Tuesday, November 26, 1991 at Volpe Complex, North Andover, MA
NONCONFERENCE GAME
Notre Dame Fighting Irish (5-4-0) 0 0 1 1 - 2
Merrimack Warriors (5-6-0) 0 1 0 0 - 1
FIRST PERIOD ND-MC
No scoring.
SECOND PERIOD
1. MC1, Teal Fowler #8 (Alex Weinrich), 4:40. 4x4 0-1
THIRD PERIOD
1. ND1, John Rushin #3 (Curtis Janicke, Dan Sawyer), 19:55. 1-1
OVERTIME
2. ND2, Janicke #3 (Scott Vickman), 1:42. GWG 2-1
SHOTS ON GOAL: Notre Dame 6--8--5--2 = 21
Merrimack 8--8-10--1 = 27
GOALIES: Notre Dame, Brent Lothrop (3-2-0, 60:52, 27 shots-26 saves).
Merrimack, Steve D'Amore (20:00, 6 shots-6 saves),
Mike Doneghey (20:00, 8 shots-8 saves),
Yannick Gosselin (1-1-0, 21:42, 7 shots-5 saves).
POWER PLAY: Notre Dame, 0 of 2. Merrimack, 0 of 4.
PENALTIES: Notre Dame, 7/14. Merrimack, 5/10.
REFEREE: Frank Cole. LINESMEN: Bob Fowkes, Dennis Hughes.
ATTENDANCE: 927 (capacity 3,617).
THREE STARS: 1. Curtis Janicke, Notre Dame (1-1--2).
2. Brent Lothrop, Notre Dame (27 shots-26 saves).
3. Teal Fowler, Merrimack (1-0--1).
HOCKEY-L list member Coach Ric Schafer brought his Fighting Irish into
Merrimack's Volpe Complex and, despite trailing 1-0 with 5 seconds left,
the Irish tied it up and won 1:42 into overtime on a deflection by center
Curtis Janicke. ND goalie Brent Lothrop was outstanding, making 26 saves,
while his team played great defense in front of him to keep open the
chance of winning the game. The Warriors were stunned by the loss and
will have to find a way to regroup for Friday's battle with
Alaska-Anchorage.
The first two periods were very evenly played and both teams allowed little
in the way of quality scoring chances. Coach Schafer warned me before the
game that he had spoken to his team about the comments I had made in
other Merrimack wrapups, specifically the things I had seen the Warriors
doing wrong. Well, it sure looked like they listened, because they shut
down Merrimack's power play. And, when Merrimack would change up (again
all players going to the bench), several times goalie Lothrop would fire
the puck right back up the far side to an open wing. It never produced
any serious chances, but it was funny to see ND doing this after I had
talked about it. I'll have to learn to be less descriptive in the
future. :-)
Merrimack scored what was to be its only goal of the night at 4:40 of the
second on a 4x4 situation with ND's Tim Litchard and Merrimack's Claude
Maillet both in the box for high-sticking. Alex Weinrich shot the puck
from the right point and Teal Fowler deflected it in from in front for
his eighth goal of the season.
Merrimack coach Ron Anderson elected to play each of his goaltenders for
a period, with Steve D'Amore and Mike Doneghey shutting out the Irish in
the first and second. Yannick Gosselin came in for the third and ended
up with the loss, surrendering both Irish goals.
The one-goal game continued into the third and the pace picked up, with
both teams skating. Fowler took a pass at center ice and tried to sneak
in front after skating up the left side, but Lothrop came out to meet
him and knocked the puck away. With nine minutes left, Gosselin robbed
ND's Scott Vickman. Less than a minute later, Matt Adams, who had a
solid game for Merrimack and showed flashes of brilliance, beat two
defensemen and almost walked in alone, but he was hauled down by ND's
Matt Osiecki for one of those "good" penalties. But Merrimack's
attack was staved off; in fact, Jeff Hasselman stole the puck right
in front of Gosselin on a bad cross-ice breakout pass and tried to lift
a backhander under the crossbar, but the puck went over the glass.
With six minutes left, Dan Gravelle received a pass high in the slot and
one-timed a blast at the net, but Lothrop was again equal, turning it
aside with his stick. Then the Irish had an opportunity when Robert
Copeland took a shot from the right circle that Gosselin stopped, but he
left the rebound waiting in the crease, and before an ND player could
knock it into the net, the net was knocked off its moorings.
