Box to come in a day or so. Thanks to Kevin Yetman for posting HE boxes and also to all others who posted info. First, other scores not already given: Fri Michigan 7, Minnesota 3 Miami 4, FSU 2 OSU 4, WMU 4 ot Providence 4, Denver 2 Air Force 4, Elmira 1 Sat Clarkson 5, UMass-Lowell 2 BU 6, Minn-Duluth 3 partial: SLU led Northeastern 8-0 in third period Air Force 7, Elmira 5 Merrimack exploded for 8 goals in the first period and then had to hold on to beat Army, 9-6, at West Point, NY. Agostino Casale led Merrimack with a hat trick and an assist to run his totals to 9-8--17 in five games. He scored the Warriors' final three goals including an empty-netter. Dan Gravelle added two goals and an assist to give him 4-9--13 on the year. For Army, Rick Berube had 1-2--3 and Rick Randazzo had two goals. The Warriors went 5 for 5 on the power play in the first period and 5/6 for the game; they are now 14 for 33 overall, 42.4%. Merrimack came out swarming and led 4-0 by the 7:01 mark. Matt Crowley got things started at 1:39 when he deflected a shot from Jason Pagni (seeing his first varsity action) past Army goalie Scott Boyle. Gravelle took a pass from Bryan Miller and scored on a slap shot from the high slot at 2:33. Rob Atkinson and Jim Gibson (who later injured his knee in the second period and will be gone indefinitely) tallied 13 seconds apart to make it 4-0. Army got on the board 13 seconds after Gibson's goal when Ross Erzar sneaked one by Steve D'Amore from in close, but when Gravelle deflected a shot from Mark Cornforth by Boyle at 10:15 to make it 5-1, Boyle had allowed 5 goals on 17 shots in half a period and Army head man Rob Riley had seen enough. Boyle was pulled for Brandon Hayes. This seemed to give the Cadets a spark. Chad Sundem intercepted a clearing pass and beat D'Amore at 11:15, then Mark Stachelski tipped in Berube's shot on the power play to get the Cadets back in the game at 14:38, 5-3. Army was called for three straight penalties late in the period and Merrimack capitalized on all three chances to make it 8-3 after one (shots 24-9, 42-22 for the game). Cornforth scored his first collegiate goal at 16:33 on a shot from the point off the draw. Then Casale scored twice. At 17:58 he knocked in a rebound, and 40 seconds later he grabbed the puck off the end boards after a wide shot by Alex Weinrich and flipped it in. The crowd was stunned by the offensive explosion and admittedly, so were we. But as I've said before, the second period has been Merrimack's downfall, and this time was no different. Rob Riley's team came out looking like a completely different bunch in the second, playing the brand of physical hockey that Army teams are known for and which is their biggest strength. Army scored twice, once at 53 seconds when Randazzo converted a breakaway, and at 13:18 when Berube slapped one by D'Amore from the high slot. The final two periods were pretty evenly played, and in fact if you subtract all PPGs scored in the game and the empty-netter, you're looking at a 4-3 Army even strength advantage. On the Merrimack side of things, passes were just not nearly as crisp as they were in the first and the Warriors made quite a few giveaways in their own end, but to credit Army, the Cadets played much tighter defense and used a much stronger forecheck that caught the Warriors off guard a few times. 1:20 into the third, Randazzo scored his second of the night off the draw, and the crowd of 2,033 was excited about a possible Army big comeback win since it was now 8-6. Casale's empty-netter with 51 seconds left made the final 9-6 after Merrimack had held Army to only three third-period shots following Randazzo's goal. Merrimack scored eight goals in the game's first 18:38 and none other than the ENG for the rest of the game, but a key to that was surely that the Warriors had five PP opportunities in the first period and only one for the rest of the game. Merrimack is now 3-2-0 (0-1-0 HE) and plays at UMass-Lowell Wednesday night. Army is 3-3-0 and next hosts Alaska-Fairbanks 11/15-16. Army will play at Merrimack in December in what should be an interesting rematch. The Warriors have scored 28 goals in their four NLG (avg 7.00) but only one goal in their single HE game against BC. Merrimack has allowed 21 goals in the four NLG (avg 5.25) and surrendered three to BC. The most interesting stat may be scoring by periods. The quick start and strong third is good to see, but something has to be done about that second and the Warriors' inability to put teams away. Still, it's an improvement over last season when Merrimack was outscored badly in the first and played relatively even 2nds and 3rds in what was often a catchup effort in the 19 games they lost. Also, the team was 3-1-1 overall after 5 games last year, so they are half a game off of last year's pace. I said that the first nine games were all winnable and with a few bounces, Merrimack would be 5-0 instead of 3-2. But I also said 7-2 in the first 9 was realistic and would be a good start towards the goal of 20 wins, so the short term goal would be to win the next four against Lowell, AIC, BC, and Kent. And the short-short-term goal is a win at Lowell Wednesday, where Merrimack has always had trouble being a skating team. That game is on NESN, the first of 5 NESN appearances for the Warriors this season. Scoring by periods 1991-92: 1 2 3 TOT Merrimack 16 4 9 - 29 Opponents 7 13 4 - 24 --- Mike Machnik [log in to unmask] [log in to unmask]