Thursday, February 17, 1994 at Matthews Arena, Boston, MA HOCKEY EAST GAME Merrimack Warriors (14-14-2, 6-11-2 HE 7th) 1 0 1 1 - 3 Northeastern Huskies (16-9-5, 8-7-5 HE 3rd) 0 1 1 0 - 2 FIRST PERIOD MC-NU 1. MC1, Mark Goble 8 (Jim Gibson, John Jakopin), 3:29. 1-0 SECOND PERIOD 2. NU1, Dan Lupo 12 (David Penney), 2:32. 1-1 THIRD PERIOD 3. NU2, Dan McGillis 4 (Mike Collett, Jordon Shields), 0:56. PPG 1-2 4. MC2, Tom Johnson 10 (Dan Hodge), 18:35. 2-2 OVERTIME 5. MC3, Gibson 8 (Goble, Jakopin), 0:15. GWG 3-2 SHOTS ON GOAL: Merrimack 7-10--5--1 = 23 Northeastern 15--6-10--0 = 31 SAVES: MC, Martin Legault (60:15, W, 12-13-2, 31 sh-29 sv). NU, Todd Reynolds (60:15, L, 10-6-3, 23-20). POWER PLAYS: MC 0 for 4. NU 1 for 5. PENALTIES: MC 11/22. NU 10/20. REFEREES: Steve McBride, John Gravellese. LINESMAN: Chuck Wynters. ATTENDANCE: 1,002. THREE STARS: 1. G Martin Legault, Merrimack (31 sh-29 sv). 2. G Todd Reynolds, Northeastern (23 sh-20 sv). 3. C Jim Gibson, Merrimack (1-1--2, GWG). 15 seconds into overtime, Jim Gibson took a feed from John Jakopin, went in and faked Northeastern goalie Todd Reynolds, and flipped the puck into the net to give Merrimack its fifth straight win, 3-2, on the road. The goal came after Merrimack had tied the game with 1:25 left on a goal by Tom Johnson. Martin Legault continued his stellar play, stopping 29 of 31 NU shots and being named First Star of the Game by the NU staff. He lowered his GAA to 3.57 with a save % of .897. With the win, Merrimack evened its overall record at .500, 14-14-2. Merrimack has never been .500 this late in the season since joining Hockey East. As well, some other notables were accomplished: * 5 straight wins overall is the longest Merrimack winning (and unbeaten) streak since January, 1989. * 4 straight HE wins is the longest streak in Merrimack's 5 year HE history. * Merrimack remains unbeaten in HE overtime games, 8-0-2 - the only HE team never to have lost a league game in OT. * Merrimack goes to 4-0-2 in OT this season, 8-0-4 over the last two seasons. * With a mark of 6-11-2 in HE, the Warriors are within two points of matching their best record since joining HE, with 5 games left. Their 14 wins ties them for the most overall wins by a Merrimack team in 5 years. Merrimack extended its lead over 8th place Boston College to three points, although BC has two games in hand. The teams meet one more time on Tuesday, February 22. Merrimack also pulled within a point of 5th-place UNH and Maine. NU lost a chance to pull away from 4th place Providence, which remains a point behind NU with 2 games in hand. FIRST PERIOD Merrimack opened the scoring at 3:29 when Jakopin dumped the puck in and Gibson outraced a Huskie to get to it first. He quickly threw it in front, where Goble redirected it past Reynolds who never moved. The goal was the 8th of the season for Goble, who has been slowly returning to his scoring ways after suffering from the sophomore jinx. The rest of the period saw each team enjoy two power plays, but the goalies were superb. Legault made bang-bang saves off of Tom O'Connor and Mike Taylor on one play, and later he flashed the glove to stop J.F. Aube off a faceoff. Meanwhile, Reynolds came up big on a shorthanded bid by Claudio Peca, coming out to pokecheck the puck. SECOND Reynolds faced shots by Johnson and Gibson on the same sequence and stopped both, falling on the puck to tie it up. Then NU tied the score at 1-1 at 2:32 on a nice combination by Dan Lupo and David Penney. Penney blew by Karl Infanger to set up a 2x0, and after drawing Legault to him, he fed across to Lupo for the easy goal. Later, Penney had another good chance but Legault lucked out, falling on the rebound although he didn't know where it was. Shots would favor Merrimack in the period after going NU's way in the first, but we again saw some good work by the dufflebags. Reynolds got the end of his stick on a shot by Matt Adams and deflected it over the net. And, with NU's Jason Melong in alone, Legault came out to poke it away and break up a good bid. THIRD At 31 seconds, Merrimack's Eric Weichselbaumer was whistled for interference when he took