From the Lawrence (MA) Eagle-Tribune, Friday, February 14, 1992 HEINZE: WE LOVE (AND NEED) SUPPORT (Steve Heinze, a North Andover native, has been one of the key performers for the perfect U.S. Olympic hockey team in the Albertville Games. He is giving Eagle-Tribune readers a look at the Olympics through his eyes.) MERIBEL, FRANCE - I hear everybody is getting excited. Well, that's great. We love the support...and we need it. It means a lot to know everybody back home cares. I got a lot of letters before we came over here and it gave me a big lift. My brother Peter [played for Lowell in mid 80s -mike], my aunts and Mike Cavanaugh [former teammate of Steve's at North Andover HS -mike] and his family have been faxing me over some of the stories and pictures about the team. We love it. I expect more people will get excited after we beat Finland, 4-1. It was our best game. Everybody is getting involved, not just one or two players. We have 23 players and everyone is contributing. Everything seemed to go right against Finland. Defensively, we backed off a little bit more instead of forechecking. Finland definitely had problems because we weren't letting them get into the open ice. Most European teams like to create 3-on-2s or 2-on-1s and we never allowed it. The defense was great. It was their best game. And the forwards got back fast. I think that was key, our defense. I don't think I had my best game. I had some chances. A ton of them. But I was a little out of synch. On one 2-on-1, I came down on the left and tried to fake the pass and shoot over their goalie, but he made a nice save with his blocker. The other time, I was right in front and tried to go through the five-hole, and he saved that one too. It just wasn't my night. After the game, coach Dave Peterson said he is more worried about some of the lesser teams, because we seem to struggle against them. Right now everyone is happy. When you win you're happy. It's that simple. My brother Andy [played at Merrimack from 1986-90 -mike] left yesterday. He is playing in a pro league in England and he watched the game with Germany and stayed for three days. He loved the night life. Mr McInnis, Marty's father, called him "Dracula", because he never saw the light of day. Everyone got a big kick out of Andy. My mother hasn't been able to see the figure skating because it is about 1 1/2 hours away, and the weather has been real bad. Today is team picture day. We'll take it easy. We might go watch the ski jumping, which isn't too far away. We haven't talked too much about Poland, which has struggled. But it's important we stay on a roll. It's too early to get excited about gold medals, but we're having a lot of fun. As long as we keep winning it will stay that way. (END) --- Mike Machnik [log in to unmask] mikem@{beanpot,bubba}.ma30.bull.com