Keith writes (at 10:08 pm):
>Just got off the phone with the nice lady in the UNH pressbox.
That is because the Merrimack-UNH game lasted over three hours due to a
full-scale brawl (not bench-clearer) 6 min into the third that caused the
game to be delayed half an hour. 144 PIM (unofficial) were whistled in the
game along with 2 DQs to Merrimack and none to UNH - hmm.
I'm too tired to post the whole box and all now and have to get up for work
tomorrow (all that shoveling was a killer), but here are a few details.
Merrimack stormed Brett Abel in the first, putting on 17 shots, but the UNH
goalie turned them all aside while his teammates took a 2-0 lead. That
seemed to take the life out of MC, especially early in the second when MC's
John Barron and UNH's Kevin Thomson each threw punches but only Barron was
called; UNH scored on the PP and added 3 more to take a 6-0 lead by the
midpoint of the second. Greg Klym and Mike Sullivan each scored twice in
that barrage. Credit the UNH defense for playing extremely well; if they
keep this up, they just might upset BU.
The brawl occurred when UNH was being called on a delayed penalty and then
Fowler and Donovan collided at center ice, dropped their gloves and started
fighting. Everyone else paired off and went at it, with UNH's Poole coming
across the ice and jumping a Merrimack player from behind. Unfortunately,
the referees made a huge blunder by tossing two MC players and not giving
any DQs to UNH. This was clearly because UNH was so far ahead and appeared
headed to the semis, but I do not think that gives carte blanche to a team
to get involved in such a brawl knowing that the referees will not have the
guts to toss out the players who should go, and there were at least two
from UNH who should have gone - Donovan, who fought with Fowler, and Poole,
who jumped a MC player and fought with McMillan. Fowler and McMillan were
ejected - Donovan and Poole were not. This was ludicrous, because despite
the potential for frustration and the likelihood that a team trailing 6-1
would start something, it was not what happened. I place the blame 50-50
on both teams.
UNH coach Dick Umile also spent much of the time during the brawl yelling
at Merrimack coach Ron Anderson, as if it was entirely Merrimack's fault
that the situation occurred. Umile made some outrageous statements
during the postgame press conference about his players being saints and
doing a nice job of not fighting back. I wouldn't expect him to say
anything less, but let's face it, anyone who saw the game knows that's not
what happened. The UNH fans showed a lot of class by trying to start
fights with Gravelle, Fowler and McMillan as they were led off the ice.
Anderson refused comment on the officiating, saying only that he knew what
he saw.
>Merrimack 2 at New Hampshire 9 (UNH advances 2-0)
>Providence 3 at Mass-Lowell 3 ot (UML advances 1-0-1)
>Boston College 1 at Boston University 5 (BU advances 2-0)
This means the HE semifinal matchups will be Maine-Lowell and UNH-BU,
apparently with Maine-Lowell facing off at 5 pm from Ryan's post.
>All home teams have advanced so far except WMU, with RPI-Colgate
>yet to decide their series.
Stole my line. :-)
With the season over for Merrimack and the careers of the 11 seniors also
coming to an end, I'd like to relay my personal high point of the night and
maybe of the season: after the game, Merrimack forward Guy Ragault, a
former hockey-l member, came running up to me and gave me a great piece of
news: he's going to med school. Guy, who had the highest GPA in HE a
couple of years ago, is a great kid and I wish him the best.
Box and some notes on the game to come sometime Monday night. They were
still sorting out the penalties half an hour after the game, so all I have
to go on are the shot charts. Best of luck to the four teams competing in
the HE final four, should be some great games.
---
Mike Machnik [log in to unmask] Color Voice of the Merrimack Warriors
(Any opinions expressed above are strictly those of the poster.) *HMN*
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