Friday, November 11, 1994 at JFK Coliseum, Manchester, NH
HOCKEY EAST GAME
Merrimack Warriors (1-5-1, 1-1-1 1 HE) 4 0 1 - 5
New Hampshire Wildcats (4-3-0, 1-2-0 0 HE) 2 3 1 - 6
FIRST PERIOD NH-MC
1. MC1, Daryl Krauss 2 (Steve McKenna), 3:27. PPG 0-1
2. MC2, Mark Goble 4 (unassisted), 8:46. 4x4 0-2
3. MC3, Casey Kesselring 4 (Matt Adams, Mark Cornforth), 14:31. 0-3
4. NH1, Eric Boguniecki 2 (Steve Pleau, Todd Hall), 16:18. PPG 1-3
5. NH2, Boguniecki 3 (Dean Woodman, Pleau), 18:03. PPG 2-3
6. MC4, Kesselring 5 (Cornforth), 18:34. PPG 2-4
SECOND PERIOD
7. NH3, Boguniecki 4 (Mike Sullivan, Eric Flinton), 1:11. 3-4
8. NH4, Eric Nickulas 6 (Mark Mowers, Rob Gagnon), 10:42. 4-4
9. NH5, Pleau 2 (Sullivan, Boguniecki), 16:11. 5-4
THIRD PERIOD
10. MC5, Ryan Mailhiot 1 (Cornforth), 3:24. 4x4 5-5
11. NH6, Ted Russell 1 (Kent Schmidtke, Mike Heinke), 4:59. PPG GWG 6-5
SHOTS ON GOAL: Merrimack 13-10-14 = 37
New Hampshire 11-16-13 = 40
SAVES: MC, Martin Legault (L, 1-4-1, 58:58, 40 sh-34 sv).
NH, Trent Cavicchi (20:00, 13 sh-9 sv),
Mike Heinke (W, 3-1-0, 40:00, 24 sh-23 sv).
POWER PLAYS: MC 2 for 6. NH 3 for 7.
PENALTIES: MC 12/24. NH 12/24.
REFEREES: Jim Fitzgerald, Dennis Hughes. LINESMAN: John Jones.
ATTENDANCE: 2,600 (sellout).
THREE STARS: 1. RW Eric Boguniecki, UNH (3-1--4).
2. C Casey Kesselring, Merrimack (2-0--2).
3. G Mike Heinke, UNH (W, 40:00, 24 sh-23 sv).
Ted Russell's first goal of the year on the power play snapped a 5-5
tie 5 minutes into the third period, and UNH held on for a 6-5 come
from behind win against Merrimack. Eric Boguniecki keyed the comeback
for UNH with a hat trick and an assist, after Merrimack had taken a
3-0 lead in the first and led 4-2 after one on the strength of two
more goals by freshman center Casey Kesselring.
The game was very exciting for the sellout crowd of 2,600 at Manchester's
JFK Coliseum, home to the Wildcats for 9 times this season as they
await construction of a new rink on campus in Durham, 45 minutes away.
Lots of scoring, up and down skating, and a total of 74 shots helped
keep this one interesting right up until the buzzer.
Unfortunately, a very bad officiating job darkened what was a strong
comeback by the host team, as both of the final two UNH goals were tainted.
Officiating in Hockey East is very good almost every night, IMO, and I
almost never complain about it...but this deserves mention because it
directly affected the outcome of the game.
The goal that enabled UNH to go ahead 5-4 late in the second was scored on
an offside play, as Mike Sullivan lost control of the puck for a moment at
the blue line, drifted across and regained control, and then fired a pass
in front to Steve Pleau who redirected it past Merrimack goalie Martin
Legault. The sixth UNH goal and game winner was a power play goal that
came after Merrimack D Steve McKenna was called for charging. McKenna
seemed surprised at the call and shook his head, and replays on NESN showed
that not only did McKenna not take two strides, but he was only gliding at
about half speed towards the opponent when the collision occurred.
