(taken from "The Maine Campus 11/21/94 edition)
 
TORY, RODRIGUE KEY BLACK BEAR SWEEP OF FRIARS
by Larry Rogers Jr.
 
        The University of Maine hockey team continues to emerage as one of
the best teams in the country with 5-4 and 2-1 wins over Hockey East
opponent Providence College, Friday and Saturday night at the Alfond.
        Maine has moved up to the No. 5 spot in the latest WMEB College
Hockey Poll.
        FRIDAY NIGHT, the Black Bears were carried by the heroics of senior
defenseman Jacque Rodrigue, who buried two goals in a span of 2:41 in the
third period to overcome a 4-3 deficit and lift Maine to the 5-4 win.
        Rodrigue has emerged as Maine's special teams sniper.
        "My job is easy, all I gotta do is shoot it.  Jeff (Tory) gives me
great passes, Dave MacIsaac screens in front of me along with (Dan)
Shermerhorn," said Rodrigue, referring to Maine's power-play set-up.  "It's
easy for me, they take the goalies eyes away from me and the goalie doesn't
see me.  All I gotta do is get it on the net."
        On net is where Rodrigue's shots went, right past Friar goalie Dan
Dennis.  Tory assisted on the game-winner, which came on the power-play, and
had three assists on the night.
        Prior to the game, former Black Bear great and current Montreal
Canadien Jim Montgomery had his uniform number 19 retired and received
numerous standing ovations from the crowd of 5,248 Alfond faithful.
        It was almost as if Montgomery was on the ice playing for Maine and
taking part in their dramatic come-from-behind win.
        Rodrigue's game-tying shot came after Maine's attacking offense
reeled off five high-percentage shots on PC's net in a span of about a
minutes.  The puck found it's way to the blue-line where Rodrigue was
waiting to unleash his cannon shot.
        "Rodrigue's got a gun," said head coach Shawn Walsh.  "He's probaly
got the best shot of anyone in this league."
        Less than three minutes later, Rodrigue hammered another blistering
shot by Dennis on a Maine power-play that took just six seconds to set up.
        Providence jumped out to an early 2-0 lead 6:27 into the first
period after David Green and Joe Hulbig each notched goals, to silence the
Alfond crowd.
        The Black Bears once again displayed remarkable resilience scoring
three unanswered goals to take a 3-2 lead.  Shawn Wansborough and Dan
Shermerhorn each scored on Maine's lethal power-play (3-8), before Tim
Lovell tallied the go-ahead goal, 4:33 into the final stanza.  Reg Cardinal
took the inital shot on the play.  The puck bounced off Dennis before Lovell
reounded and had his shot ricochet of the right post and into the net.
        "We didn't get impatient when we were down 2-0," said Rodrigue.  "We
just put out heads to the grindstone and went at it."
        The Friars' Brady Kramer and Russ Guzior scored goals 5:37 and 8:16
into the third respectively to reclaim the lead for PC, before Rodrigue took
over.
        "The biggest thing we had to do was not get frustrated, after each
period that's what I told the guys," said Walsh.  "We can bounce back, we've
been down a lot this year."
        Blair Allison turned away 16 of 20 Friar shot to notch his seventh
win, while PC's Dennis stopped 27 of 32.
        SATURDAY NIGHT's game was a defensive battle for both squads, as
both goalies, Dennis and Allison, played extremely well.
        Unlike Friday night's game, where 17 penalities were assessed and
five power-play goals were scored, only seven penalites were whistled and
not one power-play goal was scored.
        "Saturday was an intelligent game on both team's parts, a chess
match right until the end," said Walsh.  "Right now, we're a very
intelligent hockey team that belies it's experience."
        Maine's Barry Clukey opened the scoring 14:44 into the first period
with an unassisted goal.  Clukey skated across the middle of a pack of
players to the left of Dennis and back-handed a hot through traffic past Dennis.
        The game remained 1-0 until 18:30 into the second, when PC's Joe
Hulbig slipped a shot to Allison's right which hit the post and bounced in.
        Maine's Scott Parmentier notched the game-winner after fellow
linemate Shawn Wansborough made the best play of the night sliding a pass in
front of the PC net enabling Parmentier to one-time it past Dennis.
        "I was coming down the (right) wing and Tory bounced the puck off
the board to me,"  said Wansborough.  "I spun around behind the net facing
out end and passed it through the slot to Parmentier."
        Allison came up big making 23 saves.  Dennis had another great game
stopping 28 of 30 Maine shots.  The two goalies were named third and second
starts of the game respectively.
        Maine defenseman Jason Mansoff, Imes, Dave MacIsaac, and Jason
Dekker along with forwards Cardinal, Wayne Conlan, Brad Purdie, Jamie
Thompson, Shermerhorn, and Lovell all played outstanding defense Saturday night.
        Maine improved to 8-0-3 overall, and 5-0-3 in league play, while
Providence fell to 4-5-1 and 2-4-1.
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DERON TREADWELL - [log in to unmask] |
The Hockey Bears are back in '94! 8-0-3    |
               GO UMAINE!!!                |
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