Sunday, January 19, 1992 at Alfond Arena, Orono, ME
HOCKEY EAST GAME
Merrimack Warriors (11-11-0, 2-8-0 HE) 1 3 0 - 4
Maine Black Bears (18-2-0, 7-1-0 HE) 3 4 3 - 10
FIRST PERIOD UM-MC
1. UM1, Scott Pellerin 16 (Eric Fenton, Cal Ingraham), 1:13. PPG 1-0
2. UM2, Wayne Conlan 8 (Dave LaCouture, Kent Salfi), 8:11. 2-0
3. MC1, Dan Gravelle 12 (Bryan Miller, Rob Kelley), 13:25. PPG 2-1
4. UM3, Lee Saunders 1 (Mike Barkley, Patrice Tardif), 14:22. 3-1
SECOND PERIOD
5. UM4, Tony Link 2 (Pellerin, Ingraham), 1:12. 4-1
6. UM5, Link 3 (Brian Downey, Jim Montgomery), 3:09. PPG 5-1
7. UM6, Tardif 8 (unassisted), 4:30. 6-1
8. MC2, Claude Maillet 6 (Teal Fowler, Guy Ragault), 8:21. 6-2
9. UM7, Salfi 3 (Saunders, Jim Burcar), 10:06. 7-2
10. MC3, Kelley 6 (Miller, Don MacLeod), 12:47. 7-3
11. MC4, Gravelle 13 (Matt Hayes), 13:30. 7-4
THIRD PERIOD
12. UM8, Montgomery 13 (Downey, Jean-Yves Roy), 4:10. 8-4
13. UM9, Roy 18 (Montgomery, Saunders), 7:38. 9-4
14. UM10, Tardif 9 (Link, Dan Murphy), 12:45. PPG 10-4
SHOTS ON GOAL: Merrimack 8-16--7 = 31
Maine 11-11-12 = 34
GOALIES: Merrimack, Steve D'Amore (9-10-0, 27:20, 16 shots-10 saves),
Mike Doneghey (32:40, 18 shots-14 saves).
Maine, Mike Dunham (3-0-0, 52:25, 26 shots-22 saves),
Rob Howland (7:35, 5 shots-5 saves).
POWER PLAYS: Merrimack 1 of 4. Maine 2 of 6.
PENALTIES: Merrimack 8/16. Maine 6/12.
REFEREE: Frank Cole. LINESMEN: Hans Baker, Andy Hennigar.
ATTENDANCE: 3,844.
THREE STARS: 1. Maine, Scott Pellerin (1-1--2).
2. Maine, Tony Link (2-1--3).
3. Merrimack, Dan Gravelle (2-0--2).
Maine completed its weekend sweep of Merrimack with a dominating 10-4 win
at Alfond Arena. Except for about a 15-minute stretch starting from the
middle of the second period and lasting early into the third, Maine owned
this game and the score shows it. I don't have detailed notes nor do I
have a tape to look at, so this won't be as complete as I'd like it to be,
but the summary above tells most of the story.
Merrimack's Dan Gravelle was whistled for hooking off the opening draw, just
six seconds in, and immediately the Warriors were off on the wrong foot.
Maine capitalized when Scott Pellerin scored on the power play for his
90th career goal, 198th career point. Wayne Conlan made it 2-0 before
Gravelle brought the Warriors within one on the power play, but Maine came
right back less than a minute later when Lee Saunders scored his first
career goal. That goal put the Warriors back after Gravelle had given the
team a little bit of a spark; at several key points in the game where
Merrimack had a chance to get back in the game, Maine got good goaltending
from US Olympic goalie Mike Dunham and the Black Bears came up with goals
to regain their commanding lead.
Merrimack suffered a devastating loss late in the period when freshman
defenseman Mark Cornforth was crushed deep in his own zone by Pellerin on
one of the heaviest hits I've seen this year. Cornforth was slow getting
up, and he never returned to the game. Word was that Cornforth had an
injured collarbone, possibly broken, which would sideline him for the rest
of the year. Cornforth has been Merrimack's most consistent defenseman
and a very pleasant surprise this season, and he'll be nearly impossible
to replace.
Maine defenseman Tony Link scored two goals early in the second to make it
5-1. The rarely-offensive Maine defense combined for three goals and five
assists on the night. After Link's tallies, Patrice Tardif stole the
puck in the slot and beat D'Amore to make it 6-1 just 4:30 into the second,
and Ron Anderson signalled to backup goalie Mike Doneghey to get ready.
D'Amore was again the victim of poor defense and he didn't play badly.
While Doneghey was stretching, there was a power failure as Maine controlled
the puck in the Merrimack zone and play was called 7:20 into the period.
The scoreboard went blank and the lights over the ice went out except for
two rows of lights over the ice surface. This actually worked to
Merrimack's advantage because Doneghey was sent in and warmed up while
the power was being restored, while he normally would have had no warmup.