Not long after the eventual GWG was scored, referee Dennis Hughes stood
in the corner and watched UNH's Eric Flinton give him a perfect
illustration of what charging really is, as he took about 3-4 strides
and hammered Merrimack D Tom Costa from behind, leaving Costa on the ice
in pain. Hughes watched all of this transpire and then turned and
headed up ice...after several seconds, Costa was able to get up and to
the bench. This is a serious infraction that needs to be called whenever
it occurs.
UNH deserves credit for bouncing back from the first period deficit to
chip away and pull off the comeback win. Starting dufflebag Trent
Cavicchi was chased after the first period, and Mike Heinke came in
from the bullpen to play very well over the last two periods, allowing
only one goal while his team scored 4.
Merrimack goalie Martin Legault did not have a stellar game, but once
again his defense was sorely lacking. Only the second line for UNH
was able to generate any offense, as the all-senior first line of Eric
Flinton-Eric Royal-Nick Poole was held off the board yet again (except
for a Flinton assist on Boguniecki's third goal during a line change).
But after a strong opening 15 minutes, the Merrimack defense hung Legault
out to dry the rest of the way. The line of Pleau-Sullivan-Boguniecki
looks to be the best one UNH has and accounted for 4 goals, as they
were swarming all night long. Pleau hustles; Sullivan is a superb
faceoff man and playmaker; and Boguniecki just knows how to find the net.
Penalty killing continues to be a problem for Merrimack. After allowing
7 goals on 18 chances last weekend, the Warriors surrendered 3 more
PPGs on 7 chances tonight. On the plus side, the offensive special
teams were very good, scoring 2 PPGs and 2 4x4 goals.
Mark Cornforth and Steve McKenna played well on the Merrimack blueline.
Cornforth picked up 3 assists to tie him with Adams and Eric
Weichselbaumer for the team lead with 7. He also provided what little
spark Merrimack had in the third period with the game on the line.
McKenna was pretty solid defensively despite apparently being the
opponent the UNH fans loved to hate, probably because of his size.
He drew 4 penalties on the night, but only two were justified...in
the first, he put a clean check on Poole that resulted in Poole
winding up in the Merrimack bench, but as McKenna tried to get away,
Poole grabbed him around the head and held him down into the bench
with him. Somehow, this resulted in *both* players going off for
holding.
A nice surprise was the play of junior sparkplug Ryan Mailhiot, out
of the lineup last week with an injury. Mailhiot is from nearby
Merrimack, NH, and played his high school hockey in this rink. He
seemed to have more energy than most of his teammates, working hard
on 4x4 and getting the game tying goal early in the third for MC.
For Merrimack, this was yet another "coulda" game that was winnable.
The Warriors are 1-5-1, but 4 of the five losses and the tie should
have been wins; they have dropped games to Dalhousie, RPI and UNH by
one goal, and the Colgate game was tied until the closing minutes
when Colgate got a goal to break the tie and then added an ENG. It
really is a fine line between 1-5-1 and 6-1. These are the games
they need to win to move up, and they are now in the position of
having to win the next two games vs UNH and Lowell before running
into the Northeastern juggernaut next weekend.
UNH needed a win after last weekend's sweep at the hands of Maine,
and they were clearly determined not to let this one get away as
evidenced by their comeback. But right now, this is a team that also
needs a lot of work...one of the goalies (Heinke?) needs to step up
and get the job done, and the seniors must start to score goals.
One other note: as I said, tonight's game was the first this season
for UNH in Manchester. The UNH folks have done a great job of making
Manchester their home, from the UNH logo on the ice to the HE flags
hanging overhead, to the fish that appears after the first UNH goal.
The partisan crowd stayed silent during the opening onslaught by the
visitors, but they got into the game just like the fans at old Snively
once their team bounced back. It's not going to be easy playing every
game away from Durham, but if UNH keeps getting support like this, they'll
be all right.
The teams meet again Saturday night at Merrimack at 7 pm.
--- ---
Mike Machnik [log in to unmask]
Cabletron Systems, Inc. *HMM* 11/13/93
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