Friday, February 14, 1997 at Conte Forum (Chestnut Hill, Mass.)
Score By Periods Shots on Goal Pen - Min Power Play
MC 1 - 2 - 2 -- 5 7 - 9 - 3 -- 19 8 - 16 0 - 1
BC 1 - 1 - 0 -- 2 16 - 7 - 15 -- 38 5 - 10 0 - 4
Goaltenders Saves by Period
MC - Martin Legault (60:00) 15 - 6 - 15 -- 36 (2 GA)
BC - Greg Taylor (60:00) 6 - 7 - 1 -- 14 (5 GA)
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Saturday, February 15, 1997 at Volpe Center (North Andover, Mass.)
Score By Periods Shots on Goal Pen - Min Power Play
BC 2 - 0 - 3 -- 5 11 - 3 - 22 -- 36 16 - 56 4 - 7
MC 4 - 3 - 4 -- 11 12 - 13 - 14 -- 39 15 - 46 3 - 7
Goaltenders Saves by Period
BC - Greg Taylor (27:12) 8 - 3 - x -- 11 (5 GA)
- Mike Correia (32:48) x - 7 - 10 -- 17 (6 GA)
MC - Martin Legault (51:08) 9 - 3 - 11 -- 23 (5 GA)
- Eric Thibeault (8:52) x - x - 8 -- 8 (0 GA)
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New Records: Boston College (11-17-3, 7-11-3 7th HE)
Merrimack (13-16-1, 9-10-1 tied 5th HE)
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Boston College officially moved to the status of "underachievers" this year
with a lost weekend against Merrimack, losing 5-2 at BC on Friday and
11-5 at Merrimack on Saturday. The Eagles, who were picked in the coaches
pre-season poll to finish third in Hockey East, are now 7th and have only
slim hopes left for home ice in the HE quarterfinals. Merrimack continues
to play well in 1997, having won 6 of their last 7, while BC has now lost
6 of their last 7.
Friday night was a frustrating one for BC as they outshot Merrimack 38-19
but could not score goals. The Eagles hit 2 posts and had a tying goal
disallowed in the 2nd period, and MC goalie Martin Legault played well in
net, especially during heavy BC pressure in the third period. Merrimack
was able to opportunistically score on poor BC defensive efforts, ranging
from bad positioning to an inability to cover one-on-one to a failure to
cover a man with the puck behind the BC net to the goalie sending a
clearing pass right to a Merrimack player for a shot into the open net.
BC may have had an emotional letdown after a tough Beanpot loss to BU, as
they did not seem to have their skating legs in this game. In addition,
they were undermanned as forwards Chris Masters and Tony Hutchins were
missing. Masters is recovering from a concussion suffered in the Beanpot
final and Hutchins is out for the season with an ACL injury, also suffered
in the Beanpot. The lineup shuffling due to this seemed to affect the
forechecking of BC. But Merrimack is a big, strong team that has found
its stride late in the season and they made the most of their chances.
Saturday night's game was certainly unexpected. BC has traditionally
played well at Merrimack, and with the motivation of wanting to recover
from Friday's loss we expected a good game from the Eagles. Instead, they
continued to play poor defense and Merrimack took advantage to score a
record number of goals. The game was tight until late in the first period,
when Darrel Scoville finished off a first-period hat trick on a shorthanded
goal to give the Warriors a 4-2 lead at the end of one. The second period
was all Merrimack, as BC was unable to get any momentum going. Coach York
tried pulling Greg Taylor after the 5th MC goal to try to reverse his
fortunes, but replacement Mike Correia gave up two goals on two shots in
his first minute and a half. (I don't think he was at fault for either;
both were open break chances for MC forwards after poor BC defensive play.)
At that point the outcome wasn't in doubt, and the teams traded goals the
rest of the game. Correia played okay after his shaky start but got little
help. (MC's 8th goal was allowed after a BC defenseman fell into Correia
and wiped out both him and the goal cage -- the shot went into the net as
it slid back toward the rear boards.) Several players were given 10-minute
misconducts late in the game after tempers flared a bit but no one was
given a disqualification, so all should be eligible for their next game.
Merrimack's Martin Legault now holds the all-time MC career saves mark
with 3005 saves.
The BC Season:
The BC faithful, who had high hopes that this season would start the team's
rise toward respectability again, have seen a tremendous collapse of the
defense hurt the team. They have scored more goals this year and been
better offensively, but the poor penalty killing, poor transition play,
number of breakaways and shorthanded goals, and poor goalkeeping have
undermined the season. The Eagles have played well against rival BU,
showing their potential, but have been unable to elevate their play against
anyone else. The wins have mostly come against weaker opposition, while
better teams have consistently held BC in check. It is true that BC has
played a relatively tough schedule, and that they have lost key players at
times due to injury and international commitments, but that certainly
doesn't explain the team's stagnation. The pattern of the recent BC teams
has been to have a slow start until the younger players fit into the team,
then to have a strong finish. This year the younger players have played
well from the beginning, and the team has actually regressed in some ways
since earlier in the season. The defense, which has most of the seniors on
the team, has not shown the growth and maturity that you would expect from
an experienced group. The forwards, while skilled offensively, have fallen
into bad habits when backchecking. Since when is cruising aimlessly in the
middle, not covering anyone, hoping to steal an errant pass, and reaching
with the stick instead of covering a man and using your body to muscle him
out of position a solid defensive strategy? The team seems to be tiring
late in the season and is often too slow to cover men defensively or
escape checks offensively. Many fans have expressed frustration with
the coaching staff because they do not appear to have answers for the
problems.
The team is young, and has another good recruiting class due next year, so
most fans still expect the program to improve. But I think most expected
this year to be above .500, with real NCAA playoff chances next year. That
expectation may now be delayed, with next year showing the improvement that
this year was supposed to show. If they manage to turn it around and get
deep into the HE playoffs, it will soften the disappointment. It would
be the equivalent of the playoff run that Harvard had last year (just
missing the ECAC title and its automatic NCAA bid.)
I apologize to those who expected my usual detailed reports on the games
this weekend; various circumstances made it difficult to get to work
to post anything. If anyone wants more detail than they have already
seen on HOCKEY-L, INFO-HOCKEY-L, or various web sites please send me
an email request.
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Rick McAdoo [log in to unmask]
"Volunteer reporter" A positive BC fan. GO EAGLES!
HOCKEY-L is for discussion of college ice hockey; send information to
[log in to unmask], The College Hockey Information List.
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