Thursday, February 17, 1994 at Matthews Arena, Boston, MA
HOCKEY EAST GAME
Merrimack Warriors (14-14-2, 6-11-2 HE 7th) 1 0 1 1 - 3
Northeastern Huskies (16-9-5, 8-7-5 HE 3rd) 0 1 1 0 - 2
FIRST PERIOD MC-NU
1. MC1, Mark Goble 8 (Jim Gibson, John Jakopin), 3:29. 1-0
SECOND PERIOD
2. NU1, Dan Lupo 12 (David Penney), 2:32. 1-1
THIRD PERIOD
3. NU2, Dan McGillis 4 (Mike Collett, Jordon Shields), 0:56. PPG 1-2
4. MC2, Tom Johnson 10 (Dan Hodge), 18:35. 2-2
OVERTIME
5. MC3, Gibson 8 (Goble, Jakopin), 0:15. GWG 3-2
SHOTS ON GOAL: Merrimack 7-10--5--1 = 23
Northeastern 15--6-10--0 = 31
SAVES: MC, Martin Legault (60:15, W, 12-13-2, 31 sh-29 sv).
NU, Todd Reynolds (60:15, L, 10-6-3, 23-20).
POWER PLAYS: MC 0 for 4. NU 1 for 5.
PENALTIES: MC 11/22. NU 10/20.
REFEREES: Steve McBride, John Gravellese. LINESMAN: Chuck Wynters.
ATTENDANCE: 1,002.
THREE STARS: 1. G Martin Legault, Merrimack (31 sh-29 sv).
2. G Todd Reynolds, Northeastern (23 sh-20 sv).
3. C Jim Gibson, Merrimack (1-1--2, GWG).
15 seconds into overtime, Jim Gibson took a feed from John Jakopin,
went in and faked Northeastern goalie Todd Reynolds, and flipped the
puck into the net to give Merrimack its fifth straight win, 3-2, on
the road. The goal came after Merrimack had tied the game with 1:25
left on a goal by Tom Johnson. Martin Legault continued his stellar
play, stopping 29 of 31 NU shots and being named First Star of the
Game by the NU staff. He lowered his GAA to 3.57 with a save % of
.897.
With the win, Merrimack evened its overall record at .500, 14-14-2.
Merrimack has never been .500 this late in the season since joining
Hockey East. As well, some other notables were accomplished:
* 5 straight wins overall is the longest Merrimack winning (and
unbeaten) streak since January, 1989.
* 4 straight HE wins is the longest streak in Merrimack's 5 year
HE history.
* Merrimack remains unbeaten in HE overtime games, 8-0-2 - the only
HE team never to have lost a league game in OT.
* Merrimack goes to 4-0-2 in OT this season, 8-0-4 over the last
two seasons.
* With a mark of 6-11-2 in HE, the Warriors are within two points of
matching their best record since joining HE, with 5 games left. Their
14 wins ties them for the most overall wins by a Merrimack team in
5 years.
Merrimack extended its lead over 8th place Boston College to three
points, although BC has two games in hand. The teams meet one more
time on Tuesday, February 22. Merrimack also pulled within a point
of 5th-place UNH and Maine. NU lost a chance to pull away from 4th
place Providence, which remains a point behind NU with 2 games in
hand.
FIRST PERIOD
Merrimack opened the scoring at 3:29 when Jakopin dumped the puck in
and Gibson outraced a Huskie to get to it first. He quickly threw
it in front, where Goble redirected it past Reynolds who never moved.
The goal was the 8th of the season for Goble, who has been slowly
returning to his scoring ways after suffering from the sophomore jinx.
The rest of the period saw each team enjoy two power plays, but the
goalies were superb. Legault made bang-bang saves off of Tom O'Connor
and Mike Taylor on one play, and later he flashed the glove to stop
J.F. Aube off a faceoff. Meanwhile, Reynolds came up big on a
shorthanded bid by Claudio Peca, coming out to pokecheck the puck.
SECOND
Reynolds faced shots by Johnson and Gibson on the same sequence and
stopped both, falling on the puck to tie it up. Then NU tied the score
at 1-1 at 2:32 on a nice combination by Dan Lupo and David Penney.
