 2? Get outta heah.
New Hampshire was the Hockey East regular-season champion, the Hockey East tournament champion, the team that appeared destined to win its first national championship.
Somewhere between the confident talk at Wednesday's practice and Thursday's semifinal against Maine, that team disappeared.
"It was a little unbelievable," said Morrison after it was all over. "I get lucky that way. The guys always seem to score a lot of goals when I'm in net."
A lot of goals is four or five when you're playing in the semifinals of the national tournament. Seven goals? Against one of the top defenses in college hockey?
Allow only two goals, against one of the best offenses in the country?
This doesn't happen when only four teams are left to play hockey in April. This is the Frozen Four, where players leave their sweat and their souls on the ice.
This is where one bouncing puck, one breakaway rush on the net, one brain burp at the wrong moment, usually determines a winner. This is where goalies toss and turn in their beds the night before a start.
"I had a long night," said Morrison. "I got a little sleep, but it seemed like I was just waiting for the alarm to go off."
That wait turned into the wait for the game to start, a half-hour past noon.
"Thank God it was an early game," said Morrison, "because I would have been ripping the hair out of my head all day."
He smiled the smile of a survivor, a man rescued from the limbo of failed expectations. For three seasons, Mike Morrison was never the go-to goalie for the big game.
He was Alfie Michaud's understudy in 1999 in Anaheim, when Maine won it all. He was Matt Yeats' backup the next year and the year after.
Yeats struggled after the team lost Coach Shawn Walsh to cancer and Morrison stepped in. Morrison flourished. Then Yeats found his game.
Yeats got the call for the last two games of the Hockey East tournament. Morrison got the start against Harvard in the first game of the East Regional, but Yeats got the win over Boston University that sent Maine to the Frozen Four.
No one would have been surprised if Yeats had been in goal Thursday at the Xcel Energy Center. Instead, it was Morrison, the free spirit with the flair for the dramatic.
New Hampshire scored first, just 21 seconds after the game started. Racing through the minds of Maine fans was one thought: Was Morrison the wrong choice?
"I was fine. There was no need to be nervous. I was all set to make the save. But Cliffy (Loya) got his stick down in front of it. He tipped it and I knew there was nothing I could do to stop it.
"It was too early to go into the tank. We were going to be all right."
The stage was soon set. All the props were in place. Maine led New Hampshire 3-2 with one period left to play.
Morrison expected Darren Haydar and Colin Hemingway and Sean Collins to come out of their locker room for the final 20 minutes, guns blazing. That was usually New Hampshire's method of operation.
The statistic was eye-popping. In third periods this season, New Hampshire had outscored its opponents, 70-28.
Morrison braced for the onslaught. Everyone did. Over the next 20 minutes, Morrison was either going to justify the faith of his coaches or reinforce the perception that he wasn't a prime-time goalie.
But New Hampshire's pop fizzled. Maine's defensemen kept steering the puck away from Morrison. The forwards kept putting shots on New Hampshire goalie Mike Ayers.
The score kept climbing. Morrison later admitted he began to feel for Ayers. Only fellow goalies can understand the frustration and the pain.
The game was over. Yet another time when it counted most, Maine had beaten New Hampshire.
"I wanted to see more shots," said Morrison, talking about the third period. "I wanted to make some spectacular saves."
He grinned. No one said goalies are sane.
"Seven to two? I couldn't imagine we'd win that way.
"But hey, I'll take it."
Staff Writer Steve Solloway can be contacted at 791-6412 or at:
[log in to unmask]
|