At this point, with 3 minutes left, the radio guys I sit with got hold of
the date of Merrimack's last shutout and were about to announce it on
the air. Shocked, I begged them not to do it. You just do not tempt
the hockey gods like that! :-) But they wouldn't heed my warning.
Finally, with 50 seconds left and the crowd on the edge of their seats
in what had turned from a lackluster game to an exciting third-period
battle, Lothrop skated to the bench for a sixth attacker. The Irish
threatened but couldn't score; then, with just nine seconds left,
Agostino Casale tried for a 150-foot empty-net goal, and the puck sailed
just wide of the empty-net. Icing. Faceoff in Merrimack's end. Casale
began to return to his end for the faceoff and was quickly yanked off
the ice.
Curtis Janicke won the draw to Gosselin's left, drew it back to the right
point for Dan Sawyer and headed for the net. Sawyer shot the puck just
wide, but John Rushin just got a stick on it and deflected it into the
net with five seconds left to tie the game at 1-1. It was only ND's 5th
shot on goal of the period, and it sent the game into overtime.
Merrimack's Jeff Massey was robbed by Lothrop early in OT, then came the
winner on a virtual carbon copy of the goal that had tied it up. Janicke
won the draw to Gosselin's left and went to the net. Vickman let go a
lazy shot from the right point that Janicke deflected past Gosselin,
and while the Merrimack players stood around, stunned, the whole Irish
bench poured onto the ice and celebrated ecstatically.
EPILOGUE
It was truly a big win for Notre Dame, their first win over a conference
team since almost two years ago when the Irish beat then-ECAC member Army
on Jan 27, 1990, 5-2 at Notre Dame. The Irish had not defeated a
conference team on the road since a 5-2 win at Army on Jan 3, 1989, almost
three years ago. And, it was ND's first win over Merrimack since Dec 18,
1969, when the Irish won 5-1 at Merrimack - nine months before Ric Schafer
entered Notre Dame as a freshman. The teams had played only that one game
in their all-time matchup until 1988-89, when Merrimack swept all three
meetings with the Irish; they had not met since.
Merrimack is really struggling, having scored just one goal in its last
130:11. It was a tough loss for a team that has been in all of its six
losses; the chances have been there.
Notre Dame was without leading returning scorer David Bankoske after an
early-season injury and has also been forced to go without last year's
top netminder, Greg Louder. Lothrop looks to be a more than adequate
netminder, and while they clearly miss Bankoske's scoring punch, juniors
Sterling Black and Janicke along with freshman Rushin stood out as
players who will give the Irish some solid two-way play and put pressure
on the opposing dufflebags.
ND was to practice at Merrimack Wednesday morning and then head up to
Portland, ME for their clash with #1 Maine this weekend.
MISC
Spotted at the game were a bevy of former college coaches, among them
RPI's Mike Addesa (now a scout with Detroit), Northeastern's Fern Flaman
(scouting for Lou Lamoriello's New Jersey Devils), and Brown's Herb
Hammond. Also on hand was injured Bruin Dave Poulin, a former Notre Dame
player who wore the Gold and Blue from 1978-82 and is ND's 6th all-time
leading scorer (89-107--196 in 135 games). Poulin sat behind the ND bench
and rooted on his alma mater.
Before the game, a moment of silence was held in the memory of Badger Bob.
I can only reiterate the things that have already been said today on
HOCKEY-L about Badger Bob and what he has meant to hockey in the United
States. Just as a thought, those of you who feel strongly about him and
can afford to do so, might wish to make a small donation to USA Hockey
in his memory so we can keep the dream alive. So you know I'm not talking
through my hat, I've already done this.
Finally, it was great to see Coach Schafer again before the game; Kap and I
enjoyed talking with him about HOCKEY-L, Notre Dame and hockey in general.
For those of you who haven't met him, he's a very personable guy who is
happy to talk about ND hockey and he's especially excited to be part of
HOCKEY-L; a true class act. I'm happy for his involvement and the way
he talks up the list to other coaches and folks he runs into. It doesn't
seem to me that anyone else could do what he has done with the ND program
in such a short time, in terms of bringing it back to respectability,
and I really feel that as far as the future goes, the best advertisement
for ND hockey and ND in general could be for more people to learn about
who Ric is and what his program is about. I hope more people get to meet
him. Too often there's a perceived air of arrogance about ND, the school
and some of its teams, and Ric runs directly counter to that idea. I want
to wish him and his team the best of luck throughout the rest of this
season and into the CCHA, and I hope they'll invite us out to South Bend
for a return engagement sometime soon.
---
Mike Machnik [log in to unmask] [log in to unmask]
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