Posting from this account since I have been unable to get to ctron
today (and was not in work Monday).
Sunday, February 12, 1995 at Alfond Arena, Orono, ME
HOCKEY EAST GAME
Merrimack Warriors (12-14-5, 5-9-5 [3] HE 7th) 0 1 1 - 2
Maine Black Bears (26-2-6, 14-1-6 [1] HE 1st) 1 0 2 - 3
FIRST PERIOD UM-MC
1. UM1, Brad Purdie 22 (Jeff Tory, Jacque Rodrigue), 10:58. PPG 1-0
SECOND PERIOD
2. MC1, Steve McKenna 1 (Matt Adams, Daryl Krauss), 0:57. PPG 1-1
THIRD PERIOD
3. UM2, Brad Mahoney 4 (Tony Tempestilli, Tory), 2:44. 2-1
4. UM3, Tim Lovell 17 (Tory, Dan Shermerhorn), 7:50. PPG GWG 3-1
5. MC2, Krauss 8 (Casey Kesselring), 13:09. 3-2
SHOTS ON GOAL: Merrimack 5--6--6 = 17
Maine 13--7-10 = 30
SAVES: MC, Martin Legault (L, 7-12-4, 59:10, 30 sh-27 sv).
UM, Blair Allison (W, 26-2-6, 60:00, 17 sh-15 sv).
POWER PLAYS: MC 1 for 6. UM 2 for 8.
PENALTIES: MC 9/18. UM 5/10.
REFEREES: Steve McBride, Rich Fowkes. LINESMAN: Mike Tuell.
ATTENDANCE: 4,523 (capacity 5,200).
THREE STARS: 1. D Jeff Tory, Maine (0-3--3).
2. G Martin Legault, Merrimack (30 sh-27 sv).
3. G Blair Allison, Maine (17 sh-15 sv).
Tim Lovell's goal at 7:50 of the third proved to be the game winner
as Maine squeaked out a 3-2 home win over Merrimack. Maine goalie
Blair Allison stopped 15 of 17 shots, including two in the final
seconds as the Warriors made a bid to tie, and he set the school record
for wins in a season by a goaltender with 26. Allison also set the
Maine record for games played in a season with his 34th appearance.
His 1943:53 played is a Maine record as well.
Defenseman Jeff Tory continued to play well for Maine, assisting on
all three goals and earning the number one star. Allison was number 3,
and Merrimack goalie Martin Legault made 27 saves to take the number
2 star.
The win gave Maine a 15 point (3 win) lead over second place BU, which
has two games in hand on Maine. BU is the only team that could catch
Maine for first, but the Black Bears' magic number is only 10 points.
Any combination of ten points not gained by BU in its final 5 games or
gained by Maine in its final 3 will give Maine the regular season title
and the first seed in the Hockey East playoffs.
Maine had the better of the chances in the first period, but Merrimack
regrouped to play well the rest of the way at both ends of the ice.
Credit Merrimack coach Ron Anderson with making a superb adjustment
late in the first with Maine up 1-0, as he moved John Jakopin back to D
from his newly-converted RW position, and this coincided with a Merrimack
crackdown on Maine scoring opportunities. The rest of the game was a true
defensive struggle with neither team giving an inch.
In three games this season, Merrimack went 0-2-1 against Maine, but they
only allowed 9 goals in those three games while scoring six of their own.
This was easily the best season performance ever by Merrimack against
Maine. Barring near shutouts by UNH and UML in both of their last two
games with Maine, Merrimack will hold the distinction of being the HE
team with the lowest GAA against Maine this season (2.92). That's a
good sign, especially since it comes only two years after Maine outscored
Merrimack 37-6 in four meetings, by scores of 14-1, 11-2, 4-2, and 8-1.
FIRST
Just 36 seconds in, Merrimack senior D Mark Cornforth drew an unbalanced
double minor when he dumped Dan Shermerhorn and then crosschecked him
after the whistle. Not a good way to begin things, but Merrimack was
able to kill off the four minute man advantage, setting the tone for a
tightly contested game. Maine had several good chances during the power
play, including a shot by Brad Purdie over the net after Chris Imes
made a nice fake from the point and was able to walk in to feed Purdie
down low. And Dave MacIsaac crashed the net and fell on top of Legault
late in the PP, but Legault not only made the stop, he was clearly not
rattled in the least.
Several penalties to both teams (4 MC, 2 Maine) would be called in the
opening ten minutes, but neither side could take advantage. Then on
the fifth penalty called against the Warriors, Maine finally broke the
drought, scoring only 12 seconds into the PP as Purdie beat Legault with
a nice screen shot for his 22nd goal of the year.
