UNH, despite playing the worst game I've seen them play this year,
beat St. Lawrence Monday night, 6-1.  The Saints were playing their
third game in four nights, and it showed.  They were slow the whole
night, and playing backup goaltender Brady Giroux didn't help either.
UNH jumped on Giroux early, scoring twice in the first three minutes.
Giroux was not sharp on either of them.
 
SLU played a bit better in the second period, and appeared to have
gotten a raw deal on UNH's third goal.  While on the powerplay, Savo
Mitrovic's pass across the crease deflected off a Saint defensemen and
then off the far post.  UNH's Scott Morrow swiped at it and got it
airborne toward the net.  Eventually, Giroux got his glove on it and
the puck squirted loose.  But sometime in there, the red light went
on.  Referee Ned Bunyon (who, incidentally, was out to lunch for the
entire game) first signaled no-goal, then changed his mind after
talking with the goal judge.  I looked at the replay after I got home,
and it didn't look like it went in at all.  A good break for the
Wildcats.
 
Bunyon wasted no time calling the make-up penalty, whistling off Greg
Klym on one of the all-time worst penalty calls I have *ever* seen.
Don't get me wrong, Bunyon blew many calls in UNH's favor as well, but
this one was bad.  Greg Klym was lunging in front of an SLU player
when the Saint wrapped his arms around Klym and both fell.  Bunyon's
arm went up and both NESN announcers (Bob Kurtz and Bob Norton) called
it as a holding call on St. Lawrence.  But no, Ned calls Klym for
interference.  Two (almost) verbatim quotes from NESN -- Norton:  "I
have no idea what he's calling," and Kurtz:  "Interfering with what?
The hold?"  Anyway, the Saints scored their only goal on the ensuing
powerplay, with Mike Lappin wristing a shot over Levy from the right
circle.
 
UNH regained the three goal lead when Klym scored on a broken play
during a Wilcat powerplay, then Bob Chebator put the game away with an
unassisted strike while shorthanded.  Chebator forced a turnover
behind the St. Lawrence net, then circled in front and wristed it past
Giroux.  Scott Morrow finished the scoring, again on the powerplay, at
17:13.
 
As I said before, UNH played *lousy*.  They were slow, they missed
huge numbers of passes, they couldn't skate the puck out of the zone,
and they really couldn't set up any kind of offense.  Luckily for UNH,
St. Lawrence played worse.  They just never got it going, and couldn't
capitalize on numerous Wildcat mistakes.  Jeff Levy played a decent
game, but the Saints didn't test him often, despite outshooting UNH.
I consider UNH lucky to have come out of this with a win.  Against a
good team having a good night, they'd have been blown out.  If this is
how they played against RPI, I can understand how they lost.
 
The three stars:  (1) Morrow, (2) Klym, (3) Levy.
 
Random UNH musings:  My inside source tells me coach Dick Umile
benched senior defenseman Frank Messina, trying to send him a message
after a lousy game at RPI.  Also, freshman Scott Malone is on the
verge of flunking out, and did not play.  Replacing them were freshmen
Schmidtke and Eric Royal.
 
Both of UNH's weekend opponents had scouts at the game.  Steve
Cedorchuk (sp?) was here from BC (Saturday night), and I spotted BU
coach Jack Parker (Friday night) as well.  Parker was talking to
ex-UNH coach Charlie Holt when my dad was talking to Charlie.
Apparently Parker has Scott LaChance's brother coming to BU next year,
and Holt had been coaching a prep school all-star game that he played
in.  Parker was interested in how he was doing.  Just what opposing
Hockey East teams need...another LaChance at BU :-)
 
---------------------------
at Snively Arena, Durham, NH
Monday, January 13, 1992
 
St. Lawrence.........0   1   0 - 1
New Hampshire........2   1   3 - 6
 
First Period:
 
UNH 1, SLU 0:  Kent Schmidtke (Greg Klym, Bob Chebator), 0:53.
UNH 2, SLU 0:  Rob Donovan (Jason Dexter, Gregg Blow), 2:52.
Penalty:  SLU, Martin Lacroix (slashing), 9:37.
Penalty:  UNH, Greg Klym (slashing), 9:37.
Penalty:  SLU, Ted Beattie (4m - hitting after whistle), 15:44.
Penalty:  UNH, Scott Morrow (roughing), 20:00.
 
Second Period:
 
Penalty:  UNH, Glenn Stewart (tripping), 6:49.
Penalty:  SLU, Eric Lacroix (interference), 12:50.
Penalty:  SLU, Mike Lappin (hooking), 14:28.
UNH 3, SLU 0:  Morrow (Joe Flanagan, Savo Mitrovic), 16:04 (PPG).
Penalty:  UNH, Klym (interference), 17:10.
UNH 3, SLU 1:  Mike Lappin (Martin Lacroix, Lee Albert), 18:10 (PPG).
 
Third Period:
 
Penalty:  SLU, Spencer Meany (slashing), 1:23.
UNH 4, SLU 1:  Klym (Kevin Thomson, Jesse Cooper), 2:15 (PPG).
Penalty:  UNH, Morrow (slashing), 7:10.
UNH 5, SLU 1:  Chebator (unassisted), 7:46 (SHG).
Penalty:  SLU, Meany (charging), 8:14.
Penalty:  SLU, Mike Allain (slashing), 16:19.
UNH 6, SLU 1:  Morrow (Flanagan, Domenic Amodeo), 17:13 (PPG).
Penalty:  SLU, Dan Skene (interference), 17:36.
Penalty:  UNH, Thomson (hitting from behind), 18:00.
Penalty:  UNH, Cooper (slashing).
 
Saves:
UNH: Jeff Levy, 6-15-12 = 33.
SLU: Brady Giroux, 11-9-5 = 25.
 
Officials:  Ned Bunyon (ref), B. Jones, and Hughes.