Warrior SID Jim Seavey suggested that the game be called and replayed
from the start, to no avail. :-)
After about a 15-minute delay, the puck was dropped and it only took 41
seconds for Claude Maillet to cut the lead to 6-2. Maillet, who started
the season one of the team's top defensemen and then was moved up front
because of the team's depth on the blueline, took a familiar regular shift
on the blueline again with Cornforth being knocked out of the game. Kent
Salfi got that back at 10:06, but Merrimack continued to play well and
beat the Maine defense for two goals 47 seconds apart to make things
interesting at 7-4. Rob Kelley and Dan Gravelle both got behind the
Maine defense on strong rushes to beat Dunham. But while the Warriors
tried to get what would have been a big goal to bring themselves within
two, Dunham made big saves off of Gravelle and John Barron to preserve
the three-goal lead heading into the third.
Doneghey had played well in relief of D'Amore as his team looked to get
back into the game, but Maine turned it up a notch and dominated the
third with three goals to dash any hopes of a comeback. Jim Montgomery
and Jean-Yves Roy, who had been pretty quiet while Maine's 2nd and 4th
lines and defense provided most of the scoring, started skating circles
around Merrimack and each scored a goal to make it 9-4.
At this point, Shawn Walsh removed Dunham for third-string goalie Rob
Howland with 7:35 left, and it was announced that this would be Dunham's
final game before leaving for the US Olympic Team, and he got a big hand
which was well-deserved. Howland would stop all five shots he faced,
and Tardif added his second of the game on the power play for the 10-4
final.
EPILOGUE
If anything, these two games brought Merrimack back down to earth after
its two wins last weekend, and they showed that Merrimack still has a ways
to go before being able to solidly compete against the top teams in the
nation. Maine pretty much did what they wanted to do all weekend and
impressed a lot of Merrimack people who wondered just how good the Black
Bears were. Maine used a combination of finesse and devastating physical
play to steamroll its way to the two wins.
Probably what was the best thing to see from Maine's point of view was
the way the unheralded players like the defense and 4th line stepped up
and scored most of the big goals in the game. Maine won't be able to
depend on its big line if it is going to go places, since some of the
better teams may be able to shut them down. The top line combined for
"only" two goals and five assists, out of the ten goals and 18 assists
that the Black Bears scored.
Merrimack, already suffering the key losses of Casale and Matt Crowley
(Crowley is still recovering from his spleen operation), saw two more key
players leave the lineup this weekend in Jim Gibson (shoulder in Friday's
loss) and Cornforth, and the depth that Ron Anderson says his team has
will be called into action in the upcoming weeks.
Maine comes to Boston this coming weekend, playing at Northeastern Friday
night and at Providence in a 1:00 Saturday afternoon game at the Providence
Civic Center. Maine has several games in hand on the other teams it is
tied with or just ahead of, and it will have a chance to open up a big
lead as we approach the halfway point of the HE season. Merrimack hosts
Boston University Friday night, and the Terriers have been playing well
lately in rolling to a 16-4 record, 7-4 in HE. The Warriors play at
struggling UMass-Lowell Saturday night in a game they really need to win.
RADIO NOTES
Thanks to our two excellent guests Sunday night, Eric Weinrich and HE
Asst. Commish Nonni Daly. Nonni provided a great interview in particular
as we discussed some of the issues facing college hockey and its relation-
ship with the NC$$, along with the future of Hockey East. Nonni said
there were 3-4 teams who had expressed an interest in entering HE within
the next 3-5 years, two in particular being UMass-Amherst and UConn. When
I started talking about the problems hockey has with the NC$$, such as
the reduction from 38 to 34 games and the cutting back of coaches, Nonni
cut in and exclaimed, "You're trying to make me mad, aren't you!" :-) Like
many of us have expressed here, she said she believes schools should only
vote for legislation affecting sports in which they are involved.
An interesting point that Nonni added was that the academic average of
the athletes at almost all of the schools in HE is higher than that of
the general student population.
Worst broadcast moment of the year came early in the third when Dan
commented on how the newly-formed Warrior line of Gravelle-McMillan-Kelley
(three centers) was playing an excellent game; I started to respond and
noticed that the puck was about to be dropped (in other words, shut up!)
and all I got out was, "Yes...they have." Both schools' SIDs were
standing directly behind me in the close quarters of the temporary Alfond
Arena pressbox (center ice!) and upon hearing my words of brilliance, they
cracked up laughing and boy, did my face turn red! Jim called it one of
the great all-time moments in broadcasting...fortunately I was later able
to cover myself and expound further on what those three words meant. :-)
FINAL NOTE
I was happy to have the chance to enjoy a great Sunday brunch at Bangor's
The Other Room restaurant with our esteemed administrator Wayne and his
wife Becky, and I had a great time talking hockey and other things with
Wayne and Becky. Thanks, Wayne! That saved me from another meal with
the team at Sizzler. :-)
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Mike Machnik [log in to unmask] [log in to unmask]