UMass-Lowell RiverHawk luncheon highlights leading into the big home-and-home
with BC:
 
     *  The apple pie was good.
 
     *  Jeff Daw was the featured RiverHawk.  He said that he does not consider
        himself a powerplay specialist, despite picking up 11 out of his 12
        goals on the man advantage.  He said that as a kid in juniors he was
        always looking to make the perfect play whereas he's realized that in
        Division 1 there just isn't time to make the perfect pretty play and
        you just have to take your shots.  He doesn't consider himself to have
        either a hard or quick shot but just credits his teammates with setting
        him up and screening so the puck just seems to go in.  He said his role
        last year was more of a screening one.  He likes shooting better.  :-)
 
        A question from the audience was whether the band or the sellouts have
        pumped the team up more this year.  He said that as a player he doesn't
        notice it so much when he's playing.  He said that the partially filled
        house last year against BU made more noise than any of the sellouts
        this year.  (Personally, I can't believe he was including the opener
        this year against "The Other UMass School" because that was the loudest
        I've ever seen Tully.  Of course, I was right next to a tuba in the
        band...)  He also added that the acoustics at Tully may not lend itself
        to noise echo the way that places like BU do.  He said that a band of
        5 people at BU would still sound loud.
 
     *  Scott Fankhouser will start in goal tonight and Craig Lindsey on
        Saturday.  As expected, Martin Fillion seems to be out of the rotation
        for the time being.  Coach Crowder mentioned that they are still high
        on him but he needs to better channel his nerves.
 
     *  UML made no attempts to get recruits during the early signing period.
        They want to have as long as possible to evaluate their young club
        before deciding who to go after.  (IMO that can be no more evident than
        between the pipes.)
 
     *  Crowder moved Neil Donovan onto the first power play unit in place of
        Christian Sbrocca because he felt that Sbrocca and Bullock were too
        similar in terms of what they brought to the pp.  They were
        duplicating each other too much, skating around in circles with the
        puck.  With Donovan he was hoping to get a more complimentary player
        with Bullock and Daw.  He's still happy with the job Sbrocca and the
        rest of the second power play unit are doing.  Although statistically
        UML is about in the middle of HE on the power play (and second on the
        penalty kill), Crowder says he's happy with the 27% (or so) they
        they're getting, considering the losses from last year's nationally
        ranked pp.
 
     *  In general he feels the team is teasing him.  They can play very well
        or terribly.  He feels that's a sign of a young team and they just
        have to get mentally tougher.  But they have the ability based on the
        positive teases.  He feels the mental toughness has to come from within
        and that endless hollering will not do the trick.  To that end, after
        the first period of the second game against Air Force (after they
        played terribly for 2 1/2 periods in the first game and pulled out a
        win, only to start this second game with another dreadful first period)
        "Hey, you guys are good enough to take a period off and still win the
        game.  I suggest you take this second period off too, and while you're
        at it take the first 15 minutes of the third period off too."  He then
        left the locker room.  Although they went on to lose, they apparently
        dominated play at least in the third period so you couldn't say that
        the speech backfired.
 
     *  He wants the team to get more shots on net.  In the loss to Air Force
        they charted 33 offensive "attempts" in the third period alone.  There
        were two goals, ten saves, two that hit the post, and the rest either
        never resulted in a shot or the shot went wide.  He said that's the
        biggest difference between college players and pros.  The pros know
        how infrequent scoring opportunities are and so they make sure they
        don't squander them.  Most collegiate players don't optimize their
        use of big chances.
 
     *  Bullock's stats are down and he's struggling a bit because he's seeing
        a lot of special attention.  He said in the Alaska tourney, Bullock
        had a Western Michigan player shadowing him the entire time.
 
     *  Yours truly won the ticket giveaway for the second time in the last
        three luncheons.  Somebody, I think it was AD Wayne Edwards, said,
        "How does he do it?  He wins everytime."  :-)
 
Dave Hendrickson             When privacy is outlawed, only           GO
[log in to unmask]    outlaws will have privates.          LIBERTARIANS
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Although I can't remember ever having an original thought, and am certainly
parroting someone who actually has a brain, these opinions are mine, not HP's.