As predicted, Merrimack goalie Steve D'Amore is this week's Hockey East
Player of the Week.  D'Amore allowed one goal in 120 minutes for a 0.50 GAA
on the weekend, beating BC 3-1 Friday and earning his first career shutout
against Northeastern Saturday, 2-0.  The senior from Peabody, MA stopped
51 of the 52 shots he faced in the two games for a save percentage of .981.
His performance enabled Merrimack to chalk up its first HE win since 1/26/91
and its first weekend sweep since that same weekend last January.
 
D'Amore continues to have a stellar season for Merrimack.  He lowered his
overall GAA to 3.31 with a .885 save %, and his record is 9-8-0.  In Hockey
East games, he has played every minute of 8 games and has a 2-6-0 record,
3.40 GAA, and a .881 save %.  His GAA over his last five games is 2.00.  Steve
entered the season having played a total of 1563 minutes in 31 games (5.14 GAA,
.866 save %) over three years.  He will likely top those numbers in this
season alone, as he has played 1015 minutes in 19 games already with 13 regular
season games left.  In fact, I dare say he is playing his way into a spot
on the HE All-Star Team along with Garth Snow.
 
While Merrimack had forwards Agostino Casale and Dan Gravelle among the
leading scorers in the nation for quite a while (both have tailed off a bit
lately), the Warriors remain among the top defensive teams in the nation with
a 3.44 team GAA.  Both in HE contests and overall, only Maine has a better
GAA.  The top two defensive teams in the league square off for a home-and-home
series this coming Friday and Sunday.
 
The Rookie of the Week was BU forward Steve Thornton.  He had an assist in
BU's 6-4 win at Northeastern Friday, but I don't know what he did Saturday.