Congratulations to the Merrimack Warriors and
their fans!!! What a great series they played at
BU, truely inspirational. It was clearly evident
that this team's eight place finish was a fluke.
They truely showed their metal by taking it to one
of the nation's strongest playoff teams - BU ...
who certainly demonstrated that they were playoff
ready by winning their last seven straight.
Merrimack, on the other hand had lost twelve
straight.
 
But Merrimack is going to the Fleet and HockeyEast
Semi-finals for the first time as Anderson extends
his season for at least one more game. You can bet
that Merrimack will have quite a few fans in
attendance, including those BU, UNH and
Northeastern fans who are pure enough hockey fans
to attend the event anyways because they already
bought the tickets. I think Merrimack is drowning
in so much respect right now that even BU fans
won't hesitate to cheer on the Warriors against
the hated Eagles of BC. Jerry York and crew are
probably wondering what they did to deserve this.
Well, maybe they aren't so nervous ... but I think
they should be. :)
 
I knew Merrimack was going to win one, but I never
dreamed of this. I predicted Merrimack to take a
game on the message board at USCHO, as well as my
predictions that BC, Maine and Lowell would be
going to the semi's. Now, I'm making a bold but
serious prediction on the playoffs. The HockeyEast
Championship game is going to have a strong
Merrimack Valley flavor but the victor will be
Lowell. As much as I see BC being the strongest
and most talented team who is also playing very
good hockey, still they have shown their
vunerability lately and I think they are prime for
an upset ... and this Warrior team certainly has
the motive seeing how BC rained on their playoff
party last year. Out of Maine, Lowell and
Merrimack, the latter has the best shot of downing
BC. If BC does get by the Warriors, then the
championship will be theirs ... and thereby
limiting HockeyEast to just three teams in the
NCAA tournament.
 
A few more things ... Merrimack's recent sensation
in net - Tom Welby, certainly was fired up for BU.
Being a local kid, I imagine that he'll be just as
primed for BC. I was watching John Pyliotis start
to come on for Merrimack near the end of the
season (in the Lowell series) and its clear that
his late season progress has been truely
spectacular (4-3-7 on the weekend). This kid will
be something to watch in the future.
 
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