Arthur Berman writes on INFO-HOCKEY-L:
>I guess Mike's access doesn't like him tonight either:-)
 
No, actually we were out late with some of the BU people and the Guest of
the Weekend, Keith Instone (in town for business).  More later, but a few
comments here first.
 
>For Margie and everyone else interested in this game: BU beat Merrimack
>8-6 tonight at the Walter Brown Arena in another chippy performance by
>Merrimack (as described by the admittedly biased BU radio people).
                                ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
 
I guess so!  The game was chippy on both sides (ask Keith, as unbiased an
observer as you will get tonight), so BU radio was half right. :-)
(penalties were about even, with BU called for 16 minors and Merrimack for
15...but the officiating, ah, left something to be desired - it was
consistently and equally bad.)
 
>The
>game was close for two periods, then BU opened up an 8-4 lead in the
>third after which Merrimack scored a couple of too little too late goals
>to produce the final score.
 
I don't know if this was what BU radio reported, but if so, they were the
only people who probably felt this way...first it was close, then it was
"over", then it was close.  A short synopsis...
 
It was a strange game.  Power play decided it, as BU notched 4 PPGs to
Merrimack's 1...throw in MC's SHG, and the score at even strength was 4-4.
 
As with Friday's game, this one was tied after two, 3-3.  BU went ahead for
good 38 seconds into the third, but the replay everyone saw in the press
box seemed to show that the puck did not cross the goal line.  Drury
completed a hat trick 13 seconds later, and the Terriers exploded for three
more by the 8:14 mark to seemingly put the game away at 8-3.  BU's 8th goal
came on Merrimack's third string netminder, Jim McNiff.
 
But Merrimack showed some heart, scoring three unanswered goals on starting
BU goalie Michel Larocque to make it 8-6, the last goal coming on the
shorthand with 3:47 left.  This made things quite interesting when a series
of penalties put Merrimack up 5x3 with 1:41 left, and when McNiff was
pulled for a sixth attacker, they were up 6x3 - but that was it.
 
Most interesting was that McNiff, who has only appeared a handful of times
in his career in games that seemed to be over, wound up being pulled for
another man during the attempted comeback.  I don't know if he ever
expected to be in a close game where he'd have to be pulled for a sixth
man.
 
Despite what BU radio might have had you believe :-), this was a game that
really was as close as the score indicates.  In the deciding third, BU
dominated the first half (5 goals) and Merrimack the second half (3 goals).
 
Drury wound up with four goals and Lachance had four assists.  Laroche had
two goals for Merrimack as the Warriors scored 1) more goals on BU this
year than anyone else has (except for UNH's six in BU's only loss), and 2)
more goals on BU than ever before in the series between the two teams.
 
BU probably slacked off once they got up 8-3, but they almost slacked off
enough to blow the game.  As it turned out, although the game seemed over
once BU went ahead 6-3, the two goals that followed and appeared to be
icing on the cake wound up being the ones that decided it.  The moral:
"garbage goals" may not be that unimportant after all. :-)
 
>Mike will, I'm sure, provide his usual
>unbiased and thorough report.
 
Thanks for the support...and more will come tomorrow including box.  It's late.
 
---                                                                   ---
Mike Machnik                   [log in to unmask]            *HMM* 11/13/93
>> Co-owner of the College Hockey Lists at University of Maine System  <<
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