From what I saw, this was the story of a young
Merrimack goalie named Classen turning down a
strong BU attack ... which was mainly fueled more
than anything else by an incredibly strong
forecheck and Merrimack's inability to counter it.
 
I only saw the first two periods in which BU
outshot Merr. by a tune of 31-9 (or something like
that). I came in a few minutes late, during which
Merrimack had jumped out to a 1-0 lead. Despite
the lengthy offensive zone occupation times by
B.U., I always felt that Merrimack was biding
their time well and somewhat limiting B.U. to
peripheral oppurtunites. An occasional Merrimack
breakout would also further this feeling that
Merrimack was always in this game.
 
After two periods, it was B.U. 2-1 but could have
easily been Merrimack 3-1.
 
The first B.U. goal was a shot in from the point
by Heron through a heavy, heavy screen (I had the
perfect view from behind Heron and there was no
way I could see Classen at all). It was redirected
twice I think by a shin pad and a skate and seemed
to get cleanly by Classen ... who must have felt
like a kid who missed a pinball through his
flippers in a flurry of richochets.
 
Merrimack had a good chance after that goal when a
very tired Kesselring (I believe) walked right
around a proably equally beleagured B.U.
defenseman ( or it might have been a forward
caught back on defense, Hanson maybe?). The
resulting shot on Noble was saved cleanly and the
tired Merrimack forward skated to his bench.
 
It was 1-1 after one period.
 
The second saw only one score and it was a real
pretty one by B.U. freshman Vuori. Once again, the
B.U. forecheck had kept the puck deep in
Merrimack's end and Vuori circled out from the
corner .. from in tight along the left hand
boards. He came across in front and put home a
mean backhander which went in high off the post on
the right side of Classen.
 
Merrimack had  a couple of great chances
themselves which were either thwarted by B.U.'s
defense or met by the strong play of B.U.'s goalie
Tom Noble. This Noble kid is putting to rest my
earlier off-season speculation that B.U. should go
with Larocque on a more regular basis. B.U. is now
very even more scary with two such incredibly
strong goalies.
 
One Merrimack two on one resluted in a feed to
freshman Joel Gray and it looked like a real good
opportunity until a diving Tom Poti of B.U. broke
up Gray and sent the pair into the corner. Poti
was able to regain his feet by the time Gray
reached the corner and labelled him with an
incredible check ... but got called for elbowing.
It looked clean to me but maybe the follow through
did put an elbow in Gray's neck.
 
Porter had a patented Stringer-Porter faceoff draw
play which didn't connect with the usual twine
flapping result.
 
Merrimack defenseman Darrel Scoville had a nice
end to end rush through B.U.'s defensemen on the
tail end but the shot was inneffective.
 
It was 2-1 after two. (At which point I left, I
didn't want to fight the crowds :)
 
I did catch the between period radio interview of
Hockey-L'ers Mike Machnik and Dave Hendrickson.
Mike was interviewing Dave about his recent USCHO
feature story on Travis Roy. I also caught the
beginning of the third on the ride home ... at
least until I was out of range with Merrimack's
broadcast. It sounded like B.U.'s third goal
wasn't something you could really blame Classen on
either ... being a deflection in front of a pass
from the side/corner.
 
In summary, I was real impressed with Classen. He
looked like a stand up goaltender who knows how to
squash rebounds. Merrimack did do a fairly good
job of clearing rebounds that did drop, they just
couldn't move the puck out of the zone and B.U.
would come back with another chance. It seemed
that Merrimack's forwards could have helped a
whole lot more ... often coughing up the clearing
pass that came to them along the boards ... then
again, the B.U. forecheck was relentless on this
area.
 
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