Sunday, November 24, 1991 at Schneider Arena, Providence, RI
HOCKEY EAST GAME
Merrimack Warriors (5-5-0, 0-4-0 HE) 0 0 0 - 0
Providence Friars (7-3-0, 3-1-0 HE) 0 2 2 - 4
FIRST PERIOD
No scoring.
SECOND PERIOD PC-MC
1. PC1, Shaun Kane #3 (Chad Quenneville, Jon Rowe), 7:56. 5x3 GWG 1-0
2. PC2, Rob Gaudreau #9 (Mike Boback), 14:44. PPG 2-0
THIRD PERIOD
3. PC3, Boback #7 (Gary Socha, Mike Heinke), 4:47. 3-0
4. PC4, George Breen #3 (Quenneville), 5:03. 4-0
SHOTS ON GOAL: Merrimack 4--7-14 = 25
Providence 9-11--9 = 29
GOALIES: Merrimack, Steve D'Amore (3-5-0, 60:00, 29 shots-25 saves).
Providence, Mike Heinke (7-2-0, 60:00, 25 shots-25 saves).
POWER PLAYS: Merrimack 0 of 9, Providence 2 of 9.
PENALTIES: Merrimack 11/22, Providence 11/25.
REFEREE: Rich Fowkes. LINESMEN: John Melanson, Tim Benedetto.
ATTENDANCE: 1,832 (capacity 3,000).
THREE STARS: 1. Mike Heinke, Providence (25 shots-25 saves, 1 assist).
2. Chad Quenneville, Providence (0-2--2).
3. Mike Boback, Providence (1-1--2).
Mike Heinke earned his second shutout of the season and of his career,
stopping 25 shots to lead PC to the 4-0 win which moved the Friars into
a four-way tie for first in Hockey East.
It was a game filled with penalties and a total of 18 power plays, despite
the fact that it really wasn't a physical or cheap game. Referee Rich
Fowkes saw fit to arouse the ire of both coaches and the fans by calling
penalty after penalty to break up the flow of what was otherwise a pretty
evenly played game. You all know I'm not one to criticize officiating
unless truly deserved, and I certainly don't believe it affected the
outcome of the game. But in contrast to most of the prior HE games played
thus far, we saw a ridiculous number of penalties called on both sides
that were not very obvious and effectively brought the game to a grinding
halt in the second period.
In that period, Fowkes called single minors at 1:02, 2:58, 6:11, 7:45, 8:55,
10:18, 13:16, 16:02, 19:35, and 19:50. At one point late in the period,
a Providence fan, with his team ahead 2-0, stood up and bellowed, "Let
them play!" which was cheered by much of the crowd.
There was no scoring in the first, which saw PC outshoot Merrimack, 9-4,
but not many shots were of the quality type. It was a close-checking
period as both teams played well in their own end.
Agostino Casale, who entered the game with only 2 PIM and was to be kept
off the board for the first time this season, was whistled for two
apparently phantom penalties in the 2nd. With Casale and Claude Maillet
in the box, the Friars finally beat Steve D'Amore at 7:56 on the 5x3.
D'Amore never saw defenseman Shaun Kane's bullet from the left point.
To his credit, D'Amore played about as well as his counterpart Heinke
and can't be blamed on either of PC's 2nd period PPGs.
At 14:44, Rob Gaudreau scored on another screen shot from the point that
appeared to be tipped by a Merrimack player. Gaudreau has been moved
from first line RW to defense because the Friars have been struggling on
the blue line. Gaudreau is an excellent puckhandler and playmaker, and
he also is superb defensively. Chalk this up as a great coaching move
by PC head man Mike McShane.
Fowkes had gotten himself in trouble by calling most of the early
penalties in the second against Merrimack, many of the iffy sort, and
he tried to make up for that in the latter part of the period by calling
a few against PC. But Merrimack's PP in HE play has been lethargic. The
Warriors had trouble even breaking the puck out of their own end and
didn't get many chances on their 9 PPs. In HE, Merrimack's PP now stands
at an embarrassing 5.0% (1 for 20). I don't know if we will see a change
anytime soon, but I would like to see one of the defensemen replaced by
a forward who can carry the puck. Any of the three forwards Ron Anderson
puts out there can make things happen and they usually do once Merrimack
gets the play set up, but the defense has trouble getting the puck to them.
The difference in the two teams' power plays really was what won the game.
The game entered the third at 2-0, but two Friar goals within 16 seconds
quickly put it out of reach. At 4:47 during a Merrimack change, Gary
Socha took a pass from goalie Heinke and carried up the right side with
no Warrior covering; all had headed to the bench. He fed the dangerous
Mike Boback, who ripped a shot from the middle of the circle to D'Amore's
left for Boback's 7th goal. I've been noticing all year long how sloppy
changes are hurting Merrimack, and this was no different. When it's
time for a change, for some reason EVERYONE goes off, rather than one
player on the far side remaining on to defend that lane after the puck
is dumped in. Clearly other teams have noticed this and their goalies,
rather than leaving the puck behind the net, are taking it and firing it
right back up ice. Scott Cashman of BU is another who loves to do this,
and he worked together with McEachern and Amonte to create quite a few
breakaways over the past two years. I think Jack Parker coaches his
goalies to watch for these chances, and Merrimack needs to prevent them
from happening.
Then, just 16 seconds later, Quenneville fed George Breen alone in front
who crashed the net and beat D'Amore for the game's final goal, and
although Merrimack would fire 14 shots on Heinke, he came up with several
beauties to maintain his shutout. It was the first time Merrimack had
been shut out since BU's John Bradley threw a similar 4-0 blanking at
the Warriors almost a year ago. Heinke had shut out Northeastern on
Nov 15, 6-0.
EPILOGUE
Providence next hosts Cornell at 2 pm Sat Nov 30. Merrimack hosts Notre
Dame Tuesday night. With two HE wins on the weekend, the Friars appear
to be back on track with Gaudreau providing some consistency on defense.
Merrimack is now 0-4 in HE but all four games were close and winnable.
Simply put, the Warriors are surrendering the big goals and not scoring
them when the game is close. Four goals is the biggest margin of defeat
in HE thus far for Merrimack.
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Mike Machnik [log in to unmask] [log in to unmask]
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