Friday, January 10, 1991 at Conte Forum, Chestnut Hill, MA
HOCKEY EAST GAME
Merrimack Warriors (10-9-0, 1-6-0 HE) 0 2 1 - 3
Boston College Eagles (7-10-1, 4-5-0 HE) 0 0 1 - 1
FIRST PERIOD MC-BC
No scoring.
SECOND PERIOD
1. MC1, Brendan Locke 2 (Cooper Naylor, John Barron), 15:12. 1-0
2. MC2, Agostino Casale 17 (unassisted), 19:05. SHG GWG 2-0
THIRD PERIOD
3. BC1, Ryan Haggerty 5 (Jack Callahan, John Joyce), 1:08. 2-1
4. MC3, Jim Gibson 2 (Teal Fowler, Bryan Miller), 6:54. PPG 3-1
SHOTS ON GOAL: Merrimack 5-12--4 = 21
Boston College 10--7--9 = 26
GOALIES: Merrimack, Steve D'Amore (8-8-0, 60:00, 26 shots-25 saves).
BC, Scott LaGrand (5-8-0, 60:00, 21 shots-18 saves).
POWER PLAYS: Merrimack, 1 of 3. BC, 0 of 2.
PENALTIES: Merrimack 4/16. BC 4/8.
REFEREE: Scott Leavitt. LINESMEN: Andy Hennigar, Paul Scleparis.
ATTENDANCE: 4,031 (capacity 7,884).
THREE STARS: 1. Merrimack, Steve D'Amore (26 shots-25 saves).
2. Merrimack, Cooper Naylor (0-1--1).
3. BC, Ryan Haggerty (1-0--1).
Merrimack got goals late in the second period from captain Brendan Locke
and leading goal-scorer Agostino Casale to break a 0-0 tie and send the
Warriors on to a 3-1 win at Boston College. The win broke a 14-game losing
streak in Hockey East regular season games for Merrimack. It was their
first HE win since a weekend sweep of Northeastern and Providence on
Jan 25-26, 1991.
Predictably, the game was a defensive struggle most of the way through. The
difference between the season's previous two matchups of Merrimack and BC
was that this time, Merrimack goalie Steve D'Amore got the better of his
Eagle counterpart Scott LaGrand. D'Amore stopped 25 of 26 shots, allowing
only one goal to Ryan Haggerty early in the third, and his teammates came
up with the big goals at key points in the game.
The tone may have been set early on when Merrimack's Dan Gravelle went off
for interference at 4:37 and BC's power play spent almost the entire two
minutes in the zone, firing several point blank shots - but D'Amore was
there to stop every one. D'Amore has been quietly making a name for himself
this season both in and out of Hockey East.
The remainder of the first and most of the second saw both teams playing
strong defensive hockey and bottling up the opposing forwards. It remained
0-0 until the 15:12 mark when Brendan Locke gave Merrimack a lead it would
not relinquish. Locke came up the right side and LaGrand started falling
back into his net instead of attacking Locke. Locke fired a shot that
LaGrand stopped, but Locke picked up the rebound, came around the net and
put another shot on from about 15 feet that found net for his second of
the year with linemates Cooper Naylor and John Barron assisting.
BC had its second power play of the game not long afterwards when Don
MacLeod was whistled for slashing at 17:56, and this proved to be the key
point in the game. BC wasn't able to put the kind of pressure on D'Amore
that they did early in the first, and rather than getting an equalizer to
go into the third tied, they ended up giving up a bad shorthanded goal
and were down 2-0. BC defenseman Michael Spalla had the puck behind his
own net and looked for a long breakout pass, but his feed was stolen by
Agostino Casale right in the middle of the slot. Casale immediately
lifted a backhander over LaGrand's left shoulder before the goalie knew what
had happened. It was Casale's 17th goal of the year and gives him 30 points
overall.
BC came out storming in the third and pulled within one just 1:08 in on
Haggerty's fifth goal. He came up the left side and put a shot on D'Amore
that the Merrimack goalie stopped, but as he fell backwards into the net,
the puck rolled in and it was 2-1. But from here on out, Merrimack's
defense was strong, clearing rebounds and breaking up a couple of 2-on-1's.
There were no defensemen in the three stars, but for my money Warrior
defensemen Mark Cornforth and Alex Weinrich were two of the best players
on the ice tonight; BC defensemen Ian Moran, Joe Cleary and Ron Pascucci
also had solid games as BC's D typically played well.
Merrimack added an insurance goal on the power play at 6:54. The Warriors
had been 3-for-29 in Hockey East man-advantage situations entering this
PP, showing no signs of life on one PP early in the second, but this time
it took only four seconds to hit paydirt. After Mike McCarthy went off
for tripping at 6:50 for BC, Teal Fowler won the ensuing draw to LaGrand's
right back to Bryan Miller at the left point. Miller's shot was deflected
in by LW Jim Gibson who continues to play well since coming back four
games ago. That ended the scoring; BC outshot Merrimack 9-4 in the third.
EPILOGUE
Merrimack is happy to get that monkey off their backs and looks to pull
off a weekend sweep with a win Saturday night over Northeastern. After
some early-season doldrums, Merrimack has played well in its last six
games and could pull off some surprises heading down the stretch in Hockey
East. Boston College goes to Providence Sunday night and continues to
have trouble offensively. If LaGrand has an off night, as he appeared to
have tonight, the Eagles are in trouble. His goals-against was 3.65
entering this game, and that's too high if BC is to be a contender.
Other Friday night scores were Providence 4 UMass-Lowell 4 (ot), and
Boston University 6 Northeastern 4.
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Mike Machnik [log in to unmask] [log in to unmask]
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