In a surprisingly close game, the Maine Black Bears held off
the Clarkson Golden Knights for a 3-2 victory.
 
The first 10-12 minutes of the game were uneventful except for
Clarkson's anemic offense. Then, Maine converted on back to
back power plays for a 2-0 lead. A defensive giveaway by Matt
Pagnutti led a goal #3 by period's end.
 
The 2nd period contained more of the same. Maine domination and
Clarkson ineptness. The only difference being that no goals were
scored on the many power plays, or otherwise.
 
The 3rd period started out much teh same way but a nice series of
passes led to a Clarkson power play goal. A few minutes later,
defenseman Adam Wiesel scored another power play goal to make it 3-2.
Clarkson had another full power play but couldn't convert. Clarkson
put on tons of pressure but couldn't crack Maine goalie Blair Marsh a
third time. A couple of moronic penalties by Matt Pagnutti and
Josh Bartell forced Clarkson to kill off a few more penalties and
cut into valuable time. Ed Henrich also took a stupid penalty but
fortunately for Clarkson, a Maine player took a penalty 10 seconds
later. Clarkson pressured late in the game and a wraparound came
inches from crossing the line but somehow Marsh pulled it out. When
he pushed it out, the puck went under the stick of 3 Clarkson players
(who were tied up) and out of the zone. Clarkson hit a post also in
that late rush. That was as close as they would come.
 
Clarkson played very poorly in the first two periods as their
offense looked horribly disjointed. I must give credit to Maine's
defense who played very well. Whenever Clarkson took one too many
passes, the Maine D was there to clear it away. Clarkson did try
to get too fancy with their passing, though. They needed to take
more shots and work on getting the rebounds. Especially teh way
Maine's D was playing.
 
THREE STARS
1) Weinrich, MAINE
2) Craig Conroy, CLARKSON
3) Mike Latendrese, MAINE
 
No one really stood out exceptionally. I suppose both Currie and Marsh
made some key stops late but didn't see much action early.
 
Clarkson hosts Providence tommorow while Maine travels to SLU.
 
     _______Bri [log in to unmask]
     | Clarkson University '95         Glens Falls High '91            |
     | NCAA, AHL, ECAC and Boston Bruins contact for rec.sport.hockey  |
     | Join the AHL mailing list: [log in to unmask]          |
     |      GO ERIN WHITTEN!            USA HOCKEY IN '94              |
     | ARIZONA HOOPS, PAC 10 CHAMPS: '86  '87  '88  '89  '90  '91  '93 |
     -------------------------------------------------------------------