Hello everyone! It's great to be back after, oh, only 18 days or so. :-)
I think that's my longest exodus from hockey-l since its inception. At
least there was a good reason. :-)
at VERMONT 4, MERRIMACK 2 (11/24/93)
After returning from our honeymoon at Disneyworld (Eisner arrived there the
day after we left, so I didn't get to talk to him about Kariya) and the
Bahamas on Tuesday (11/23), Heather and I went to Vermont Wednesday for
our first Merrimack game in a couple weeks. Vermont built a 2-0 lead
after one and held on to win, 4-2. The difference was in the third, when
Merrimack blew two great chances to score and Vermont capitalized on a PP.
With the score 3-1 and Vermont up a man, the Warriors' Ryan Mailhiot stole
the puck and cruised up the right side on a 2x0 with Rob Beck, but instead
of passing to Beck in front, Mailhiot shot the puck over the net. Then
on a 3x1, Rob Atkinson tried to go short side when he appeared to have two
good passing lanes and he was stopped by Vermont goalie Tim Thomas. Mark
Goble would bring Merrimack within one at 8:25 on a bang-bang play, but
when Vermont's Dominique Ducharme was sent in alone, Dan Hodge did a nice
job to catch up to him and then hauled him down for a penalty. This
resulted in Merrimack assistant Stu Irving letting referee Joe Kelly have
a rather large piece of his mind, since the play came right after a
Warrior was dumped down the other end with no call, and Irving was ejected.
Vermont scored 18 seconds into the man advantage to seal the win.
NATIONAL CAPITAL TOURNAMENT at OTTAWA
semifinals (11/26/93)
Merrimack 5, Western Ontario 3
at Ottawa 5, Colgate 2
consolation
Colgate 8, Western Ontario 3
championship
Merrimack 2, at Ottawa 1
In the Ottawa Sentinel's pre-tourney story on Friday, Merrimack was
listed as being "an NC$$ power". Holy cow. Well, maybe someday. I
know one guy I spoke to from the area seemed surprised when he asked
me what place Merrimack was in and I told him last. :-)
The first game really had no flow to it as the Canadian refs, known to
let more go than their American counterparts, allowed a total of 23 power
plays - 14 for Merrimack - and each team scored 3 PPGs. Jim Gibson had
two goals for Merrimack and goalie Eric Thibeault posted the win. WO
came into the game as the third-ranked team in CIAU hockey. In the
nightcap, Ottawa's Jason Corrigan scored a natural hat trick in the first
as the host Gee-Gees built a 3-0 lead and held on to beat Colgate, 5-2.
No details on the consolation, but Merrimack got goals from Gibson and
Matt Adams to take a 2-0 lead after two and held on for the win, 2-1, as
goalie Martin Legault turned aside 33 shots (unofficially). Ottawa had
the edge in play over the final two periods, outshooting Merrimack 27-11
and 34-21 for the game, but Legault played very well. The tourney all-star
team was something of a mystery, as neither Gibson nor Adams made it and
Merrimack defenseman John Jakopin was named MVP. Jakopin had a decent
weekend, but he also had no points and didn't even play as well as
fellow D Dean Capuano. Legault also did not make the all-star team,
nor did Capuano.
An interesting rule we saw called numerous times this weekend dealt with
checking from behind. In CIAU hockey, this gets the offender a minor -
plus an automatic ejection. Three players drew this in the championship
game alone, including Merrimack's Matt Gallo, who was playing only his first
game of the year and then got the gate just 8 minutes in. It seems to me
that if this warrants an ejection, it also warrants a major instead of a
minor, but that's the rule.
With the win, Merrimack moved back over .500 at 6-5-1, still 0-3-1 in HE.
Merrimack will play a home-and-home with BU next weekend. Both games
will be on WCCM.
Florida was nice, but it's even nicer to be back home!
--- ---
Mike Machnik [log in to unmask]
Cabletron Systems, Inc. *HMM* 11/13/93
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