Heather and I were on hand for the 1992-93 Merrimack hockey awards dinner
Friday night, April 16th at DiBurro's Restaurant in Bradford, MA. The
following awards were given out:
Most Improved Player: Jr F Jim Gibson. Gibson played in 35 games and had
12-24--36, tied for 2nd in team scoring. He had 8-17--25 in 23 Hockey East
games, tied for the lead in team HE scoring. Last year, he had 5-5--10 in
19 games.
Francis "Buzz" Miller Unsung Hero Award: Jr F Cooper Naylor. Naylor, one
of the top defensive forwards in the league and a contributor in all
aspects of the game, had 3-13--16 in 36 games. Those are career bests in
all categories for him.
Fans' Award: So F Matt Adams; So D Dan Hodge; Sr F Dan Gravelle. This
award goes to the player(s) deemed most exciting in home games. Overall,
Adams had 10-5--15 in 33 games including a stretch of something like 7
goals in 7 games near the end of the year. Hodge had 3-17--20 in 36 games,
and Gravelle led the team in scoring with 18-24--42 in 36 games. Gravelle
finished his career in 15th place on the all-time list with 61-74--135, and
nearly all of those points were gained in his last three years. He was
also a member of the East squad at the First Annual Shrine East-West
College Hockey Classic played in Orono on April 10th.
Rookie of the Year Award: Fr F Mark Goble. Goble was named to the Hockey
East All-Rookie Team and had 12-15--27 in 33 games, 10-12--22 in 23 HE
games. This award was presented by rookie assistant coach Scott
MacPherson. MacPherson got quite a bit of ribbing since he had come over
to Merrimack from Lowell, where he both played and served as an assistant.
Goble scored perhaps the two biggest goals of the year, as he had the tying
and winning goals in the OT win over Lowell in the last game of the year
that allowed Merrimack to snatch sixth place. He is the first Merrimack
player to ever receive a HE postseason honor.
Coaches' Award: Sr G Mike Doneghey; Fr D Tom Costa. Doneghey played more
minutes than any Merrimack goalie since Jim Hrivnak in 1987-88 and the most
of any MC goalie since the team joined HE in 1989. He also played more
minutes than he did in his first three years combined and his 4.84 GAA in
92-93 was better than his combined GAA from 1989-92. He posted 13 wins.
Costa had only six assists in 35 games but has given Merrimack a solid
presence in front of the net, and he'll be counted on over the next few
seasons. A nice combination of choices.
Most Valuable Player: Sr F Wayde McMillan; Sr F Teal Fowler. McMillan
centered the first line most of the year and tied Gravelle for the team
lead in goals with 18; he had 18-18--36 in 36 games. The remarkable thing
about that is that McMillan had 3-6--9 in 24 games in his first two years
combined (he entered Merrimack as a sophomore eligibility-wise). Fowler,
one of the two captains, had 14-21--35 in 32 games and was cited for his
team leadership as well as ability to be involved in so many big goals.
These are two players who will be badly missed.
Worth noting is that McMillan and Fowler led Merrimack in +/- this season.
Although their +/- was an even 0, each player's adjusted +/- was +39 with
adjusted +/- being [(team GF - team PPG) - (opp GF - opp PPG)].
The captains for 1993-94, as selected by the Staff, will be forward Cooper
Naylor and defenseman Mark Cornforth. Naylor will be a senior next year,
and Cornforth will be a junior - only the second non-senior to be named a
captain since the team entered HE. Cornforth, by the way, is also the top
singles player on the Merrimack tennis team and had a record of 4-1 at that
slot last I heard. He had 3-18--21 in 36 games this season as the top
scorer among Warrior defensemen.
Head coach Ron Anderson said a few words about each of the 13 seniors:
manager Scott Whalen, goalies Mike Cox and Mike Doneghey, defensemen Alex
Weinrich (also a captain), Matt Hayes and Don MacLeod, defenseman/forward
Bryan Miller, and forwards Dan Gravelle, Wayde McMillan, Teal Fowler, John
Barron, Guy Ragault, and Matt Crowley. 7 of those players played 30 or
more games in 92-93. The losses represent the top goaltender, 71 goals
(53%), 97 assists (43%), and 168 points (47%) among the 92-93 totals. Each
senior was given a chair engraved with the Merrimack seal, as is the
custom.
A special presentation was made by senior Guy Ragault. On behalf of all of
the present, past and future Canadians who have played or will play for
Merrimack, Guy presented to athletic director Bob DeGregorio a full-size
Canadian flag to be displayed in the Volpe Complex alongside the American
flag. In his speech, Guy said that the flag was symbolic both of the
involvement of Canadians in the Merrimack program and of the appreciation
they had to Merrimack for giving them the academic and athletic
opportunities they had enjoyed. This was very well received.
Anderson noted that perhaps the statistic he was proudest of was the fact
that all of the 13 seniors are on schedule to graduate. Ragault and
McMillan have been named to the HE Academic Honor Roll each of the years at
Merrimack, and Ragault led HE in GPA his freshman year. Both Ragault and
McMillan have been nominated as Academic All-Americans. I've also learned
that while Ragault will receive his degree in electrical engineering in
May, he plans to spend next year at Merrimack taking some classes to prepare
him for pre-med, and as McMillan entered Merrimack in 1990-91 as a
sophomore eligibility-wise, he too will be at Merrimack next year to
complete his degree in accounting.
Finally, the team presented Coach Anderson with a new golf bag and also
gave each of the assistants a free round of golf at a local club. This was
also VERY well-received. :-)
Also, the prestigious J. Thom Lawler Award was given to Brian Murphy '78.
Murphy, head coach at St John's of Shrewsbury (137-54-9 in 9 years) which
has captured 6 of the last 7 Central Mass DivI titles, played under Lawler
during his stay at Merrimack. The award is given to a Merrimack alumnus
for continuous service to the game of hockey. A banner hangs at the end of
the Volpe Complex with the number 1 in honor of the legendary Lawler, who
directed Merrimack to the 1978 NC$$ DivII championship and then
unexpectedly passed away that summer.
=====
To wrap up, in a release, Anderson had several comments worth relaying on
the outcome of the 92-93 season for his team. Anderson, a finalist for the
Spencer Penrose National Coach of the Year Award, directed Merrimack to 14
overall wins and eight HE triumphs, both bests since the move to HE. He
said, "We continued the building process in our fourth year in Hockey East.
I was especially pleased with our play during the second half of the
season. I thought we played hard and we showed the trademark aggressive
Merrimack style of hockey."
Merrimack went 4-0-2 in overtime in 92-93 and scored three times in the
final minute of games to force the extra session. Anderson said, "We never
get to play an easy game, and I think that we are comfortable in those
pressure situations and respond well to the challenge. We have to battle
and scrap for everything we get, and this season was no different."
On the graduating seniors, he added: "I am extremely pleased that this
entire class will graduate. There is more to coaching hockey at Merrimack;
it's our job to get them ready for the next battle in life. I'm very
satisfied with the job they've done here. They have laid the foundation
for future successes and in establishing our trademark style of play."
Also, "I was very pleased with the leadership and play from this class
during the final five weeks of the season. That was the best hockey we
have played in recent years. They have taken the program to this point,
and it is time for the underclassmen to carry on."
On to 93-94...
---
Mike Machnik [log in to unmask] Color Voice of the Merrimack Warriors
alternate address days: [log in to unmask] *HMN* 11/13/93
(Any opinions expressed above are strictly those of the poster.)
|
