Well, make it three losses in a row for Merrimack.  In the last three
games, the boys from North Andover have only scored three goals, including
getting shutout by Providence, scoring only one against Notre Dame, and
tonight, they could only put two in as Alaska Anchorage beat Merrimack 4-2.
Mike will send out the box score later, but here are my views on the game.
 
Merrimack's first two periods made them look like a team that couldn't have
beaten a high school team.  Merrimack only managed nine shots in the first
two periods, and very few of them quality shots.  After two periods, some
good goaltending by Steve D'Amore kept Merrimack in the game.  But Steve
couldn't save them all night, and Alaska just had too much power for
the Warriors in the first two periods.
 
In the third period though, Merrimack came out and stormed all over the
Sea Wolves, and arguably with a few lucky bounces could have tied or even
gone ahead in the third period.  Merrimack did muster two goals, but could
have easily had five or six if it wasn't for Alaska goale Krake.
 
Some other observations of this game:  Merrimack's big players are trying
to make to many individual efforts.  I noticed it in the Notre Dame game,
and tonight it continued.  I'm not going to name names, but a lot of the
players seem to be trying to be super heros, when in reality if the guys
would play as a team, they would score a lot more goals.  Another observation:
The referree, Bunyon was his name, I personally felt called a terrible game.
I really thought he was going to end up breaking up a fight, because he wasn't
calling a lot of hitting after the whistle penaltys, and wasn't calling a lot
of calls that could have been called.  At one point I almost yelled out
"Hey Bunyon, turkey day was yesterday, didn't we roast you yesterday?".  This
guy really could have called the game a lot better.  Maybe he just wanted
to get out of the coldest rink in college hockey ;-).
 
Merrimack next plays Dartmouth.  I have visions of these teams playing to a
0-0 tie.  I doubt it will happen.  My actual prediction is Dartmouth 2
Merrimack 1.
 
Kevin
 
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"You can still Rock in America"  -Night Ranger