Kurt Stutt writes:
>Thoughts and Things from the RPI Invitational Tournament
Thanks to Kurt for posting all of this info. Having been away from
HOCKEY-L for a while, it was nice to see all of the posts on this and
other tourneys.
I should start by saying that it was great fun to work with Kurt and
Jayson on the WRPI broadcast of Merrimack-RPI. It's always nice to
get to hear the great work being done by other members of the college
hockey intelligentsia, and Kurt and Jayson put a lot of effort into
making their broadcasts informative and entertaining. Jayson's goal
calls are exciting and loud enough that I could hear them even over
the Field House foghorn. :-)
I was also honored to join Maine's Joe Carr once again, for the Maine
radio network's broadcasts of Miami-Maine and Maine-RPI. One of the
nice things about working the Maine broadcasts is that I have learned
more about the Black Bears and gained a greater appreciation for them,
partly because of Joe's in-depth knowledge and partly because I was
able to pay more attention to Maine.
It seems as if I've done more games this year now that Merrimack
*doesn't* have a contract. :-) I hope that the people in Maine and in
NY enjoyed hearing the broadcasts as much as I enjoyed being a part of
them and working with these terrific supporters of the sport.
Just after the Miami-Merrimack consolation game, during which I played
SID-for-a-day with Merrimack's Jim Seavey away, Merrimack asst coach
Stu Irving asked if I would be sticking around for the championship,
and I said yes, that I was working with Joe again on the Maine broadcast.
Stu then asked when I was moving to Orono, and when I laughed and said
I wasn't, he replied, "But that's how it starts!" :-)
>TOURNAMENT MVP
>
>Tim Lovell, Maine
Lovell was an easy choice once Maine had the game in hand, having
tallied a hat trick in the 5-3 win over Miami and followed that up
with 2 goals and 3 assists against RPI for 5-3--8 in 2 games. Lovell
entered the tourney with 6-11--17 in 21 games. Wow.
After the trick vs Miami, Bob Croce of the Albany Times-Union referred
to Lovell in Friday's edition as a "Paul Kariya in the making", which
got the sophomore a new nickname from his team: "P.K." - and not
because of his penalty killing. :-)
>As for the tournament itself, all four games were good. None were
>definitely decided until late, so suspense was there. Miami, in losing
>both games, had the roughest time. The Redskins only dressed 15
>skaters for the second night. Four regulars were removed, and only
>one person put into the lineup to replace them. Apparently, Coach
>Mazzoleni felt they were only going through the motions and wanted
>to send a message to the team.
This was an interesting move, dressing only 10 forwards and 5 Ds.
Many coaches would dress the 18 skaters but just not play some of
them. What if someone gets hurt? This proved to be costly as one D,
Jeff Reid, had his pinky finger clipped early in the first when he
lost his glove and then suffered the injury while either trying to get
off (in the door) or from a stick, I'm not sure which. He left the
ice to have it stitched up and bandaged, and returned to sit on the
bench the rest of the way until Mazzoleni's bench minor which he
served.
>Merrimack is a team that puzzles me. They appear to play much better
>than their record indicates (5-10-3 after the tournament). It is a young
>team, so that could be the reason. They have played RPI tight in both
>games this year, and did a good job against Miami.
I was satisfied with Merrimack's play vs Miami, but not satisfied with
their play vs RPI. Defense is the key to Merrimack's game, and as it
turned out, the return of senior defensemen Mark Cornforth and Dan
Hodge to the lineup seemed to hamper the strong defensive play that MC
has been playing of late. The team made numerous mistakes that I had
grown accustomed to not seeing.
I thought that things could have been different with the same lineup
that played two tough games against Maine a few weeks ago. While it
was good to get the seniors back, they were nonetheless rusty (in
Hodge's words) and their presence meant that two younger Ds who had
played superbly against Maine, Chris Silvestro and Karl Infanger, had
to watch from the stands.
For the Miami game, Silvestro and Infanger returned, while Tom Costa
and Hodge sat - Hodge nursing an injury suffered in the RPI game. The
change in the defensive play was impressive. Silvestro picked up two
assists and was the best Merrimack D out there. It's going to be
interesting to see what Ron Anderson does with the sudden logjam of
quality defensemen he has - Silvestro in particular has certainly
played more than well enough to earn the right to play. But Hodge and
Cornforth need to get back into the swing of things since at their
best, they make a big difference in the team's chances to win. They
will be needed in March.
>Maine wins are ugly, as Coach Walsh says. This is not the team that
>featured Paul Kariya. These two games remind me of the Maine team
>at Hockeyfest in 1992. The games were tight until the third period,
>when Maine decided to take over. Miami had two shots on goal in the
>third, RPI had only one.
This was a real key, that Maine was effective at completely shutting
down the opponents' offense once they established a lead. Still,
although RPI jumped out to the 3-0 lead early on vs Maine, the game
seemed to change momentum once Lovell got Maine on the board.
RPI's Kelly Askew said after the game that even with the 3-0 lead, RPI
felt nervous - and they played that way, while Maine played with poise
and gradually took control of the game. The fact that Maine was able
to bounce back and dominate the way they did without stellar play from
Allison has to give them confidence, knowing that they can do the job.
>RPI had a good tournament. They played well against Merrimack, and
>the loss to Maine was the first loss all season in which I wasn't
>thoroughly disgusted with their play.
It seemed to me that despite the win over Merrimack, RPI still played
like a team feeling the effects of the layoff. And against Maine,
after the young defense impressed early with the way it would not
allow Maine's forwards to get in close to Tamburro, they had some real
problems once the Maine forwards turned up the heat. It has become
fashionable to say that Maine has a bunch of no-name forwards, but
that's really not the case. Parmentier and Wansborough had a
wonderful tournament and are establishing themselves as two of the top
rookie forwards in HE. They consistently carried the play the final
two periods and RPI had a lot of trouble containing them. The real
strength of Maine's forwards is that while there are no true "P.K."'s,
they still have a load of guys who *can* put the puck in the net - 13
goals in two games showed that. They're only going to get better, too.
For RPI, while the defense showed its youth, the forwards skated well
and looked like world-beaters until Maine's D clamped down. Healey is
a good one, and he seems to work well with Hamelin and Perardi who
also had good tourneys. And the line of Askew-Matthews-Clarke looked
better than I have ever seen them. If this continues and the D
settles down, RPI should be a tough team to beat the rest of the way -
forget the Princeton game. One thing I would like to see is Battaglia
moved up to a more regular shift on one of the top three lines so he
can throw his weight around, although I'm not sure who he would replace.
In all, a good tourney...I was disappointed in Merrimack's loss to
RPI, but they still finished 1-1 by returning to their forte of good
defense and beating a Miami team that is remarkably similar in many
ways. RPI had to have been disappointed in losing to Maine after a
good start, but you learn from these things, and playing a team like
Maine is bound to help anyone. And Maine gained a lot in team
confidence in being able to carry Allison for a change and prove that
they can win even if he isn't up to par.
--- ---
Mike Machnik [log in to unmask]
Cabletron Systems, Inc. *HMM* 11/13/93
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