This is from the Lawrence Eagle-Tribune, 9/11/92, article by Mike Morea.
 
EUROPEAN VACATION TURNS INTO JOB FOR FORMER MERRIMACK GOALIE
PEABODY, MA - For any hockey player, the ultimate goal is to make it to the
National Hockey League.
   For Merrimack College graduate Steve D'Amore, the road to the NHL will
travel through Glimma, Sweden.
   Asked by UMass-Lowell assistant Tim Whitehead to go overseas with a group
of college players, D'Amore was looking forward to some tough competition
and a little vacation.
   "I was using the trip as a tune-up for a tryout I have this month with
Cincinnati of the International Hockey League," said D'Amore, who is set to
leave today.
   "There were a lot of scouts watching one of the games that I played very
well in.  They asked me if I would stay around for a week at their expense
so they could get a better look at me."
   After a feeling out process, the Swedes realized that they had found the
goalie they were looking for.
   "I skated with them all week," remarked D'Amore, the only American on the
Glimma Hockey Klubb.  "The first couple of practices I played well."
   Shunned in the annual NHL draft, D'Amore was looking for an in to the NHL.
He was in the right place at the right time.
   "I was not that excited about the Cincinnati tryout," D'Amore said.  "I
knew it would be a real dogfight there because they already have a couple
goalies under contract."
   Feeling a need to establish himself for NHL scouts, D'Amore decided to
make the trek to Sweden.
   "I'll stick with them as long as it takes to catch someone's eye,"
commented the 6-2, 215 pound St John's Prep graduate.  "This is a perfect
opportunity to work my way from the bottom up."
   Working his way from the bottom up is old hat to D'Amore, who began his
college career at Merrimack as a reserve and worked his way into the starting
position last year.
   Even the travel, which will be mainly by bus, doesn't bother D'Amore.
   "The travel will be no worse than going to Orono, Maine," joked, D'Amore.
END
 
Great to see D'Amore get an opportunity like this; he was the iron man for
Merrimack as a senior last year, playing in every game for a team that
struggled yet he impressed a lot of folks around the league.
 
Also, I read on rec.sport.hockey that former Warrior RW Jeff Massey, a
classmate of D'Amore's, will be in camp with San Jose.
 
Some other Warriors in camp with various teams include former MC stars RW Rich
Pion with St Louis (21-50--71 with Peoria of the IHL), G Jim Hrivnak with
Washington where he is expected to back up Don Beaupre after an impressive
stint at the end of last season, and C Jim Vesey with Boston (0 pts in 4
games before suffering a season-ending shoulder injury; had 6-7--13 in 10
games with Maine of the AHL).
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Mike Machnik    [log in to unmask]   mikem@{beanpot,bubba}.ma30.bull.com
(Any opinions expressed above are strictly those of the poster.)