Tuesday, November 15, 1994 at Volpe Center, North Andover, MA
HOCKEY EAST GAME
Mass Lowell River Hawks (3-4-1, 3-2-1 1 HE 2nd) 1 1 2 - 4
Merrimack Warriors (1-7-1, 1-3-1 1 HE 7th) 0 1 2 - 3
FIRST PERIOD ML-MC
1. ML1, Neil Donovan 3 (Aaron Kriss), 19:57. 1-0
SECOND PERIOD
2. ML2, Greg Bullock 8 (Ed Campbell, David Dartsch), 15:12. 2-0
3. MC1, Mark Cornforth 3 (Martin Laroche, Casey Kesselring), 17:15. 2-1
THIRD PERIOD
4. ML3, Jeff Daw 8 (Bullock, Donovan), 6:55. PPG 3-1
5. MC2, Kesselring 6 (Laroche, John Jakopin), 15:31. 3-2
6. MC3, Rob Beck 4 (Cornforth, Chris Davis), 17:08. SHG 3-3
7. ML4, Daw 9 (Campbell, Paul Botto), 17:56. PPG GWG 4-3
SHOTS ON GOAL: Mass Lowell 13-17-13 = 43
Merrimack 8--8--9 = 25
SAVES: ML, Craig Lindsay (W, 3-2-1, 60:00, 25 sh-22 sv).
MC, Martin Legault (L, 1-6-1, 58:15, 43 sh-39 sv).
POWER PLAYS: ML 2 for 9. MC 0 for 7.
PENALTIES: ML 17/34. MC 20/40.
REFEREES: Steve McBride, Rich Fowkes. LINESMAN: Bill Jones.
ATTENDANCE: 1,228 (capacity 3,617).
THREE STARS: 1. C Jeff Daw, Mass Lowell (2-0--2, GWG).
2. LW Greg Bullock, Mass Lowell (1-1--2).
3. D Mark Cornforth, Merrimack (1-1--2).
Junior center Jeff Daw's power play goal with 2:04 left snapped a 3-3
tie and enabled UMass-Lowell to defeat host Merrimack, 4-3.
The goal was Daw's 9th of the year (8th PPG) and came just 48 seconds
after Merrimack's Rob Beck had scored a shorthanded goal to tie the game.
Lowell had led 3-1 before Casey Kesselring's goal with 4:29 left,
followed by Beck with 2:52 left, suddenly made it interesting. Daw's
winner came during the same power play that Beck scored the tying SHG on.
UML took sole possession of second place with the win. Merrimack fell
to 1-7-1 with its third straight one-goal loss. Discounting empty
netters, Merrimack has suffered 6 of its 7 losses by one goal.
Greg Bullock added a goal and an assist to raise his league and possibly
nation leading totals to 8-14--22.
The River Hawks basically controlled this game from the start,
outshooting Merrimack in each period. But it remained a 1-0 game until
late in the second, at which point the teams swapped goals to keep it
a one goal game. Merrimack goalie Martin Legault gave up a somewhat
soft goal to Neil Donovan with 3 seconds left in the first period, but
he then rebounded to play well the rest of the way, making 39 saves on
the night. The sophomore dufflebag, who has had his ups and downs thus
far, was most impressive in the second, stopping 16 of 17 shots to keep
the game close.
Penalty killing once again did in the Warriors, as the worst shorthanded
team in Hockey East successfully killed off all power plays through
the first two periods but then was scored on twice in the third for
the difference in the game. As well, the first UML goal late in the
first actually came one second after a power play expired but really
took place before Merrimack's returning skater could have any impact
on the play. Yet, by officially killing 7 of 9, Merrimack's kill
ratio actually improved from 58.1% to 62.5% in HE.
Playing well for Merrimack were defenseman Mark Cornforth, who scored
a big goal late in the second to cut the lead to one; freshman Kesselring,
whose one man effort just after a Lowell power play ended made it 3-2;
and Rob Beck, who walked in to beat Craig Lindsay for the SHG that tied
the game. Martin Laroche also contributed two assists. Kesselring's
goal and an assist gives him 6-4--10, second on the team to Cornforth
(3-9--12) and tops among forwards. However, the Warriors also had
many great scoring chances in the second and third that resulted in
shots wide of the net.
The River Hawks were very effective at killing penalties (7 of 7) and
pretty effective on power play (2 of 9), although they did allow the one
SHG. Lowell was able to tie up opposing forwards through the middle
well enough to prevent Merrimack from getting hardly any good shots off
from the slot. Daw's 2 PPGs were very big. Bullock was actually contained
rather well, although he was left uncovered for his goal that made it 2-0
and was also able to control things on the power play from behind the net.
Holding Bullock to two points on the night is sort of an accomplishment
these days.
MERRIMACK FANS HURT TEAM
A big negative was the showing of the Merrimack students, who refused
to cease throwing things like fruit and bagels on the ice during the
game, and this resulted in a delay of game penalty on the home team
right after Bullock made it 2-0. Then when Cornforth cut it to 2-1
with 2:45 left in the second, more items were thrown on the ice, and
this clearly incensed the Merrimack players who had to be wondering
if their fans were for or against them.
At that point, referee Steve McBride chose to call the period and sent
the teams to their locker rooms. McBride skated over to the student
section and helped security pick out several fans who were escorted
out of the rink. On the one hand, McBride seemed to be displaying his
usual attempts at becoming the focus of the game rather than part of
it, with his frantic pointing at various fans to be tossed. But he
does deserve credit for calling the period at that point and enabling
security and athletic director Bob DeGregorio to come over and regain
control. It prevented further delay penalties against the Warriors,
as security was out in full force by the time the teams returned to
finish the second and play the third.
As I said, the players had to be wondering whose side the fans were on.
It's nice that there has been such an increase in student support this
season, and the support for the Providence game was superb. But since
then, things have only gotten worse. It would be better for the
offending students not to show up at all than to act like idiots and
hurt the team. From talking to DeGregorio and assistant AD Pete
Palladino, it is clear that they have reached the end of their rope and
intend to take harsh action against anyone involved in further incidents
(as well as the one tonight), and that is good. Palladino referred to
the added security in the third as "babysitting", which was an
appropriate analogy.
But it will really take the large number of students who were not
involved to stand up and put pressure on their peers not to do these
foolish things. All they need to do is to look around the other
schools in the league to see how they should behave at games and still
be able to support their team well - schools like BU, Lowell, UNH, and
Maine. I hope things change immediately, but if not, I'd rather have
them stay home.
UPCOMING
Lowell takes a 23 day break from HE play, with the first of six straight
nonconference affairs coming Saturday night when RPI comes to the Tully
Forum. Merrimack will play a home and home with powerful Northeastern
this coming weekend, with Friday's game to be played in Boston. After
struggling the way they have through the first 5 HE tilts, all of which
were winnable (1-3-1, 3 one goal losses), Merrimack has put itself in
the position of needing to pick up some points against the Huskies,
else they continue their nosedive towards the bottom of the standings
which could culminate in a showdown with UMass-Amherst for last place
in early December. As it stands, only a win and a shootout win
separate the teams, and UMA has two games in hand.
--- ---
Mike Machnik [log in to unmask]
Cabletron Systems, Inc. *HMM* 11/13/93