Friday, November 29, 1991 at Volpe Complex, North Andover, MA
NONCONFERENCE GAME
Alaska-Anchorage Seawolves (8-2-0) 1 2 1 - 4
Merrimack Warriors (5-7-0) 0 0 2 - 2
FIRST PERIOD AA-MC
1. AA1, Steve Bogoyevac #3 (Derek Donald), 3:54. 1-0
SECOND PERIOD
2. AA2, Mitch Kean #2 (Jim Mayes), 5:25. 2-0
3. AA3, Bogoyevac #4 (Brad Stewart), 7:18. PPG 3-0
THIRD PERIOD
4. MC1, Bryan Miller #5 (Claude Maillet, Dan Gravelle), 4:05. PPG 3-1
5. AA4, Martin Bakula #4 (Keith Morris, Donald), 8:37. PPG 4-1
6. MC2, Maillet #2 (Gravelle), 10:47. PPG 4-2
SHOTS ON GOAL: Alaska-Anchorage 11-16--5 = 32
Merrimack 3--6-15 = 24
GOALIES: Alaska-Anchorage, Paul Krake (6-2-0, 60:00, 24 shots-22 saves).
Merrimack, Steve D'Amore (3-6-0, 60:00, 32 shots-28 saves).
POWER PLAYS: UAA, 2 of 4. Merrimack, 2 of 7.
PENALTIES: UAA 8/16. Merrimack 6/12.
REFEREE: Ned Bunyon. LINESMEN: Chuck Wynters, Jeff Bunyon.
ATTENDANCE: 987 (capacity 3,617).
THREE STARS: 1. Steve Bogoyevac, Alaska-Anchorage (2-0--2).
2. Derek Donald, Alaska-Anchorage (0-2--2).
3. Steve D'Amore, Merrimack (32 shots-28 saves).
Alaska-Anchorage won its second straight game on this Hockey East road trip,
completely dominating Merrimack through the first two periods in building
a 3-0 lead and then holding off a ferocious onslaught in the third to win,
4-2. Center Steve Bogoyevac had two goals to lead the Seawolves.
UAA outshot Merrimack, 11-3, in the first period as the Seawolves shut down
Merrimack's potent offense and showed some of their own. Bogoyevac
scored the only goal of the period at 3:54 when he banged in the rebound
of linemate Derek Donald's shot. UAA's defense was just as stellar as it
was on Wednesday against UNH, blocking shots and creating turnovers. The
Warriors also looked pretty flat after a demoralizing loss to Notre Dame
and faced a team that came right at them and was sky-high after a great
win at UNH.
The second period saw more of the same with UAA outshooting Merrimack,
16-6 (27-9 for the game), capitalizing on Merrimack miscues for two more
goals. Fourth-liner Mitch Kean took a feed from Jim Mayes after the
Warriors coughed up the puck in UAA's end, and Kean marched down and
beat D'Amore at 5:25 to make it 2-0. That was a big goal because until
then, despite the disparity in play, UAA only led by one. Less than two
minutes later, after Merrimack had cleared the zone while shorthanded,
Brad Stewart intercepted a cross-ice pass and saw that Merrimack had
already begun moving out of the zone in anticipation of a shorthanded
bid. Stewart fed Bogoyevac at the offensive blue line, and Bogoyevac
shifted into fourth, blew by the remaining defenseman, and walked in on
D'Amore for a shot through the pads to make it 3-0. Shots attempted
was a pretty good indication of the UAA domination as they led, 30-9.
As I said in my response to Kevin Yetman's message, rather than pack it
in, Merrimack came out in the third and turned the game around completely.
Krake was forced to make several great stops early on against Casale
and Gravelle, and then Merrimack went on the power play when Trent
Pankewicz drew a penalty for cross-checking. For the first time in 16
chances, the PP clicked. As they moved into the familiar umbrella
rotation, Gravelle down low fed defenseman Claude Maillet at the circle,
and he fed Bryan Miller alone at the blue line whose shot found net
behind Krake. It was Miller's fifth goal of the year and only Merrimack's
second goal in 174:16.
The Warriors continued to press, and Teal Fowler drew a hooking penalty
on Kevin Brown when he knocked the puck away from Brown and started to
take off on a possible breakaway, but Brown hooked him down on a good
penalty. The PP lasted only 15 seconds until Gravelle was called for
holding to even it up again. On the 4x4, Casale had a great rush when he
took the puck from his end, determined to make something happen, and he
sped up the left side, cut in and got off a shot that looked like it had
beaten Krake - but the superb dufflebag had come up big again.
