Saturday, February 19, 1994 at Volpe Center, North Andover, MA
HOCKEY EAST GAME
Northeastern Huskies (17-9-5, 9-7-5 HE 3rd) 0 1 2 - 3
Merrimack Warriors (14-15-2, 6-12-2 HE 7th) 1 0 1 - 2
FIRST PERIOD NU-MC
1. MC1, Claudio Peca 10 (unassisted), 12:10. 0-1
SECOND PERIOD
2. NU1, Darryl MacNair 4 (Mike Collett), 19:13. 1-1
THIRD PERIOD
3. MC2, Mark Goble 9 (Mark Cornforth, Rob Atkinson), 1:00. 1-2
4. NU2, Tom Parlon 5 (MacNair, Hart Webb), 4:04. 2-2
5. NU3, Francois Bouchard 14 (Dan McGillis, Jordon Shields),
16:40. PPG GWG 3-2
SHOTS ON GOAL: Northeastern 5-11--7 = 23
Merrimack 12-18--8 = 38
SAVES: NU, Mike Veisor (60:00, W, 7-2-2, 38 sh-36 sv).
MC, Martin Legault (~59:30, L, 12-14-2, 23-20).
POWER PLAYS: NU 1 for 2. MC 0 for 3.
PENALTIES: NU 7/14. MC 6/12.
REFEREES: Ned Bunyon, Frank Cole. LINESMAN: Chuck Wynters.
ATTENDANCE: ~800.
THREE STARS: 1. G Mike Veisor, Northeastern (38 sh-36 sv).
2. D Francois Bouchard, Northeastern (1-0--1, GWG).
3. RW Claudio Peca, Merrimack (1-0--1).
Francois Bouchard's power play goal with 3:20 left in the game broke
a 2-2 tie and sent Northeastern on to a 3-2 win at Merrimack. The
teams split the weekend series as Merrimack won by an identical score
at NU Thursday. NU G Mike Veisor had a spectacular night in net,
stopping 36 of 38 shots - including all 18 he faced in the 2nd.
The win means NU is in very good shape as far as home ice for the
HE quarterfinals goes. The Huskies remain in 3rd place with 23
points, 3 pts ahead of PC and 5 pts ahead of 5th place UNH. Merrimack
had its five game winning streak snapped, along with its four game
HE winning streak.
Like Thursday, it was a very defensive game with good goaltending
by both sides. Merrimack's Martin Legault only saw 23 shots, stopping
20. The difference came in the third on the special teams when Merrimack
had three straight power plays and could not score, while Bouchard's
winner came just 34 seconds into NU's only PP of the period.
NU was without leading scorer Mike Taylor (10-31--41), who was benched
for unknown disciplinary reasons. Freshman Hart Webb moved up to
center the first line.
FIRST
Merrimack came out strong, outshooting the Huskies 12-5. Veisor was
tested often, robbing Tom Johnson early on a rebound attempt and later
stopping each member of the Johnson-Gibson-Goble line on a three-shot
sequence with some superb standup goaltending. If Veisor had gone
down on either the first shot or the second, it would probably have
been a goal.
The Warriors opened the scoring at 12:10 on an unassisted goal by
Claudio Peca, his 10th. An NU defenseman threw the puck out front
from behind his net and Veisor tried to push it clear with his stick,
but Peca was camped in front and faked Veisor, then scored. Veisor
would atone for that with many great saves over the next period and
a half.
Merrimack played very well in its own end like it has done over the last
6 games or so and NU was unable to mount any good scoring chances.
SECOND
The next period was marked by much more wide open play. NU carried
the play early on, especially the 4th line of Carmody-Lucas-Parlon.
However, after the first five minutes or so, the tide turned and it
was mostly Merrimack with the quality chances. Veisor forced Naylor
to shoot wide on a tough angle shot, and then stopped Beck and Krauss
on one play. He got help from the goalie's best friend as Hodge and
then Krauss rang the pipe on separate rushes And, when Merrimack's
first line of Naylor-Atkinson-Adams carried up ice on a 3x1, the
Warriors botched the play and wound up without even a shot on the
rush.
Veisor made perhaps the save of the night to keep the score 1-0 when
Beck and Krauss worked a 2x0 give and go, and Veisor slid across to
foil Krauss with his left pad.
After all that, the Huskies took advantage of a Merrimack mistake
to tie the game with just 47 seconds remaining in the period. The
puck was deep in the zone, and Merrimack was left with only Mark
Cornforth guarding the blue line. When NU's Mike Collett gained
control in the slot and began to carry out, Cornforth wisely backed
off and stayed with Collett on what started as a 1x1 rush. But with
no one back to help Cornforth, Darryl MacNair was able to rush up the
right side and turn it into a 2x1. Cornforth played Collett well,
but the Huskie made a beautiful spinning behind the back pass to
MacNair who rifled the puck past Legault from the right circle
THIRD
Merrimack regained its one goal lead at 1:00 on Mark Goble's 9th
of the season, a blast from high in the slot. NU tied it 2-2 at
4:04 when Tom Parlon tipped in MacNair's shot from the point. Webb
picked up an assist as he started the play deep in the zone, passing
back to MacNair.
The Warriors had three great chances to go ahead when successive
NU penalties were whistled at 5:09, 8:19, and 12:56. But each time,
although Merrimack controlled the puck in the zone and moved it well,
they weren't able to put more than a total of maybe 2 or 3 good shots
on net. Then with 3:54 left, Cornforth took a penalty for hauling
down Webb on Webb's rebound attempt, and it was just 34 seconds later
that Bouchard fired his blast from the point past a screened Legault
to give NU the win. The Huskies played solid defense the rest of
the way and did not allow Merrimack to get the sixth skater on till
there were about 30 seconds left, and even then Merrimack couldn't
do anything with it.
POSTGAME
A good win for NU, which continued to have problems counteracting
Merrimack's pressure defense but took advantage of the few good
chances they had. This makes up for the loss they suffered to
Merrimack on Thursday, a game that NU probably should have won. So
the teams split the weekend with each winning in the other's building.
NU takes the season set, 2-1-1.
Coming in to the weekend, Merrimack probably would have been happy
with a split against one of the higher ranked teams in the nation,
but the win Thursday on the road meant that a subsequent split would
have been disappointing, and it was. They had a chance to keep pace
with UNH and Maine for a shot at 5th, but this loss means that in
all likelihood they won't finish higher than 7th. It's certainly
good to hold a potentially explosive team like NU to 5 goals on the
weekend, but not good to only get a split after doing that.
It also means that Tuesday's game at BC will likely decide whether
Merrimack finishes above BC or not. MC is 2 points up on BC, which
has a game in hand, and MC has both games so far and clinched the
season series. The Warriors will finish a stretch of 6 road games
out of 7 when they travel to Maine next weekend for a pair, Saturday
and Sunday nights. Maine seems to be playing its best hockey of the
season, earning ties in their last three games at Lowell (twice)
and at BU. Maine's holding BU scoreless at home is a good indication
that Merrimack will have its work cut out next weekend.
NU can clinch home ice with four points in its final 3 games, against
BU (home and home) and BC (home). The Huskies travel cross town to
BU for their next game, Friday 2/25 at 7 pm, and then will host the
Terriers the following evening.
--- ---
Mike Machnik [log in to unmask]
Cabletron Systems, Inc. *HMM* 11/13/93
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