Greenie wrote:
> Can anyone out there in the Hockey-L stratosphere offer commentary on the
> success of the Yale Bulldogs this year?
 
I hope you have a subscription to U.S. College Hockey Magazine
because in another week or two you'll see my feature on them.  :-)
 
In short, Alex Westlund seems to be a well-kept secret in goal.  Heck, the
guy had the fourth best save percentage in the country *last* year.
 
They've got a very veteran team (only one rookie is playing regularly) and
since they know they're not going to score a ton of goals, the team seems
very focused on playing solid defense.
 
> Subject: Not-so-"Merry"-mack?
> Can someone out there (Mike?) englighten me as to exactly what is happening
> with Merrimack's program? A two-loss weekend two Princeton and Yale, in
> which one of the best offensive lines in the country (Kris Porter 17 goals,
> Sandy Cohen 11, and Casey Kesselring 7) is limited to TWO goals for the
> entire weekend?
>
> Egad.
>
> Is it so easy for other teams now to target that first line to keep them
> off the board? If so, why doesn't Ron Anderson juggle up the lines a bit --
> or is he?
 
Merrimac's line combinations is one thing I've been covering in my USCHO
Hockey East previews.
 
The "1st line" that you mentioned has never played together.
Kris Porter and Rejean Stringer have been together all year and would seem
to be joined at the hip.  Porter is the finisher.  Stringer is the setup
man.  (Porter has 17 goals, 6 assists; Stringer has 4 goals, 17 assists).
Initially they had Chris Halecki on their left wing, but Halecki was moved
to the third line to try to get it going with freshmen Vince Clevenger and
Ron Mongeau (who played together in prep school).  Freshman Fred Nelson
moved into to replace Halecki.
 
The other top line has mostly been Sandy Cohen, Martin Laroche and Casey
Kesselring.
 
Having said that, however, Anderson has been continuing to juggle his lines
to try to improve the defense.  Cohen and Halecki have continued to bounce
around.  The only real constants have been Stringer & Porter on one line
and Laroche and Kesselring on the other.
 
Dave Hendrickson
 
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