Merrimack had several great chances to tie later in the period. The
best chance may have come when Claudio Peca raced up the right side
and as the defenseman came to him, he flipped it over to Rob Beck for
an all-alone bid. But the pass was just a bit too far ahead of Beck,
and he had no choice but to take a whack at it to at least put it on
goal. Allison made the save, but since he had come out to cut down
the angle when he saw where the pass was headed, Beck could have easily
put a move on him and had a near open net if Peca had been able to get
the puck closer to him - but it was still a nice feed for Peca to even
get it past the defenseman.
Maine held a heavy shot advantage through the opening 15 minutes or so,
but then Jakopin was moved back to defense in place of Eric Weichselbaumer.
Jakopin is bigger, carries the puck out of his own end better, and has
a longer reach because of his size so he can get to loose pucks a little
better. Weichselbaumer took Jakopin's spot at right wing and also
continued to play point on the power play with Cornforth.
Reg Cardinal almost gave Maine a 2-0 lead in the final minute, but
Legault stayed with him to save his point blank attempt.
SECOND
Merrimack came out strong in the second, barely missing a golden chance
when Gaetan Poirier fed Daryl Krauss for a shot that went just wide.
After a penalty to Maine, the Warriors tied the score on Steve McKenna's
first of the year. Allison saved shots by Krauss and Matt Adams, but
McKenna smartly came in from the point and drove the second rebound home
to make it 1-1. It was only the second goal of McKenna's college career,
the other being an ENG at RPI early last season.
Off the ensuing draw, Mark Goble rushed the puck and forced Allison to
make a nice pad save. Later while shorthanded, the Warriors nearly
took the lead when Peca fed Cornforth for a bid that hit the pipe.
Maine came right back the other way for a great chance of their own,
with Legault making the pad save off of Scott Parmentier.
The pace in the period was slower than the first, which worked to
Merrimack's advantage. They were able to slow Maine up through the
neutral zone and had one forward breaking up plays near the blue line.
This gave strength to their transition game, which Shawn Walsh noted
was a key in the pregame. Through the first half of the period,
Maine had been held to only a couple of shots on goal. Shots for
the period would favor Maine, 7-6, chiefly because of several late
shots on goal.
Both teams had good opportunities late. Maine had a 3x1 with Imes
carrying, but he seemed indecisive in what to do and it was broken
up without a shot on net. Coming right back, Merrimack had a 2x1, but
Jamie Thompson got back to make a nice play in breaking it up. Then
on a Maine power play in the closing seconds, Lovell shot the puck
just wide and Tory rang one off the pipe.
THIRD
Maine would take the lead for good at 2:44 when Merrimack was unable
to clear and Brad Mahoney ended up beating Legault to make it 2-1.
Tony Tempestilli also assisted, along with Tory, as the Maine fourth
line of Tempestilli-Libby-Mahoney saw a lot of ice time during the
game for some reason - maybe because they were one of the more effective
lines tonight.
Legault continued to play well, stopping Barry Clukey on a 5-hole bid
and thwarting Shermerhorn's stuff attempt with his pad as he held
the short side well.
After an iffy hooking call on Merrimack D Tom Costa, Maine scored a
big goal to make it 3-1 when Lovell took a feed from Tory in the slot
and quickly buried it between Legault's pads as the goalie tried to
get over the stop the shot. This would be the eventual game-winner.
Ron Anderson called timeout halfway through the period, and it helped
Merrimack gain some momentum as they would play well the rest of the
way. At 13:09, they pulled within one as Casey Kesselring won the
draw to Allison's right and fed Krauss in the slot for a quick shot
just inside the far post. Krauss seems to have benefitted from his
new linemates (Kesselring and Adams), as the goal marked the fourth
straight game in which he has scored (8 on the year).
With a minute left, Legault was pulled, and the Warriors came close
to tying it and forcing overtime. After some good forechecking by
Cardinal, Merrimack was finally able to get the puck up ice, but
Maine broke it up and Imes made a long attempt at the empty-netter.
The puck went through the crease, but icing was whistled anyway,
much to the dismay of the fans. The faceoff came back to Allison's
left with four seconds left, and Kesselring won the draw ahead and
put a shot on that Allison stopped to preserve the win.
After the game, Shawn Walsh appeared to be in a discussion with the
officials about the icing call, but whatever they told him, he
seemed to agree with.
POSTGAME
I would think this was a win Walsh would be happy with, since Maine
again faced a Merrimack team that played a tough defensive style but
Maine still came out with the win. Scoring two PPGs, they took
advantage of their opportunities. Maine is bound to play some teams
who will play them tough this way in the playoffs, and it helps them
to know what they can do and what they need to work on.
Merrimack can be happy with their showing this season against Maine
after so many years of not belonging on the same ice with the Black
Bears. On the other hand, a loss is still a loss. In terms of the
way the game went, it was sort of in between the two Maine-MC games
played earlier this year. The first was more closely played than this
one, but the second saw Maine dominate completely (despite the low
3-1 score). Here, Maine had good chances but not as many, and the
Warriors put together some good scoring bids and may have pulled out
the win if not for several very big saves by Allison, who earned his
pay tonight.