Penney blew by Karl Infanger to set up a 2x0, and after drawing Legault
to him, he fed across to Lupo for the easy goal. Later, Penney had
another good chance but Legault lucked out, falling on the rebound
although he didn't know where it was.
Shots would favor Merrimack in the period after going NU's way in
the first, but we again saw some good work by the dufflebags. Reynolds
got the end of his stick on a shot by Matt Adams and deflected it over
the net. And, with NU's Jason Melong in alone, Legault came out to
poke it away and break up a good bid.
THIRD
At 31 seconds, Merrimack's Eric Weichselbaumer was whistled for
interference when he took down Aube. NU capitalized just 25 seconds
later when Dan McGillis blasted the puck through a screen from the
blue line. That put the Huntington Hounds up 2-1, and with the way
it was going, it looked like that PPG might be the difference.
Merrimack went up a man when Reynolds received what was his second
minor of the game (he has received 5 penalties for 13 minutes this
season), but the Huskies killed it off successfully - Shields and
Melong put good pressure on the points and did not allow the dangerous
shot from Dan Hodge. Later, Merrimack got a huge break when NU was
pressing in the zone and just as McGillis teed up the puck from the
point, Merrimack D Mark Cornforth pushed the net off. The puck went in
but the goal was waved off, and Cornforth went to the box for delay
of game. The funny thing is, I have seen him do this maybe dozens
of times in his three years, and this is the first time he's been called.
It was certainly a situation Merrimack welcomed; take the goal away
and get a second chance, if they killed the penalty - which they did.
Following the penalty, the officials made a blunder by not whistling
Cornforth offsides when he came out of the box, took a pass and went
in to almost beat Reynolds. Cornforth had not returned to his own
zone before touching the puck.
Goble almost tied it for the Warriors on a shorthanded bid when he
went in on Reynolds and got two good shots off. Then with 4 minutes
left, O'Connor fired a shot that Legault grabbed to keep his team
within one. With 3 minutes left, Merrimack got away with what could
have been a too many men call as the player coming off had taken a
shot that was blocked, then his replacement came on to keep the puck
in the zone before the first guy went off.
Merrimack called timeout at 18:07 and it was almost time to pull
Legault, but Johnson's heroics made that unnecessary. At 18:35,
Johnson got the rebound of Hodge's shot from the point and fired it
past Reynolds from the left circle to make it 2-2. The rest of
the period was uneventful and we headed to overtime.
OVERTIME
Off the opening draw, the puck was in the Merrimack end, where Goble
picked it up in front of Legault. He passed to Jakopin at the right
boards, and Jakopin fought off a forechecker and sprung Gibson on
the breakaway. Gibson faked one way, waited as Reynolds went down,
continued to hold the puck and then shot it in the almost empty net,
and it was over just like that.
POSTGAME
This was one of those games Merrimack was lucky to win. NU did not
have any breaks go their way, and it was just a case of Merrimack
coming up with the big goals at the right time - which, I guess, is
the name of the game. Legault kept them in a position to come back and
win, and the defense was again outstanding in front of him. I dare
say that over the last five games (12 goals allowed - only 8 allowed
in four road games), they are playing like the best defense in HE.
Jakopin had a great night at both ends, picking up two assists and
giving another solid effort in his own end. And McKenna, despite
having trouble on one goal, did a great job of getting back to break
up several 2x1s by completely neutralizing the puckcarrier.
Up front, Gibson had one of his best games of the year. The second
line of Johnson-Gibson-Goble, besides scoring all three goals, was
the only one generating consistent offense, and they deserved getting
to start the OT. One of the nice things lately has been that during
The Streak, a different line has come up big almost every game.
For NU, Reynolds played well, but his defense could have been better.
They seemed out to lunch on all three Merrimack goals. Taylor tried to
make things happen on offense but he wasn't allowed to get into
the slot much, where he is dangerous. Overall, the NU forwards had
trouble dealing with the bigger Merrimack defense, which just ran
them off the puck nearly every rush.
The teams battle again Saturday night at Merrimack, game time 7 pm.
We'll have it on radio, WCCM 800 AM.
--- ---
Mike Machnik [log in to unmask]
Cabletron Systems, Inc. *HMM* 11/13/93
<<<<< Color Voice of the (14-14-2) Merrimack Warriors WCCM 800 AM >>>>>
|
