TERRIERS ROLL OVER WARRIORS
Boston University continued its domination of Merrimack by scoring four
first-period goals on route to a 7-1 win in front of 1,669. The Terriers
upped their record to 23-10-2 and are 11-1 at home this season against
Hockey East teams. Merrimack ended the season at 13-19-1, an improvement
over last year's 10-24-1 mark, but the Warriors lost their last nine games.
BU won all four meetings between the teams this season by a combined score
of 24-4.
BU owned the game from the opening faceoff. Merrimack's only hope was to
try and stay close through the beginning of the game and then hope for
some breaks here and there. But first-period goals from Doug Friedman,
Dave Tomlinson, Tony Amonte and Keith Tkachuk virtually dashed the
Warriors' hopes. Friedman wristed one past The Goose from in tight at
3:36 (Phil von Stefenelli and Peter Ahola assisting), and then Tomlinson
scored his 23rd at 5:28 (Petteri Koskimaki and Ed Ronan). At 13:01, Amonte
threw the puck out to the right point for Ahola and then went to the net
where he took a return pass and beat The Goose for his 23rd of the year.
Referee Ned "Don't Call Me Paul" Bunyon was asleep on the fourth goal, as
Tkachuk put his arm around Jim Gibson and threw him to the ice, then shot
the puck past Goose with no call forthcoming. Phantom assists were given
to Shawn McEachern and Ahola on the play, prompting one writer to ask how
much Ahola paid for that assist - or did he put it on his credit card,
because he (the writer) wanted to get a couple for his buddy. The guy next
to him jumped in with, "Hey, don't worry - at BC they're free!"
The Terriers outshot Merrimack 18-6 in the first.
There was no scoring in the second period, which was a lot more evenly
played. Merrimack had a few good chances from Brendan Locke, Aggie Casale
and Rob Atkinson, especially on power plays, but they couldn't convert.
The big excitement came at 12:15 of the period. MC's Teal Fowler checked
Amonte heavily into the Merrimack penalty box. Fowler had been annoying
Amonte all night long, and it worked to some extent. As Fowler skated
away, Amonte whacked him with a cheap shot, and almost immediately
afterwards Howie Rosenblatt and Ronan started going at it in front of the
BU bench with almost every BU player trying to get in a shot from the
bench. Most of the remaining players on the ice crowded around and there
was a lot of pushing and shoving, but no fights broke out. Then down the
far end, at the MC blue line along the boards, Merrimack's Casale (5'10",
182 - soaking wet with his clothes on) was being double-teamed by two BU
players with a definite size advantage. This was too much for The Goose
to take, and he left his crease, skated full speed to the boards and
tomahawked one of the Terriers with his goalie stick. At this point,
credit should go to both coaches for preventing the situation from getting
out of hand. Although some of the Merrimack players had their legs over
the boards, ready to go, no more than the original six players were ever
on the ice, as Ron Anderson held his team back. And BU's Jack Parker also
kept his players from leaving the bench, although I'm sure there was also
the realization that any players thrown out would also miss the Hockey
East semifinals and maybe the championship.
The delay was long, maybe 15 minutes until the puck was dropped, with
Bunyon and the linesmen conferring with both coaches, making sure they had
the right guys in the box, and so on. Only 20 minutes in penalties came
out of it; six minors for 12 minutes to Merrimack, and four minors for
8 minutes to BU - but Bunyon mistakenly awarded BU only a two-minute man
advantage which even Jack Parker didn't even pick up on. The following
penalties all canceled out: from Merrimack, Fowler for high-sticking and
hitting after the whistle, Rosenblatt for roughing, and Claude Maillet
for hitting after the whistle; from BU, Tkachuk for high-sticking and
roughing (notice Bunyon missed Amonte here), Friedman and Tomlinson each
for hitting after the whistle. But Gosselin, who some folks expected would
get tossed, received two for leaving the crease and two for high-sticking.
It was a little surprising that no one, especially The Goose, got thrown
out, but then again there were no real altercations, no one got hurt (hey,
Goose has enough trouble handling that stick when it's *below* his
shoulder), and it was a playoff game. Kap thinks Goose would have been
shown the gate if it was a mid-season game; I'm not sure about that, but
at any rate, everyone agreed afterwards that Bunyon did a fine job of
defusing the situation and not overreacting by handing out DQs left and
right. Both coaches seemed happy with the results and the rest of the game
was played rather uneventfully. Shots were 10-6 BU in the second period.
The funniest moment of the game came when the teams came out and were
getting ready to play the third. The Goose was getting his crease ready
when backup goalie Mike Doneghey came over towards Goose, raised his
hands and made a vicious chopping motion. :-)
In the third period, Tomlinson nailed his second of the game from the top
of the right circle (Ronan and Tkachuk) at 2:28 and McEachern got his 31st
of the season (Amonte and Tkachuk) with 4:11 left to make it 6-0. Scott
Cashman (18 saves) was looking for his first shutout since the NCAA First
Round last year when he blanked North Dakota, 5-0, in the third and
deciding game. Cashman had earned his first college shutout in an 8-0 win
at Merrimack last season. But John Barron, who has played well lately for
Merrimack, took a pass from Jim Gibson, walked in and beat Cashman with
3:43 left to avert the shutout. Chris McCann closed the scoring with a
ten-footer at 18:15 (Mark Bavis). Shots were 11-7 BU, 39-19 for the game.
SEASON OVER FOR MERRIMACK; NEXT YEAR BRIGHT
The result was disappointing but not really unexpected as far as Merrimack
was concerned. BU is just too powerful for them right now. That may
change next year when some Terriers leave for the Olympic Team(s). There
are reports of some blue-chippers headed to Merrimack next year,
especially in the guise of three solid defensemen - a position Merrimack
needs some help and depth in. I think that has been their biggest
weakness; almost every other team in the league has at least one solid
defenseman who can carry the play on offense and man the point on the
power play, and Anderson's confidence in his defensemen was gone
by the end of the season. He had five forwards out on almost every
power play over the last two games. They also need some D's with size,
who aren't afraid to level guys in front of the net or step up at the
blue line. In Division II, Merrimack just skated circles around the
opponents, so size wasn't a consideration - speed was. But now, they
need to balance their proven speed with size so they can prevent an
Amonte or Roy from getting in the slot and staying there. My
philosophy in that situation is, just run the guy over. No one did
that for Merrimack this year, and it showed at the end of the season.
Still, this is a team that continues to develop and make the transition
to Division I. There were some bright points in the emergence of Dan
Gravelle as a center to be reckoned with, freshman Robbie Atkinson - the
league's second leading rookie scorer, sophomore Teal Fowler continuing
to please the crowd with his rock 'em checks and nifty offensive play,
senior Howie Rosenblatt taking charge and matching his previous three-
year scoring output in one season (though his 118 penalty minutes won't be
missed), junior Aggie Casale continuing to lead the team in scoring,
sophomore transfer Alex Weinrich giving some stability on D, and sophomore
Bryan Miller rebounding from a rough start to have a strong second half and
teaming up with Weinrich to give a solid defensive pairing. This team's
strength lies in its underclassmen, and they will be counted on next year
to take over as some of the last Division II players graduate (Rosenblatt,
Ben Lebeau, Tim Doyle, Doug Greschuk). 1991-92 should be an interesting
year in North Andover.
- mike