UMASS-LOWELL ESCAPES WITH WIN OVER YALE
Tonight (1/21/92), UMass-Lowell got a great performance in net from Mark
Richards (41 saves) to beat explosive Yale, 4-2.  The first period was
scoreless, and Lowell got on the board at 14:34 of the second when Gerry Daley's
blast from the right circle beat Yale goalie John Hockin to the glove side.
Yale tied it just one minute later when Martin Leroux banged home a rebound,
and it was 1-1 after two even though Yale held a 30-16 edge in shots and had
vastly outplayed the Chiefs.
 
Lowell went ahead at 1:11 of the third when Dan O'Connell backhanded a
rebound past Hockin.  The Chiefs got two more goals with 20 seconds of each
other at 10:29 and 10:49 from Eric Brown (rebound) and O'Connell.  O'Connell's
2nd of the night, which made it 4-1, was a carbon copy of Daley's goal.  The
Bulldogs made it 4-2 with 5:12 left when defenseman Peter Allen's shot went
in off of a Lowell stick, but that was it.  Yale outshot Lowell 43-23, but
Richards was the difference - he was superb and can't be faulted on either
goal, while Hockin allowed those two slapshots by his glove.  Yale falls to
9-3-3 overall while UMass-Lowell is now 9-11-1.
 
An interesting stat: Lowell is 3-71-3 over the past three years when trailing
after two.  They were tied after two tonight.
 
HOCKEY EAST NEWS
BU goalie Derek Herlofsky is the Rookie of the Week.  He stopped 33 saves in
the win over UNH.  UNH's Scott Morrow (3-1--4 on the week) is the Player of
the Week.
 
UNH forward Kevin Thomson, who was injured Saturday night as reported by Chris
Craig, will be out two weeks with a hip pointer.  It was a bad weekend for
injuries around Hockey East; Maine lost Randy Olson and Merrimack lost Jim
Gibson and Mark Cornforth, and I don't know who else may have been hurt.
 
The Boston Globe and Boston Herald both report that BC associate coach Steve
Cedorchuk is the leading contender now to succeed Len Ceglarski.  The only
other names mentioned in connection with the job now are SLU's Joe Marsh
and PC's Mike McShane.  The Globe reports that requirements for the job
according to an ad BC placed in this week's issue of the NC$$ News are "a
bachelor of science degree (preferably a master's) and five years of experience
with a successful program."
 
Merrimack has signed two recruits to letters of intent.  Don MacPhail of
Abington (MA) and formerly of Thayer Academy (which produced Roenick and
Amonte) is a defenseman currently playing for Omaha of the USHL with former
(and possibly future) Warrior Dan Hodge.  Ryan Maillhot of Merrimack, NH and
Manchester (NH) Trinity HS is a forward with prep school Lawrence Academy.
 
WOMEN'S HOCKEY NEWS
I was very sad to read in the Globe this weekend that Northeastern women's
hockey coach Don MacLeod (no relation to the Merrimack defenseman of the
same name) has resigned effective at the end of this season in protest of
decisions made by the NU athletic department.  MacLeod had been awarded 6.5
scholarships for his program, but they were revoked when the school discovered
NU would be the only school in the country giving them out.  Both UNH and
Providence, NU's two main rivals, recently stopped giving scholarships for
women's hockey.  AD Irwin Cohen said, "The scholarships that were going to the
women's hockey program will go to other women's sports.  And as far as Don
goes, I refused his resignation twice and he forced me into accepting it
the third time."
 
MacLeod has coached the Lady Huskies for 11 of their 12 years and run up a
record of 117-20-2 over the past five years, along with eight Beanpots and
two mythical national championships.  He is a good man and a great coach who
runs the team as almost a part-time job, and I am sure the program will
miss him.  He also coached the USA women's national team to a silver medal
in the first women's World Hockey Championships a couple of years ago.
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Mike Machnik        [log in to unmask]       [log in to unmask]