another good recap from Deron...just a few thoughts.
 
At 2:31 PM -0500 1/12/97, Deron Treadwell wrote:
...
> FIRST PERIOD:
...
> Michaud was forced to make a glove save on Casey Kesselring.  Kesselring
> made this play happen with sheer hustle, but Michaud turned him away.
 
Kesselring did play extremely well this weekend.  What impressed me the
most was the way he continually went to the net.  On his goal in the
second, the rebound of Johnson's clanger off the pipe, Kesselring got
knocked hard on his behind as he banged in the rebound.  A good goal for
him to get and his play was why he got third star (also could have been
Johnson).
 
> Another great individual effort was responsible for the first Merrimack
> goal.  Darrel Scoville went end to end with the puck on the power play,
> stepping around Jason Mansoff and walked right in on Michaud beating him low
> to the blocker-side.  This was a great play by the sophmore defensemen, as
> Jason Mansoff is one of Maine's best defensemen and Scoville caught him
> flat-footed and no one picked him up.
 
Good point - I hadn't noticed who Scoville beat.  Scoville did have a good
weekend and carried the puck up ice well.
 
> Scoville was working hard in front of his net when he got called for a
> penalty for interference.  Overall the Warriors did a poor job clearing the
> front of their net in the first, and perhaps Scoville was overcompensating.
 
This was Infanger, he was paired with Scoville.  Just want to protect the
innocent. :-)  Scoville stayed out of the box all weekend till a penalty
with 1:11 left in this second game, academic at that point.
 
> SECOND PERIOD:
...
> Then a loose puck in front of the Maine net sent Dan Shermerhorn and Daryl
> Krauss to the box.
 
This was the play where Shermerhorn was being called for a delayed penalty
and Legault came to the bench for a sixth man as the Warriors headed up ice
with the puck.  Then Krauss took a bad penalty to even it up before the
whistle blew.
 
> Before Merrimack could even this game, Tom Johnson had to make a good
> defensive play in his own zone as Steve Kariya made a short-handed bid.
> Johnson then went on the offense, and seconds later his shot hit the post
> where Kesselring beat Michaud to tie the game at 2-2 at 6:19 of the second.
> Michaud was fooled on Johnson's shot and looked behind him for the puck,
> when he did Kesselring had an easy goal.
 
Not all that easy because he was getting mauled as he banged it in. :-)
Laroche started it off by digging it out of the corner and finding Johnson
for the one timer off the pipe.
 
Funny thing is, this line was not supposed to be on the ice!  As you say,
Maine had some good pressure shorthanded, and as Merrimack got control and
headed up the ice, Anderson signaled for a line change to get the
Beck-Stringer-Porter unit out there.  But before that happened, Johnson's
line had gained the zone and got a goal.
 
> Maine would get a huge play from Steve Kariya and Dan Shermerhorn on the
> eventually game-winner.  Kariya floated a thigh-high pass to Shermerhorn in
> front of Legault, Shermerhorn whacked the puck out of mid-air and into the
> Merrimack net not even two minutes after Merrimack had tied the score.
> Scott Parmentier, who was sitting this game out, told Matt Bourque that such
> a play had to be planned by Shermerhorn and Kariya.
 
I found this interesting - as I said to Deron in email, I would be curious
to hear if this was definitely the case.  It looked as if Kariya's
centering pass might have hit someone or something and wound up in the air
in front of the net, where Shermerhorn swung and put it in.
 
> With half the period left, Maine focused on playing defense with the 3-2
> lead.  Their best chances came with their fourth line, Jason Vitorino-Cory
> Larose-Ben Guite.  Larose had a backhander beat Legault, but hit the post.
 
Maine hit three pipes on the weekend, two on Saturday.
 
> In the final minute, Michaud was forced to make three or four saves as
> Merrimack tried hard to tie the score.  On one last chance, Marcus
> Gustafsson broke up a 3-on-2 and cleared the zone to end the period at 3-2
> Maine.
 
This was the play where Scoville again had a good rush and as the clock
wound down, it looked like he was about to blow by the defense and go in
alone.  Gustafsson actually hooked him off the play on what could have been
a penalty - Scoville and Beck both complained to Gravallese afterward.
 
> THIRD PERIOD:
>
> It was extremely important for Maine to get the next goal and try to get the
> defensive-orientated Warriors off their game and on the offense.  It did not
> take long for the Black Bears to take care of business.
 
The two goals in 16 seconds were the key to the game.
 