UAA went on the power play after a penalty to Jeff Massey at 8:24, and
just 13 seconds later they reestablished their three-goal advantage on a
very big goal. Martin Bakula, the brilliant defenseman from Czechoslovakia,
fired a bullet from the point that appeared to deflect off a Merrimack
player and past D'Amore. D'Amore really couldn't be faulted on any of the
UAA goals, all were either deflections or the result of Merrimack
defensive mistakes. As with the UAA-UNH game, the difference was UAA's
superb defense which gave away little to the Warriors. What Merrimack got
in the third, they earned.
At 10:47, again on the power play, Gravelle won the draw to Krake's right
and drew it back to Maillet, whose shot from the left point made it 4-2
and kept Merrimack's hopes alive. The difference in the power play in
the third seemed to be that Merrimack decided to shoot the puck more
instead of being pretty with it. As I said on the air, nine shots through
two periods isn't going to get you enough chances to score, and at least
we didn't see as much you-take-it, I-don't-want-it on the PP in the third.
That coupled with the hell-bent attitudes of Casale and Fowler was a
positive sign that will hopefully carry over. UAA buckled down and played
Merrimack evenly to hold on for the win, but I'm sure the Seawolves felt
a little lucky to come out with two points.
EPILOGUE
Seeing the Seawolves these two games and in the NC** series against BC
last year hasn't changed my opinion of them. They're a solid defensive
team that has a strength of getting consistent play from all four lines
at both ends of the ice, great goaltending from Krake, and will pounce
on any mistakes you make. And players like Bogoyevac, Larson and Donald
can make chances of their own. Like I told Brad Falduto from the
Anchorage Times, I don't care if there was no Independent bid this season,
UAA deserves a serious look and right now is probably one of the best 12
teams in the country.
UAA plays its final game on this trip tomorrow night at UMass-Lowell which
should be an interesting battle of two teams with similar styles. UAA
then plays two games at Kent next weekend, following which they will play
*ALL* their remaining games in Alaska. The Seawolves will have 17 of
their remaining 20 regular season at home in Anchorage, with the other
three coming at Alaska-Fairbanks. In all, UAA will play 23 of 33 games
at home. The top remaining opponents will be Colorado College and either
Northern Michigan or Ferris State at the Nissan/Jeep Classic, and two-game
sets at home with Providence, Brown, and Michigan Tech, plus four games
with Alaska-Fairbanks. It looks as if the Independent bid is UAA's to
lose. On top of that, I'd be surprised if they don't end up with at
least 25 wins, and they could do well enough to be the first Independent
to be seeded higher than sixth in their region.
Merrimack, now 5-7-0, hosts Dartmouth Tuesday night in a game that will
be shown live on NESN.
RADIO NEWS
Technical difficulties forced us to go on the air right after the national
anthem, which was too bad since I had worked long and hard getting ready
for the pregame. That ended up being postponed to the first intermission.
It was a little difficult since I had to do color while also taking care
of my regular duties, so if you happened to hear the game, much of the time
while John Moran (play-by-play) was talking, I was pulling off my headphones
and either yelling assists or trying to get scores, etc. Of course we
were so smooth, you never heard any of this. :-) I have to add thanks to
Dave Josselyn, sports editor of the Argus (Merrimack paper), who helped
out by doing a couple of stats I usually do. Special thanks to writer
Doyle Woody of the Anchorage Daily News who provided us a great interview
for the second intermission. Just FYI, both he and fellow Anchorage writer
Brad Falduto do not expect UAA and UAF to be admitted to the WCHA in
January; however, they are hopeful that some sort of scheduling agreement
will be worked out to ensure the Alaska schools are guaranteed some games
against WCHA competition.
So how did it go? I'm never happy with much of anything that I do; I
just finished listening to the tape, while typing this, and as usual I
picked out 1001 things I thought I did wrong. But overall I'd have to
say that except for too many "you knows", it went well. I've been asked
back to do the Dartmouth game Tuesday and Army next Friday, so tune in
on 800 AM...we will see if my losing (0-2) record as a Merrimack color man
will change. :-)
Oh yeah, you can tune out Bob Kurtz and Bob Norton on NESN and listen to our
broadcast on Tuesday if you like. :-)
SCORES
BC 4, Army 1.
Maine 5, Notre Dame 1.
That's all I know (no wisecracks).
---
Mike Machnik [log in to unmask] [log in to unmask]
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