Guy "The Silent One" Ragault writes:
>Just a note on Goose (Yannick Gosselin), about the 1st goal of ND at 19:55 of
>the 3rd period.
>
>Better be careful on what you say, kid, because Goose is sitting right here,
>and he assured me that the shot was deflected twice and screened. It might
>have looked like the puck was easy to stop but when you got 5 Notre Dame
>guys in your face with a shot coming, nothing is easy.
>Can't stop what you can't see. Try for yourself...
>
>Second goal in overtime was exactly the same thing.
 
Right, I think I mentioned this in my posting, that both shots were deflected
and you usually can't fault a goalie on that.  The real problem was with
the faceoff coverage.  The ND forwards weren't tied up well on either goal,
plus both key draws to Goose's left weren't won.
 
>Now about using three goalies in the game, maybe it's not the best thing
>to do (Goose says), but I'm not so sure that if D'Amore or Doneghey had been
>there, it would have been different.
 
It was already known ahead of time that all three would play, so it wasn't
a sudden decision.  And there was no problem with Goose not being warmed up
enough since he didn't allow a goal until 19:55 of the period.  Like you say,
the decision to go with all three goalies can be questioned (hindsight is
always 20/20), but I don't believe it had a bearing on the game's outcome.
 
Going back to our friend's comments on the thinking behind using three goalies,
it really wasn't a case of any one of them being used as a "reliever".  D'Amore
seems to have earned the job for now with his good play early on.  Despite
the 5-7-0 record, goaltending really isn't the problem.  But at any rate, it
is definitely wrong to make Goose out as the scapegoat for the loss as I have
heard some people do.  And it's a week later and I can't believe we're still
talking about it!  Chalk it up to experience and go on to the next one.
 
BTW, it is interesting to note that all three Merrimack netminders have
roughly the same GAA, and all three are much lower than last season.  And
Goose is the team leader with 3.70 in 81 minutes.  Doneghey has 3.83 in
94 minutes, and D'Amore has 4.07 in 546 minutes.  But D'Amore has played
every minute of 4 Hockey East games (GAA 4.02 in HE play).
 
>Guy Ragault
>(and Goose)
 
Hey Guy, can't the Goose speak for himself or are you his agent? :-) :-)
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Mike Machnik        [log in to unmask]       [log in to unmask]