Merrimack held its second scrimmage tonight, with the D'Accords (Blue)
gaining some revenge by beating the Heinzes (White), 8-4.  However,
the Heinzes' top line of Naylor-Atkinson-Adams had been "traded" to
the D'Accords before this game and that line accounted for 5 of their
team's 8 goals.
 
Things are starting to come together.  Matt Adams, who finished strong
last year, looks like he will pick up right where he left off as he
had two goals and an assist.  The freshmen are still learning to play
with each other, and there was a world of difference between this
scrimmage and the first - a lot of very pretty plays and more of that
blazing speed I mentioned in my previous post.  Tom Johnson looks like
he may be close to nailing down a spot at center, and sophomore
sparkplug Ryan Mailhiot appears to be back to the form he started last
season with.
 
As I alluded to before, the defense looks outstanding.  Tom Costa was
superb, netting a goal and two assists and playing very solidly.  John
Jakopin opened some eyes by laying out four crunching checks on one
shift alone and then firing a blast from the point that nearly went
in.  A defense of Costa-Hodge, Cornforth-Jakopin, and McKenna-Capuano
looks like it could be one of the best in HE, and that doesn't even
include junior Chris Ross.  Ross made a few nifty rushes and played
excellent D in his own end, and the logjam of defensemen could turn
out to be a blessing for Ron Anderson.  Speculation here is that Ross
could dress as a forward and then drop back to fill in on D in cases
of injury or if another D takes a penalty, without missing a beat.
 
In goal, three freshmen played - Legault, Thibeault, and Kevin Candito
(who did not dress the first scrimmage), in addition to senior Matt
Poska.  Candito was impressive, allowing only one goal in his 30
minutes of work, and Legault looked much better than on Thursday as he
allowed only one goal at even strength (two PPGs).  I suspect three
goalies will dress for each game, but right now I couldn't tell you
who they will be or who might get the start for the first real game.
Harvard might have had that two-freshman tandem, but Merrimack could
dress three freshmen for most games.
 
Maybe I'm being overly optimistic at this time, but I tend to think
the last-place predictions for Merrimack in HE might be an
understatement.  At this point I'd have to rank them 7th or 8th too,
but with as strong a defense as they have, we probably won't see many
of those 14-1 games like Maine last year.  And the nice thing for the
future is that only four players will be graduating, and none of them
are defensemen or goalies.  One of the freshman goalies said tonight
that he's determined to play in the Garden before he graduates, and if
next year's crop brings the kind of forwards they're talking about,
that might happen sooner than expected.  There's a solid nucleus here
that I believe will come together to produce a pretty decent team by
the end of this season or next.
 
Also, in addition to the RPI tourney next year, I hear rumors that
Merrimack may be playing in the Great Alaska Shootout over
Thanksgiving next year.  If this keeps up, Heather & I may never spend
a Turkey Day at home. :-)
 
Next scrimmage is Wed 10/13 at 6 pm, with an exhibition vs Brock on
Sat 10/16/93 at 7 pm.
 
One more thing: keep an eye out for increased enforcement of the
chinstrap rule this year.  The HE officials working the scrimmage
refused to let players play until they had adjusted their chinstrap so
the extended portion did not flap around.
---
Mike Machnik            [log in to unmask]        [log in to unmask]
Color Voice of the Merrimack Warriors                  *HMN*  11/13/93
(All opinions expressed above are strictly those of the poster.)