To me, there is no question about the greatest comeback I have ever seen,
and it's a game I have mentioned here before.  So I'll make it short.  (Jon
Barkan, get out your hanky.)
 
The mother of all comebacks took place on Saturday, March 19, 1988.  First
round of the NCAA DivI Tournament, second game of a two game, total goals
series between Independent Merrimack and Hockey East Champion Northeastern.
Merrimack was the first Independent ever allowed into the DivI tourney.
NU led the series 8-3 late in the second period of the second game, with
just over a period standing between the Huskies and a trip to Lake Superior
for the quarterfinals.  Merrimack proceeded to score the final seven goals
of the game to win the series, 10-8.  I have never seen anything like it
before or since and certainly not in a game of that magnitude.
 
Somewhere I have the official box of the game, because that night it was my
job to type it up.  I'll find it someday and add it to the Merrimack web
site.  I posted a dazed recap to rec.sport.hockey two days later (in the
pre-HOCKEY-L days), but I think the only copy I have of that is a printout,
also buried somewhere.
 
That game also stands as one of the most emotional for me.  It was the
night I learned two things: never to say it's over till it's over, and that
no loss could ever again be as awful as that one was - me being on the
Northeastern side at that time.  It was a loss of Red Sox-like proportions.
Merrimack people won't let me live it down to this day.  They describe
things from the game that I can't remember, the memory was so painful I
must have blocked it out.
 
You can't begin to imagine the irony of the fact that I have now spent many
years with Merrimack, yet I was on the other side for their biggest win
ever.  For seven years, I have been hoping for a bigger win so I don't have
to say that anymore.
 
Other "emotional" games in no order, all are quite memorable:
 
* Monday, March 14, 1988: Northeastern 4, Maine 3; Hockey East Championship
Game, Boston Garden.
 
Huskies score twice in the third to come back from a 3-2 deficit.  Winning
goal scored by D Marty Raus, who would not have played except that All-HE D
Claude Lodin was out with the flu.  Still NU's only HE title ever.
Huntington Hounds go from the high of this win to the depths of despair in
five days with the game described above against Merrimack.
 
* Monday, February 2, 1987: Northeastern 5, Harvard 4; Beanpot semifinal,
Boston Garden.
 
Huskies entered the game 6-16-1, Harvard was 15-1-0.  A classic case of one
game making a season.  Huskies lead 4-2 with less than a minute to go, but
Crimson score twice in the final minute to tie and force overtime.  Six
minutes into OT, D Brian Dowd goes against Coach Fernie Flaman's orders and
comes in from the point to bang in a rebound through falling bodies, and
just like that, the season's previous 23 games were forgotten.  Flaman
terms Dowd's goal a "beautiful mistake".  NU would go on to lose the
Beanpot final in OT to BU a week later in a battle of Beanpot underdogs (BU
upset BC), but the Harvard game was the beginning of a 13 month run that
would culminate in NU winning the 1988 HE title.
 
* Sunday, March 4, 1990: Merrimack 6, Boston College 3; Hockey East
Quarterfinal, second game of a best of three series.
 
Again, one game makes a season as BC won the regular season title while
Merrimack finished last in its first year in HE, going 3-18-0 in the league
and 10-24-1 overall.  Warrior senior captain Andy Heinze, one of my
favorite players ever, scores a natural hat trick in 5:10 of the third
period, still a HE tourney record for fastest three goals by one player.
Andy, also heralded for his defense, plays almost the entire third period
in one of the most heroic performances in Merrimack history, against a
powerful BC team that includes brother Steve.  Yannick "Goose" Gosselin
makes 45 saves on the afternoon (a HE quarterfinal record) and the Warriors
hold on, adding the empty netter to force a third game the next night,
which BC wins 8-5 as Marty McInnis scores five goals - but not before
Merrimack throws another scare into BC on the strength of four more points
by Andy (1-3--4), who totals 4-4--8 in his last two collegiate games.  The
win is still Merrimack's only HE playoff victory ever against nine losses.
Andy is now a Merrimack assistant coach.
 
* Friday, January 13, 1995: Merrimack 3, Boston University 2.
 
Sports Illustrated shows up to get pictures of Mike Grier for their feature
on him in the annual swimsuit issue, but Grier is held scoreless and the
eventual HE and NCAA Champion Terriers endure their only home loss of the
year.  Warrior backup goalie Eric Thibeault, pressed into service a week
earlier because of an injury to eventual All-HE goalie Martin Legault, sets
a then HE record with 54 saves, 22 in the third period as BU outshoots
Merrimack 22-1.  The Warrior defense has perhaps its finest day ever,
killing all 11 BU power plays.  Only Merrimack's second non-forfeit win
ever over BU to date against 39 defeats and only win ever at BU.
Ironically, SI feature contains a photo from this game of Grier with Twin
Tower John Jakopin draped on him in front of Thibeault.  Jakopin earns
nickname "Cover Boy" and photo is proudly displayed in the offices at
Merrimack.
 
---                                                                   ---
Mike Machnik                   [log in to unmask]            *HMM* 11/13/93
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