Again, I have to applaud the coaching job done by Ron Anderson. He
made a big adjustment in the first when he moved Jakopin back to D,
spotting a deficiency back there that the big sophomore filled very
well. And his timeout in the third was well-timed and got the team
rolling to a solid final ten minutes in which they came close several
times.
A key for Merrimack may have been that they were able to take the
Maine fans out of the game almost from the start. The early PPG
got them going, but after that, the Warriors' strong defensive play
kept Maine chances to a minimum and didn't give the home crowd much
to cheer about until the third when Maine scored twice to go up 3-1.
While Legault had yet another outstanding game in net, I thought
perhaps Jakopin or Martin Laroche may have been deserving of a star
instead. It's easy to just give it to the goalie, but the defense
as a whole (from the backchecking of the forwards to the blueliners
shutting Maine down in the slot) really sparkled, and Jakopin led
the way.
Laroche was probably MC's best forward on the weekend, and he seems
to be coming into his own while playing in the shadow of fellow
Warrior freshman Casey Kesselring. Kesselring has had the better
linemates, but Laroche played very well this weekend in getting
good scoring chances and setting up teammates for others. He has
scored a quiet 17 points this year (9-8--17), but if this weekend
was any indication, we can expect even better things from the
multi-talented center.
Legault had his fifth straight outstanding game in net. He has a
record of 3-1-1 since getting shelled by UML on 1/15 in a game where
the River Hawks scored six PPGs. In those five games, he has allowed
a total of only 10 goals for a GAA of 2.00. The three goals Maine
scored tonight were the most he has given up in that stretch. Once
again, the competition Eric Thibeault has given him has Legault
playing his best of the year. The diminutive sophomore may not play
in a media hotbed and thus does not get the attention of a Greg Taylor,
but right now, I would take him over perhaps all but one or two other
goalies in the league if I wanted a guy who will give me a guaranteed
solid game and give my team a chance to win. I can honestly say he
has not given up a single bad goal in his last five outings.
OTHER NOTES
It was also nice to get a chance to see and talk to some folks we
don't get to see too often: Shawn Walsh, Joe Carr, Matt Bourque,
Larry Mahoney, and Nonni Daly. In a talk before the game, Shawn
offered the opinion that if Merrimack can put together one more
solid recruiting class like they have each of the last two years,
they will be well on their way. He added that he thinks the staff
has seemed much more patient in their willingness to wait a while
before landing good players who can come in and play right away,
rather than being frightened into taking lesser players early on
because they don't think they'll get anyone better. I found this
interesting in light of the recent discussion about the quality of
players out there. He thinks they are there, and that you just
need to look to find them.
I'm happy with the defensive makeup of the team headed into next
season, mainly because of the way the D played in the two Maine
games in December with seniors Cornforth and Hodge out. If they
are able to land some additional forwards who can play immediately,
it could make the difference in helping win some of the close, low-
scoring tilts like this one.
One thing I did not get to ask him about after the game was what
he thinks of Martin Legault now. :-) In St Paul last year, while
discussing with the BU folks the top players in the league, I
threw in Legault's name when the subject turned to goaltenders.
Shawn said he had not been impressed by Legault to that point, but
now, he has put together three absolutely outstanding games against
Maine this year. I wanted to know if his opinion had changed. :-)
I sat next to Joe Carr and got to hear him do his usual superb job
on Maine radio, accompanied by Larry Mahoney of the Bangor Daily News
on color. This is a team that seems to work well together, and
Larry is a guy who certainly knows the game. It was also nice to
join Joe for an intermission and cover topics ranging from the regular
season race and the evolution of Merrimack as a team, to the Beanpot
and some of the effects it may or may not have on teams involved.
As well, it was very nice to see former HE asst commish Nonni Daly
out and about and apparently doing very well.
Finally, it was a long day of driving, as I went up and back on
the same day. Special thanks to Coca-Cola, the Smashing Pumpkins,
and Green Day for helping keep me awake on the 225-mile drive
back late Sunday night. :-) (I'm not sure what the Freudian
implications are of the fact that Merrimack captain Mark Cornforth
chose Green Day's "Basket Case" as a warm up song. :-))
NEXT
Maine is off until 2/25-26 when the Black Bears entertain UMass-Lowell
in a pair of HE games.
Merrimack has their biggest weekend of the season coming up with a
home and home against Beanpot runner-up Boston College. This series
will go a long way towards deciding where these two teams finish,
and I don't think either one wants to finish low enough that they
get sent to Maine or BU. Friday's game will be at the Conte Forum,
with the rematch scheduled for Saturday night at the Volpe Center.
--- ---
Mike Machnik [log in to unmask]
Cabletron Systems, Inc. *HMM* 11/13/93
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