Maine 8, UMass 1 (HE)
Saturday, February 15, 1997, at Mullins Center (Amherst, MA)
Score By Periods Shots on Goal Pen - Min Power Play
ME 3 - 4 - 1 -- 8 12 - 19 - 11 -- 42 13 - 12 4 - 8
UMA 0 - 1 - 0 -- 1 2 - 7 - 5 -- 14 14 - 28 1 - 6
Records:
Maine (20-10-1, 12-7-1 HE)
UMass (12-19, 7-15 HE)
SCORING
First Period
ME-1 Shawn Mansoff (J. Mansoff, Shermerhorn) :46
ME-2 Bobby Stewart (Libby, J. Mansoff) SHG 6:22
ME-3 Shawn Wansborough (Libby, Cullen) 15:23
Second Period
ME-4 Wansborough (J. Mansoff, Stewart) 4:39
ME-5 Trevor Roenick (Gustaffson, Cardinal) 5:55
ME-6 Roenick (Cardinal, Larose) PPG 7:31
UMA-1 Warren Norris (Norton) PPG 17:32
ME-7 Steve Kariya (Libby) PPG 19:47
Third Period
ME-8 Ben Guite (Larose, Price) PPG 13:35
Goaltenders Saves by Period
ME - Alfie Michaud (60:00) 2 - 6 - 5 -- 13
UMA - Rich Moriarty (25:55) 9 - 6 - x -- 15
Brian Regan (34:05) x - 9 - 10 -- 19
ATTENDANCE: 3,372
AMHERST, Mass -- Junior Shawn Wansborough and senior Trevor Roenick each
notched a pair of goals as Maine easily handled the UMass Minutemen 8-1
Saturday Feb. 15
FIRST PERIOD:
Maine's blue line of Trevor Roenick, Reg Cardinal and Marcus Gustafsson had
the first shift of the game, and put immediate pressure on UMass, and
starting goaltender Rich Moriarty for a terrific shift and set the tone for
the rest of the game.
The next group over the boards scored the game's first goal just 46 seconds
into the contest. With a penalty coming on the Minutemen, Shawn Mansoff
came on the ice on a line change and flew into the play scoring on the
backhand to make it 1-0 Maine.
Maine completely dominated the contest as just six minutes into the game
Maine led 8-0 in shots-on-goal, but were short-handed after Shawn
Wansborough was put in the penalty box.
But the Black Bears tallied a rare short-handed goal. Bobby Stewart skated
to the left circle and let a bomb go beating Moriarty who had come out to
play the shot.
UMass would get their first shot of the game with just 6:19 left in the
period while on their third power play of the period.
Maine would extend the lead to 3-0 while on the power play. David Cullen,
who extended his point scoring streak to seven games (1-10--11), slid the
puck across to Jeff Libby who fed Wansborough for the one-timer into the top
corner just seven seconds after the penalty began.
On the next rush up ice, Reg Cardinal clanged one off the post.
It was a dominating period for Maine as they outshot the Minutemen 12-2, and
had terrific scoring opportunities and stiffling defense.
SECOND PERIOD:
UMass came out much better in the second period, though Maine still had
control of the game. Maine his their second post of the contest not long
after the period had began by Jeff Libby.
Just less than five minutes gone in the second, Maine went up by four goals.
Wansborough scored his second of the night as he tipped a Jason Mansoff
wrist shot from the point.
Just 1:16 after that goal, Maine drove Moriarty out of the game. Reg
Cardinal stole the puck in the offensive zone and made a quick pass to
Gustafsson who hit Roenick for the bang-bang goal at 5:55.
Moriarty made 15 saves while allowing 5 goals. Coming into the contest
Moriarty had played in eight games with a 2-3 record, a 5.06 goals against
average and an .840 save percentage, according to Maine radio.
Brian Regan replaced Moriarty and didn't fare much better early on. While
on the power play, Reg Cardinal had a breakaway that he just missed but
Trevor Roenick hustled and wraped the puck around for his second goal at
7:31 of the second and Maine was crusing 6-0.
UMass then put on the best pressure of the game was Maine netminder Alfie
Michaud was tested by Warren Norris as he came in all alone on a breakaway,
but Michaud made the stop.
UMass would get a couple of power plays and they'd make it count. Norris
scored his 18th goal of the year while on a 4-on-3 power play to make it 6-1
at the 17:32 mark.
Maine would score once more before the period was over, thanks to UMass'
Dennis Wright. While Maine was on the power play, Maine radio reported that
Wright was guarding Steve Kariya about three feet away from him. Kariya
tried to feed Dan Shermerhorn in front of the net but Wright intercepted the
pass and one-timed the puck into his own net. Shermerhorn gave Wright an
appreciative pat on the head, and Wright skated straight to the bench.
Maine blitzed UMass in the period putting 19 shots on goal and four goals to
put the game away at 7-1. UMass had seven shots, but were being out shot
31-9 after two periods in an exercise of complete domination.
THIRD PERIOD:
The third period saw Brian Regan play well, unfortunately for UMass after
the game was all but over. Regan made a good save on Jason Price in the
slot, then stopped the snakebitten Scott Parmentier and finished up a good
10 minutes with gems on Shawn Mansoff and Shawn Wansborough.
But UMass couldn't stay out of the box and Maine's red hot power play had
one more goal left in them. Jason Price lobbed the puck into the zone, and
Cory Larose backhanded the puck in front to Guite who swatted it out of the air.
During the radio broadcast, Blair Marsh noted that even though the score was
8-1 in favor of Maine that UMass was still running the trap. Marsh remarked
how odd this was as it is hard to generate much of a comeback with the trap.
UMass never left the trap during the game, and Maine had little trouble with it.
Maine won their 20th game, and perhaps more importantly they gave Shawn
Walsh his 300th win with the 8-1 victory. Walsh, despite forfeits in 1990-1
and 1993-4 has a career record of 300-174-26.
COMMENTS:
A solid win for Maine. Many questions circulated about what the team might
play like following the expected appeal denial, but Black Bear players have
said all along that they were not counting on it and proved it this weekend
by easily sweeping UMass and keeping the streaking Black Bears on the
winning track.
Maine's power play continued to impress with a 4-for-8 performance, and that
may have been the single difference in the game as UMass couldn't stay out
of the box and Maine made them pay. Typical Walsh-like style.. strong
special teams equals victories.
Maine will host UNH Tuesday night. UNH is ranked No. 3 in the country (no.
2 in some polls) and has beaten Maine three times this season already --
none since Walsh returned to the Maine bench.
---
Deron Treadwell ([log in to unmask])
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