I either inadvertently trashed John Duffil's original post, as
referenced in Sally's post, but I will agree with his assessment
of Morrison, and disagree about the overall state of our team.

It was not the team I had seen in Maine against OSU.
Just the SOG differential should have told us all what the
reality was on the ice.

Listening to the Providence game gave me pause, and
the performance against the Huskies confirmed by sight
what I had heard with my ears.

Frankly, both teams should feel fortunate to get a point
out of the contest.  Other than the first period, it was not
to the level of competition I am used to in a Crowder/Walsh
contest.  For example, Crowder was changing lines at about
30-second intervals in P1.  Not so later.  Maine set up their
early goal with great patience.

Celebrity Watch:  former Bruins coach and player Steve Kasper
seen in the balcony after first period.  After Lindsay's initial excitement,
she settled down and reckoned it might be some kind of omen.  How true...

Maine's breakout, so dominant against OSU, was not in evidence
against NU from the second period on.

Peter Metcalf, from whom I see traces of our beloved Bob Beers sometimes,
got very aggravated in a scrum and slugged a NU player in the face in front
of the Maine
bench.  Good thing he wasn't caught...Again, something to show what was
happening in this game at a level of frustration.

Let's not get frothy about one of ours being called back becuase the ref
said the net was off the posts, we had the same benefit in the second.
It probably need not have happened, if we could have only made a
good clear out of our zone just a few moments earlier.

Larry mentioned # 36 - well,  first name is Brendan, just like the previous
occupant of that same number, from the same town.

BTW, try the burgers at the Stockyard, we did with no other Maine fans,
but with some happy BC fans after their win over Temple in football.

Without a doubt, Morrison has to be considered the #1 netminder for
our Bears at this point - it's his to lose, unless Coach is considering
the old rotational system.

All this said, Lindsay and I last night would have been faced with the
same situation as we had in December of last year:  Maine at
the Matthews Arena or the Bruins at the FleeCenter  ???
But, we had given up our season tickets to the B's this
year, so to St. Botolph street we went.  Were we surprised
after the game when our Orange Line train stopped at North Station to
load up mostly Bruins fans, and we asked about that score.
Shades of last year !!!  Bruins get crushed by the lowly
Atlanta Thrashers 8-3.  Looking at the Globe this morning
they report the last large pasting they took:  December, 1999
against Chicago - the game we left to go to see Maine at
the Matthews (where they lost, too).   It called to mind
our Steve Kasper sighting before the second period....
was it really him or some kind of omen ????

They just can't take the Merrimack team lightly for
next week's HE contest.  One thing you have to say is
that it is an open contest this season, it seems.
Dan Doucette

U Maine Hockey wins it all in odd-numbered years !!