Fans at the sold-out Cumberland County Civic Center sat on their hands
for 50 minutes wondering how their Maine team could be ranked so highly
and why they were playing more like the Lewiston Maineiacs that the
Black Bears from Orono.
Brown had scored just 1 minute into the 2nd period and was leading 1-0
when the play of the game (my play of the game at least!) happened at
5:36 of the 3rd period: Greg Moore hit Pete LeCain from behind and into
the boards, snapping LeCain's head back. You could have heard a pin
drop ... and Moore immediately knew what he had unintentionally done.
LeCain would recover and play a shift or 2 later, and Brown would wear
out the ice at the Maine end of the rink.
But Maine has a tremendous penalty kill, and would work some magic to
kill the entire 5 minutes.
Now I say the hit was the play of the game because Maine players stepped
up to play hard during those 5 minutes and would score the tieing goal a
half a minute later, playing at a furious pace. Maine would keep up
that pace for the final 9 minutes, scoring the winning goal at 15:24,
and just missing an empty net goal near the end of game.
My stars of the game:
Maine - Matt Lundin, Rob Bellamy and Travis Wight. I'd give some
honorable mentions, but the team-play through much of the game was not
good.
Brown - Jeff Prough, Paul Crosty, and Kevin Kliman. Honorable mention:
Matt Vokes (just because), Pete LeCain (because he shook off an awful
hit to come back to play), and Ryan Garbutt (because he puts up with
that awful last name and because his charging the goalie penalty
appeared to be caused by a push from a Maine player).
This and that ---
* Both Maine and Brown killed all 7 of their power plays.
* Maine has GOT to work on the play when a lone Maine defender has to
cover on a 2-on-1 break.Twice tonight (one yielded the Brown goal) and
in previous games the Maine defender has been stuck out in no-man's
land, covering neither the puck carrier, off-wing, nor passing lane.
Strange that such a tremendous defensive squad would do this so
consistently (poorly). (Nota bene: I don't know which side of the puck
is up).
* The pre-game Maine reception seemed a great success as the fairly
large room was packed with a couple of hundred Maine fans (and the Maine
Pep Band).
* Coach Whitehead was reported to promise, at the reception, Maine would
come out early with a jump in their skates. By my account he was mistaken.
* It was great fun to tour the CCCC during pre-game and 1st intermission
seeing and visiting with so many familiar Maine fans.
* The game was a 6661 sellout, with standing room tickets sold.
* Rob Bellamy seems to love to hit, and it's a fan favorite!
* Was the last 10 minutes of excellent Maine play due to Maine or
Brown? I think Maine, but maybe Brown tired or maybe they were affected
by the major penalty or failure of their power play?
* Every game it seems there's one play where I don't understand the
rules, despite having watched college hockey for 27 years (admission:
I've NOT watched hockey for more years than I've watched it). This
games play came at 19:58 of the third period. At even strength and with
the Brown goalie pulled for an extra skater, Maine shoots for the goal
and misses, with the puck passing through the goalie's crease and
hitting the side of the goal cage. Icing was called. Why was icing
called when the puck went through the crease? Answer: the puck
traveling through the crease doesn't matter, it's still icing if it
passes the goal line (and doesn't go in the net). Maybe it did years
ago or in another time warp?
* It was my very great pleasure to view the game with my son Justin and
Eric Fenton's parents. Nonni: they asked about you and John! Eric is
managing a youth hockey league and helping coach a women's hockey high
school team. He has 3 kids ... 4, 4 and 3 years old. Garth Snow is a
new proud dad with his first child. Remember surrogate families? The
Fenton's sure do, and quite fondly, thank you. :-)
cheers, wayne
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