Saturday afternoon at Meehan Auditorium found Providence starting slow
but able to pull the game out with their opportunistic play.  UNH used
their check, check, check game to build an early advantage, but could
not keep PC out for long.
 
In the first period the UNH Wildcat's scored first when Stephanie Knox
(Sue Merz, Wendy Tatarouns) knocked in a rebound on the power play.
The play was made by some good passing and a strong shot from the
point.  Stephanie O'Sullivan (Alison Wheeler, Chris Bailey) tied the
match when she used a nice snap shot after getting a lovely dish from
Wheeler.  In the second period Bailey's (Wendy Cofran) shot from the
left point curled in after PC won a face-off in the UNH zone.  The
Friars made it 3-1 when Wheeler stole the puck and finished a
brilliant play with a shot to the far post.  In the third period
while Providence sat on its lead, the Wildcats just couldn't seem to
break out and set anything up.  Finally Tricia Dunn (Tatarouns, Doris
Catlin) scored for UNH when she was set up from behind the net with a
creative move by Tatarouns.
 
UNH had its chances to win the game.  It seemed to me that they were
a little stunned when PC scored three straight goals.  I thought the
second line of Catlin, Tatarouns and Dunn were outstanding in their
play.  Wendy Tatarouns made numerous plays with her excellent hustle.
Tricia Dunn also showed some fine skating.  I also liked the powerful
moves of Sue Merz.  She was on her game and zipping all over the ice.
On defense I liked that the Wildcats use five defenders, rotating them
in equally.  Smart move!  I was again impressed with the strong blue
line game of Amy McPhee.  She certainly holds the defense together.
The other impressive UNH feature was their power play unit.  Reinke,
Tatarouns, Know, Merz and Camins had some great puck movement.  Over-
all it was a good game for the Wildcats, they just could not generate
enough attacking chances.
 
Providence played a fairly low-key game.  I felt in the first they
were pinned down a lot by UNH.  I think what hurt them is they were
going with stop plays and they had really a more fluid "go" team.
I thought Chris Bailey was the outstanding player on the ice.  Her
back-checking and solid defensive play are first rate.  But what I
like to watch is her lovely skating and exquisite break out passes.
Wow!!!  My kind of player.  I felt she was a great choice for the
tournament MVP.  Alison Wheeler would have been my other considera-
tion for MVP.  The first-year center is something else.  She is such
a fine team player and yet has the individual skills to do it on her
own.  I would name her my ECAC rookie of the year.  Alana Blahoski
is a player I love to watch.  Seeing that kind of speed is fantastic.
On Saturday she had a realy good skating game against UNH.  Melissa
Mills, Kim Dowd and Karen McCabe all had strong games on defense.
It is one of the reason UNH just couldn't seem to break out.  All in
all the Friars had a good warm up for the ECAC final.
 
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 good shooting
 rhun
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