1/29/91 Hockey East Overall Non-league GP W-L-T Pts GF-GA || GP W-L-T GF-GA W-L-T ======================================================== 1 Boston College 15 11-4-0 22 72-54 || 27 20-7-0 129-83 | 9-3-0 2 Boston University 15 9-4-2 20 69-44 || 26 16-8-2 139-89 | 7-4-0 3 Maine 14 9-4-1 19 68-49 || 30 22-6-2 161-92 | 13-2-1 4 Merrimack 13 7-6-0 14 50-56 || 24 13-10-1 112-108 | 6-4-1 Providence 13 6-5-2 14 61-53 || 23 16-5-2 127-81 | 10-0-0 6 New Hampshire 14 5-7-2 12 50-55 || 27 17-8-2 121-97 | 12-1-0 7 Lowell 15 4-10-1 9 47-74 || 26 8-17-1 93-128 | 4-7-0 8 Northeastern 15 1-12-2 4 54-86 || 25 4-19-2 97-141 | 3-7-0 1/25/91 Lowell 0 at Boston College 4 HE Boston University 2 at Maine 4 HE Merrimack 5 at Northeastern 1 HE New Hampshire 2 at Providence 2 HE ot 1/26/91 Boston College 2 at Lowell 3 HE Boston University 0 at Maine 4 HE Providence 2 at Merrimack 4 HE Northeastern 1 at New Hampshire 5 HE 1/29/91 Northeastern at Boston University HE Boston College at Cornell NC Lowell at Yale NC 2/1/91 Merrimack at Boston College HE Boston University at New Hampshire HE Maine at Northeastern HE NESN 2/2/91 Providence at Lowell HE Maine at Merrimack HE 2/4/91 Northeastern vs Boston College NC Beanpot NESN Harvard vs Boston University NC Beanpot NESN 2/5/91 New Hampshire at Lowell HE Providence at Merrimack HE Thanks to Wayne and Chris for their postings on Maine & NH's weekend. Here's what I can add to that: MERRIMACK 5, at NORTHEASTERN 1 The Warriors swept the season series with their win at Matthews Arena, where Merrimack has now won six straight times dating back to 1988. Their win the next night against a good Providence team suddenly vaulted the Warriors into a tie for fourth and made them serious contenders for home ice in the quarterfinals. They have at least one game in hand on the teams behind them in the standings. The Providence at Merrimack rematch on February 5th suddenly looms as a very big game - it could decide fourth if both teams finish strong. Merrimack has won five of its last six games. Since early December, Providence had been 7-1-1 (only loss to Maine). Hockey East announced last week that it was naming the Coach of the Year trophy after UNH's Bob Kullen, who passed away near the beginning of this season. Right now, Merrimack head man Ron Anderson is the slight favorite to capture that award, having turned a consensus last place team into a contender for home ice. UNH's own Dick Umile was the early favorite, although the Wildcats' recent slump combined with the Warriors' refusal to crumble has to give the edge to Anderson. Friday, the scoreless first period was pretty sloppy and neither team built up much of a charge, but action picked up a bit in the second. In fact, coming out of the first period 0-0 was really a win for Merrimack, who had been outscored 24-8 in that stanza prior to the weekend. The Warriors were to allow *no* opening period goals this weekend, a key to their two victories. Northeastern's Matt Saunders got his team on the board with a shorthanded goal at 2:16. He came down the left side and fired a shot from the circle that seemed to curve as it eluded The Goose on its way into the net, beating him glove side. Brian Sullivan assisted. But just 23 seconds later, after NU had returned to full strength, Dan Gravelle took a pass from freshman sensation Rob Atkinson and beat Tom Cole from in front for Gravelle's 13th of the year. At 4:47, sparkplug Teal Fowler stole the puck at center ice, walked in and scored his 8th goal to put Merrimack up 2-1. It went to 3-1 at 6:24 when freshman Jim Gibson nailed his 5th from Brendan Locke and John Barron. The Huskies had the better of the play in the third period, outshooting Merrimack 11-7 (29-23 for the game), but they couldn't penetrate The Goose. Fowler added a big insurance goal, his 2nd of the game, at 12:06 during a 4x4, and Barron