> Maine faced an interesting task, to hold a lead against a tough opponent.
> In recent games, Maine has struggled holding leads (5-0 lead vs. Providence
> turned into a 5-4 win, 8-2 lead vs. UMass-Lowell turned into an 8-5 win) and
> after the loss Friday, getting a win was huge.
 
Being a team that has a lot of trouble playing while behind - Merrimack has
not come back to tie in a game in which they trailed from the midway point
on since tying BU in November - the Warriors could not afford to give up
those two quick goals.  The first one seemed to damped their spirits and
the second all but sealed the outcome.
 
The remainder of the game was very different from the Maine-Lowell game,
where Lowell dominated the rest of the game after falling behind 8-2 and
almost made it interesting.  Here, the Warriors didn't display any
confidence and could not do much to get back in it.  They are definitely a
team that cannot afford to fall behind.
 
> COMMENTS:
>
> This has to be a disappointing game for Merrimack (6-13-1, 3-8-1 HE).  They
> got a bad break on the major to Feeley, but rebounded to tie the game.  Even
> trailing 3-2 after two periods had to be encouraging, all things considered.
> However, Merrimack has failed to win a game when trailing after two periods,
> and when Maine came out and jumped them in the third the game was
> essentially over.  After a chance or two before the outburst, Merrimack
> likely only registered another couple shots.  Merrimack had only four shots
> in the third, and you won't win many games playing third periods like that.
 
It goes back to confidence, or lack of it.  Down 3-2, which they were for
the remainder of the second, Merrimack still continued to press and
believed they were in it.  But down 5-2, it's tough to bounce back when
your offense struggles so much.
 
Still, they can take a lot from the way they played this weekend -
Merrimack and Northeastern are the only two teams who have had to play two
games each against BU, UNH, and Maine.  Merrimack will need to get some W's
against the other teams in the league starting in a couple of weeks.  That
will decide where they end up.  But after home games vs UNH and Lowell Jan.
24-25, they play six of seven on the road.  That will be tough since they
are 2-7-0 on the road this year.
 
> For Maine, in many ways it was the opposite of the night before.  Friday
> night Maine generated offense, but players were a step one way or another,
> or just didn't get the breaks.  Saturday, Maine got some breaks and made
> their chances count.  This game could have been even more lopsided than it
> turned out to be as Maine missed some top quality chances.
 
Maine had a lot of good chances on Friday, shots tipped just wide or shot
wide, and it seemed that it was not likely that this would happen in two
straight games.  Maine worked to get more chances on Saturday and made the
most of them.
 
> Alfie Michaud made 20 saves and was solid in net.  On the weekend as a
> whole, Maine got two solid nights of goaltending and that is good news for
> Maine.
 
Very true.  Michaud made the saves he had to make in the first two periods
and couldn't be faulted on either goal he allowed.  Gorriti also played
well on Friday.
 
> Maine also was able to score some goals, with their leading goal scorer out
> in Scott Parmentier.  One had to speculate that such a young team might lose
> confidence with the loss Friday, but they rebounded well and earned a good
> win.
 
Have to wonder how Friday's game might have gone if Maine had gotten on the
board earlier.  When they did it twice early on Saturday, it helped them
play with more confidence.  That's why the major to Feeley and bad penalty
taken by Krauss during the major hurt so much.
 
This was a great weekend of hockey, at least through a little more than
five periods.  That was the only unfortunate thing, that the two quick
goals caused the rest of the third period to be bland - not Maine's fault,
a good situation for them to be in. :-)  They only had to go about the rest
of the period in a workmanlike manner and do what had to be done to insure
the win.  But other than that period, it was a terrific series.
 
Looking at it from the Merrimack standpoint, this is only one more piece of
ammunition against some folks who would say that Merrimack does not belong
in DivI.  This isn't the best of Maine teams, but it is still probably the
third best team in HE at this stage, from what I have seen of them over the
last two weeks.  So, it was good for Merrimack to get a win Friday and pick
up some points, also to finally end that 17 year streak.
 
I mentioned this to Deron, but Steve Kariya has really turned into the
offensive catalyst for this team.  Maybe he has been all along this year,
but I have only seen Maine for the last three games.  He is a different
type of player than Paul but does the things he has to do well to create
great chances for his teammates.  I enjoyed watching him play.  And the
rematch at Maine on Feb. 2 should be a good one.
 
---                                                                   ---
Mike Machnik                [log in to unmask]               *HMM* 11/13/93
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