1/29/91 Hockey East Overall Non-league
GP W-L-T Pts GF-GA || GP W-L-T GF-GA W-L-T
========================================================
1 Boston College 15 11-4-0 22 72-54 || 27 20-7-0 129-83 | 9-3-0
2 Boston University 15 9-4-2 20 69-44 || 26 16-8-2 139-89 | 7-4-0
3 Maine 14 9-4-1 19 68-49 || 30 22-6-2 161-92 | 13-2-1
4 Merrimack 13 7-6-0 14 50-56 || 24 13-10-1 112-108 | 6-4-1
Providence 13 6-5-2 14 61-53 || 23 16-5-2 127-81 | 10-0-0
6 New Hampshire 14 5-7-2 12 50-55 || 27 17-8-2 121-97 | 12-1-0
7 Lowell 15 4-10-1 9 47-74 || 26 8-17-1 93-128 | 4-7-0
8 Northeastern 15 1-12-2 4 54-86 || 25 4-19-2 97-141 | 3-7-0
1/25/91 Lowell 0 at Boston College 4 HE
Boston University 2 at Maine 4 HE
Merrimack 5 at Northeastern 1 HE
New Hampshire 2 at Providence 2 HE ot
1/26/91 Boston College 2 at Lowell 3 HE
Boston University 0 at Maine 4 HE
Providence 2 at Merrimack 4 HE
Northeastern 1 at New Hampshire 5 HE
1/29/91 Northeastern at Boston University HE
Boston College at Cornell NC
Lowell at Yale NC
2/1/91 Merrimack at Boston College HE
Boston University at New Hampshire HE
Maine at Northeastern HE NESN
2/2/91 Providence at Lowell HE
Maine at Merrimack HE
2/4/91 Northeastern vs Boston College NC Beanpot NESN
Harvard vs Boston University NC Beanpot NESN
2/5/91 New Hampshire at Lowell HE
Providence at Merrimack HE
Thanks to Wayne and Chris for their postings on Maine & NH's weekend.
Here's what I can add to that:
MERRIMACK 5, at NORTHEASTERN 1
The Warriors swept the season series with their win at Matthews Arena,
where Merrimack has now won six straight times dating back to 1988.
Their win the next night against a good Providence team suddenly
vaulted the Warriors into a tie for fourth and made them serious
contenders for home ice in the quarterfinals. They have at least one
game in hand on the teams behind them in the standings. The Providence
at Merrimack rematch on February 5th suddenly looms as a very big game -
it could decide fourth if both teams finish strong. Merrimack has
won five of its last six games. Since early December, Providence
had been 7-1-1 (only loss to Maine).
Hockey East announced last week that it was naming the Coach of the
Year trophy after UNH's Bob Kullen, who passed away near the beginning
of this season. Right now, Merrimack head man Ron Anderson is the
slight favorite to capture that award, having turned a consensus last
place team into a contender for home ice. UNH's own Dick Umile was the
early favorite, although the Wildcats' recent slump combined with the
Warriors' refusal to crumble has to give the edge to Anderson.
Friday, the scoreless first period was pretty sloppy and neither team
built up much of a charge, but action picked up a bit in the second. In
fact, coming out of the first period 0-0 was really a win for Merrimack,
who had been outscored 24-8 in that stanza prior to the weekend. The
Warriors were to allow *no* opening period goals this weekend, a key to
their two victories.
Northeastern's Matt Saunders got his team on the board with a shorthanded
goal at 2:16. He came down the left side and fired a shot from the
circle that seemed to curve as it eluded The Goose on its way into the
net, beating him glove side. Brian Sullivan assisted. But just 23
seconds later, after NU had returned to full strength, Dan Gravelle
took a pass from freshman sensation Rob Atkinson and beat Tom Cole from
in front for Gravelle's 13th of the year. At 4:47, sparkplug Teal Fowler
stole the puck at center ice, walked in and scored his 8th goal to put
Merrimack up 2-1. It went to 3-1 at 6:24 when freshman Jim Gibson nailed
his 5th from Brendan Locke and John Barron.