put it away for good at 14:17. As Chris said, it's becoming clear that the season is taking its toll on Northeastern. It wasn't as chippy a game as the NU-UNH game apparently was; there were 52 minutes in penalties, but 24 of those came when Merrimack's Doug Greschuk and NU's Sullivan squared off in the third period in a semi-fight, and each was handed a minor for hitting after the whistle and a misconduct which earned them early showers. Still, there's little life left in this team, and that sentiment is echoed by people close to them. Yet, any team that looks past them either in the Beanpot or in the first round of the HE playoffs could be making a mistake. Look for the Hounds to pull off at least one big win before the season ends. at MERRIMACK 4, PROVIDENCE 2 I had to miss this game due to prior commitments, and I knew something big would happen. Merrimack is now 5-2 when I miss a game. Hmm. Anyway, Gravelle started things off again just 54 seconds into the game when he beat Mike Heinke after heavy pressure deep in the PC zone. Then, after Agostino Casale's dump-in from center ice found net behind a confused Heinke for a 2-0 Merrimack lead at 12:07, Friar coach Mike McShane went to the bullpen for sophomore Brad Mullahy. Mullahy entered the game with a record of 10-1-1; the Warriors handed him only his second loss of the season. The Goose's fine showing against Northeastern had run his record to 7-1-0 and dropped his GAA to 3.61; it is 2.99 if his only bad outing, the six-goal first period against PC earlier in the season, is discounted. No other MC goalie has a record over .500. So what happened against PC? Goose got the bench and Mike Doneghey (1-3-1, 5.06 before the game) got the call. To Doneghey's credit, he had played very well in his only two appearances since Christmas. The result was a sparkling 34-save performance that earned Doneghey the game's first star, lowering his GAA in Hockey East from 4.41 to 3.80. He stopped 12 shots in the first and third periods and 10 in the second. Up 2-0, Merrimack hit paydirt again when Howie Rosenblatt scored his 17th from Casale and Fowler just 1:37 into the second period. Rosenblatt has already tallied more points this season than he did in his first three combined. Rob Gaudreau got the Friars on the board at 10:35 with his 25th goal, and Bob Cowan brought PC within one at 4:30 of the third. But the Warriors held off PC and Atkinson's 11th, on the power play, was the insurance goal with 2:54 left. The win was only Merrimack's 9th in 49 games against Providence and their first in five games vs. the Friars since joining Hockey East. at BOSTON COLLEGE 4, LOWELL 0 at LOWELL 3, BOSTON COLLEGE 2 BC ran its record to 14-0 in the Forum, 46-7-2 since it opened in 1988, with Scott LaGrand's shutout. LaGrand is now 19-0 lifetime in Conte Forum. Marty McInnis and Bill Guerin scored early in the game to put BC up 2-0, and Steve Heinze and David Emma added goals late in the second and early in the third. Each member of the HEM line had a goal and two assists. Mark Richards made 31 saves for the Chiefs. In the rematch at Lowell's Tully Forum, the Chiefs opened up a 3-1 lead after two periods and held on for the win, with great netminding by Dwayne Roloson. He and UNH goalie Jeff Levy were named co-Rookies of the Week. UPCOMING Tonight's BC at Cornell game is a matchup of two of the top teams in the East. BC will try to become the fourth HE team to chalk up 10 nonleague wins. Friday and Saturday, Cinderella Merrimack runs into BC and Maine; unfortunately I will again have to miss the Maine game and probably the BC one too. Saturday and Tuesday, New Hampshire tries to continue getting back on track with big games against BU and Lowell. And, of course, the 39th Beanpot gets started Monday night at Boston Garden as NU takes on BC at 6 pm and BU meets Harvard at 9. - mike