Well, Eddie Campbell is gone but his name will carry on via his younger
brother John. The freshman left-winger was impressive tonight, scoring
his first goal as a Riverhawk while skating on an all freshman line with
fellow winger Mario Leblanc and center Greg Koehler. The line was fast
and tenacious, often spending most of its ice time in the opposing end.
They are definitely strong, skilled and fast. I wonder if they'll remain a
unit.
 
Another freshman who might have been tonight's "hardest working
player without a point" was right-winger Craig Brown. Reminiscient of
Christian Sbrocca, this fireplug certainly kept his presence known out
there. Skating with another bruising winger, senior Ryan Golden, the pair
anchored center Marc Salsman on the second line.
 
But, tonight's story is the performance of the first line. Neil Donovan
centered Shannon Basaraba and Doug Nolan and this trio dominated play
most of the time with some flashy passing and aggressive play. Scoring
four of the team's six goals and providing the needed experience to
steady a somewhat erratic Lowell squad. Basaraba scored two with an
assist, Nolan scored one with an assist and Donovan had four assists
and a possible fifth. (Might have been Jarrod Donovan's)
 
The goalies weren't really tested by the Concordia squad, but did show
some solid play on occasion. Lindsay was beat on a fine shot that rang
the post corner from in tight and Fankhouser got beat on a bang-bang
power-play pass from behind the net to a Concordia scorer in the slot.
Fankhouser looked real good controlling his position and handling the
puck. The year in Melfort looks to have seasoned this kid.
 
The defense was fine in our own zone, but doesn't command the center
ice play as well as I like. It looks very dangerous at times trying to move
the puck up the ice. Nicholishen and Tormey did look good inside the blue
line during power plays. Can't really say too much here because I'm not
that adept at analyzing the defense.
 
All in all ... I give them an A and "The Whitehead Era" begins. Crowder
who? Concordia plays Amherst tomorrow. Lowell got TWO
5-minute/game misconducts for "hitting from behind". I never saw this
before, but a Concordia player got three assessments of 2-minutes each
for hitting after the whistle. Sort of reminiscient of a Bullock-tirade. This
kid didn't like getting hit and lost it ... throwing hits at three different
Lowell players after the whistle had blown and got a 6-minute ride in the
penalty box.
 
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