The Huskies had the better of the play in the third period, outshooting
Merrimack 11-7 (29-23 for the game), but they couldn't penetrate The Goose.
Fowler added a big insurance goal, his 2nd of the game, at 12:06 during
a 4x4, and Barron put it away for good at 14:17.
As Chris said, it's becoming clear that the season is taking its toll on
Northeastern. It wasn't as chippy a game as the NU-UNH game apparently
was; there were 52 minutes in penalties, but 24 of those came when
Merrimack's Doug Greschuk and NU's Sullivan squared off in the third period
in a semi-fight, and each was handed a minor for hitting after the whistle
and a misconduct which earned them early showers. Still, there's little
life left in this team, and that sentiment is echoed by people close to
them. Yet, any team that looks past them either in the Beanpot or in the
first round of the HE playoffs could be making a mistake. Look for the
Hounds to pull off at least one big win before the season ends.
at MERRIMACK 4, PROVIDENCE 2
I had to miss this game due to prior commitments, and I knew something big
would happen. Merrimack is now 5-2 when I miss a game. Hmm. Anyway,
Gravelle started things off again just 54 seconds into the game when he beat
Mike Heinke after heavy pressure deep in the PC zone. Then, after
Agostino Casale's dump-in from center ice found net behind a confused Heinke
for a 2-0 Merrimack lead at 12:07, Friar coach Mike McShane went to the
bullpen for sophomore Brad Mullahy. Mullahy entered the game with a record
of 10-1-1; the Warriors handed him only his second loss of the season.
The Goose's fine showing against Northeastern had run his record to 7-1-0
and dropped his GAA to 3.61; it is 2.99 if his only bad outing, the six-goal
first period against PC earlier in the season, is discounted. No other MC
goalie has a record over .500. So what happened against PC? Goose got the
bench and Mike Doneghey (1-3-1, 5.06 before the game) got the call. To
Doneghey's credit, he had played very well in his only two appearances since
Christmas.
The result was a sparkling 34-save performance that earned Doneghey the
game's first star, lowering his GAA in Hockey East from 4.41 to 3.80. He
stopped 12 shots in the first and third periods and 10 in the second.
Up 2-0, Merrimack hit paydirt again when Howie Rosenblatt scored his 17th
from Casale and Fowler just 1:37 into the second period. Rosenblatt has
already tallied more points this season than he did in his first three
combined. Rob Gaudreau got the Friars on the board at 10:35 with his 25th
goal, and Bob Cowan brought PC within one at 4:30 of the third. But the
Warriors held off PC and Atkinson's 11th, on the power play, was the
insurance goal with 2:54 left.
The win was only Merrimack's 9th in 49 games against Providence and their
first in five games vs. the Friars since joining Hockey East.
at BOSTON COLLEGE 4, LOWELL 0
at LOWELL 3, BOSTON COLLEGE 2
BC ran its record to 14-0 in the Forum, 46-7-2 since it opened in 1988,
with Scott LaGrand's shutout. LaGrand is now 19-0 lifetime in Conte
Forum. Marty McInnis and Bill Guerin scored early in the game to put
BC up 2-0, and Steve Heinze and David Emma added goals late in the
second and early in the third. Each member of the HEM line had a goal
and two assists. Mark Richards made 31 saves for the Chiefs. In the
rematch at Lowell's Tully Forum, the Chiefs opened up a 3-1 lead after
two periods and held on for the win, with great netminding by Dwayne
Roloson. He and UNH goalie Jeff Levy were named co-Rookies of the Week.
UPCOMING
Tonight's BC at Cornell game is a matchup of two of the top teams in the
East. BC will try to become the fourth HE team to chalk up 10 nonleague
wins. Friday and Saturday, Cinderella Merrimack runs into BC and Maine;
unfortunately I will again have to miss the Maine game and probably the
BC one too. Saturday and Tuesday, New Hampshire tries to continue getting
back on track with big games against BU and Lowell. And, of course,
the 39th Beanpot gets started Monday night at Boston Garden as NU takes
on BC at 6 pm and BU meets Harvard at 9.
- mike
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