down Aube. NU capitalized just 25 seconds later when Dan McGillis blasted the puck through a screen from the blue line. That put the Huntington Hounds up 2-1, and with the way it was going, it looked like that PPG might be the difference. Merrimack went up a man when Reynolds received what was his second minor of the game (he has received 5 penalties for 13 minutes this season), but the Huskies killed it off successfully - Shields and Melong put good pressure on the points and did not allow the dangerous shot from Dan Hodge. Later, Merrimack got a huge break when NU was pressing in the zone and just as McGillis teed up the puck from the point, Merrimack D Mark Cornforth pushed the net off. The puck went in but the goal was waved off, and Cornforth went to the box for delay of game. The funny thing is, I have seen him do this maybe dozens of times in his three years, and this is the first time he's been called. It was certainly a situation Merrimack welcomed; take the goal away and get a second chance, if they killed the penalty - which they did. Following the penalty, the officials made a blunder by not whistling Cornforth offsides when he came out of the box, took a pass and went in to almost beat Reynolds. Cornforth had not returned to his own zone before touching the puck. Goble almost tied it for the Warriors on a shorthanded bid when he went in on Reynolds and got two good shots off. Then with 4 minutes left, O'Connor fired a shot that Legault grabbed to keep his team within one. With 3 minutes left, Merrimack got away with what could have been a too many men call as the player coming off had taken a shot that was blocked, then his replacement came on to keep the puck in the zone before the first guy went off. Merrimack called timeout at 18:07 and it was almost time to pull Legault, but Johnson's heroics made that unnecessary. At 18:35, Johnson got the rebound of Hodge's shot from the point and fired it past Reynolds from the left circle to make it 2-2. The rest of the period was uneventful and we headed to overtime. OVERTIME Off the opening draw, the puck was in the Merrimack end, where Goble picked it up in front of Legault. He passed to Jakopin at the right boards, and Jakopin fought off a forechecker and sprung Gibson on the breakaway. Gibson faked one way, waited as Reynolds went down, continued to hold the puck and then shot it in the almost empty net, and it was over just like that. POSTGAME This was one of those games Merrimack was lucky to win. NU did not have any breaks go their way, and it was just a case of Merrimack coming up with the big goals at the right time - which, I guess, is the name of the game. Legault kept them in a position to come back and win, and the defense was again outstanding in front of him. I dare say that over the last five games (12 goals allowed - only 8 allowed in four road games), they are playing like the best defense in HE. Jakopin had a great night at both ends, picking up two assists and giving another solid effort in his own end. And McKenna, despite having trouble on one goal, did a great job of getting back to break up several 2x1s by completely neutralizing the puckcarrier. Up front, Gibson had one of his best games of the year. The second line of Johnson-Gibson-Goble, besides scoring all three goals, was the only one generating consistent offense, and they deserved getting to start the OT. One of the nice things lately has been that during The Streak, a different line has come up big almost every game. For NU, Reynolds played well, but his defense could have been better. They seemed out to lunch on all three Merrimack goals. Taylor tried to make things happen on offense but he wasn't allowed to get into the slot much, where he is dangerous. Overall, the NU forwards had trouble dealing with the bigger Merrimack defense, which just ran them off the puck nearly every rush. The teams battle again Saturday night at Merrimack, game time 7 pm. We'll have it on radio, WCCM 800 AM. --- --- Mike Machnik [log in to unmask] Cabletron Systems, Inc. *HMM* 11/13/93 <<<<< Color Voice of the (14-14-2) Merrimack Warriors WCCM 800 AM >>>>>