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Friday, November 11, 1994 at JFK Coliseum, Manchester, NH HOCKEY EAST GAME Merrimack Warriors (1-5-1, 1-1-1 1 HE) 4 0 1 - 5 New Hampshire Wildcats (4-3-0, 1-2-0 0 HE) 2 3 1 - 6 FIRST PERIOD NH-MC 1. MC1, Daryl Krauss 2 (Steve McKenna), 3:27. PPG 0-1 2. MC2, Mark Goble 4 (unassisted), 8:46. 4x4 0-2 3. MC3, Casey Kesselring 4 (Matt Adams, Mark Cornforth), 14:31. 0-3 4. NH1, Eric Boguniecki 2 (Steve Pleau, Todd Hall), 16:18. PPG 1-3 5. NH2, Boguniecki 3 (Dean Woodman, Pleau), 18:03. PPG 2-3 6. MC4, Kesselring 5 (Cornforth), 18:34. PPG 2-4 SECOND PERIOD 7. NH3, Boguniecki 4 (Mike Sullivan, Eric Flinton), 1:11. 3-4 8. NH4, Eric Nickulas 6 (Mark Mowers, Rob Gagnon), 10:42. 4-4 9. NH5, Pleau 2 (Sullivan, Boguniecki), 16:11. 5-4 THIRD PERIOD 10. MC5, Ryan Mailhiot 1 (Cornforth), 3:24. 4x4 5-5 11. NH6, Ted Russell 1 (Kent Schmidtke, Mike Heinke), 4:59. PPG GWG 6-5 SHOTS ON GOAL: Merrimack 13-10-14 = 37 New Hampshire 11-16-13 = 40 SAVES: MC, Martin Legault (L, 1-4-1, 58:58, 40 sh-34 sv). NH, Trent Cavicchi (20:00, 13 sh-9 sv), Mike Heinke (W, 3-1-0, 40:00, 24 sh-23 sv). POWER PLAYS: MC 2 for 6. NH 3 for 7. PENALTIES: MC 12/24. NH 12/24. REFEREES: Jim Fitzgerald, Dennis Hughes. LINESMAN: John Jones. ATTENDANCE: 2,600 (sellout). THREE STARS: 1. RW Eric Boguniecki, UNH (3-1--4). 2. C Casey Kesselring, Merrimack (2-0--2). 3. G Mike Heinke, UNH (W, 40:00, 24 sh-23 sv). Ted Russell's first goal of the year on the power play snapped a 5-5 tie 5 minutes into the third period, and UNH held on for a 6-5 come from behind win against Merrimack. Eric Boguniecki keyed the comeback for UNH with a hat trick and an assist, after Merrimack had taken a 3-0 lead in the first and led 4-2 after one on the strength of two more goals by freshman center Casey Kesselring. The game was very exciting for the sellout crowd of 2,600 at Manchester's JFK Coliseum, home to the Wildcats for 9 times this season as they await construction of a new rink on campus in Durham, 45 minutes away. Lots of scoring, up and down skating, and a total of 74 shots helped keep this one interesting right up until the buzzer. Unfortunately, a very bad officiating job darkened what was a strong comeback by the host team, as both of the final two UNH goals were tainted. Officiating in Hockey East is very good almost every night, IMO, and I almost never complain about it...but this deserves mention because it directly affected the outcome of the game. The goal that enabled UNH to go ahead 5-4 late in the second was scored on an offside play, as Mike Sullivan lost control of the puck for a moment at the blue line, drifted across and regained control, and then fired a pass in front to Steve Pleau who redirected it past Merrimack goalie Martin Legault. The sixth UNH goal and game winner was a power play goal that came after Merrimack D Steve McKenna was called for charging. McKenna seemed surprised at the call and shook his head, and replays on NESN showed that not only did McKenna not take two strides, but he was only gliding at about half speed towards the opponent when the collision occurred. Not long after the eventual GWG was scored, referee Dennis Hughes stood in the corner and watched UNH's Eric Flinton give him a perfect illustration of what charging really is, as he took about 3-4 strides and hammered Merrimack D Tom Costa from behind, leaving Costa on the ice in pain. Hughes watched all of this transpire and then turned and headed up ice...after several seconds, Costa was able to get up and to the bench. This is a serious infraction that needs to be called whenever it occurs. UNH deserves credit for bouncing back from the first period deficit to chip away and pull off the comeback win. Starting dufflebag Trent Cavicchi was chased after the first period, and Mike Heinke came in from the bullpen to play very well over the last two periods, allowing only one goal while his team scored 4. Merrimack goalie Martin Legault did not have a stellar game, but once again his defense was sorely lacking. Only the second line for UNH was able to generate any offense, as the all-senior first line of Eric Flinton-Eric Royal-Nick Poole was held off the board yet again (except for a Flinton assist on Boguniecki's third goal during a line change). But after a strong opening 15 minutes, the Merrimack defense hung Legault out to dry the rest of the way. The line of Pleau-Sullivan-Boguniecki looks to be the best one UNH has and accounted for 4 goals, as they were swarming all night long. Pleau hustles; Sullivan is a superb faceoff man and playmaker; and Boguniecki just knows how to find the net. Penalty killing continues to be a problem for Merrimack. After allowing 7 goals on 18 chances last weekend, the Warriors surrendered 3 more PPGs on 7 chances tonight. On the plus side, the offensive special teams were very good, scoring 2 PPGs and 2 4x4 goals. Mark Cornforth and Steve McKenna played well on the Merrimack blueline. Cornforth picked up 3 assists to tie him with Adams and Eric Weichselbaumer for the team lead with 7. He also provided what little spark Merrimack had in the third period with the game on the line. McKenna was pretty solid defensively despite apparently being the opponent the UNH fans loved to hate, probably because of his size. He drew 4 penalties on the night, but only two were justified...in the first, he put a clean check on Poole that resulted in Poole winding up in the Merrimack bench, but as McKenna tried to get away, Poole grabbed him around the head and held him down into the bench with him. Somehow, this resulted in *both* players going off for holding. A nice surprise was the play of junior sparkplug Ryan Mailhiot, out of the lineup last week with an injury. Mailhiot is from nearby Merrimack, NH, and played his high school hockey in this rink. He seemed to have more energy than most of his teammates, working hard on 4x4 and getting the game tying goal early in the third for MC. For Merrimack, this was yet another "coulda" game that was winnable. The Warriors are 1-5-1, but 4 of the five losses and the tie should have been wins; they have dropped games to Dalhousie, RPI and UNH by one goal, and the Colgate game was tied until the closing minutes when Colgate got a goal to break the tie and then added an ENG. It really is a fine line between 1-5-1 and 6-1. These are the games they need to win to move up, and they are now in the position of having to win the next two games vs UNH and Lowell before running into the Northeastern juggernaut next weekend. UNH needed a win after last weekend's sweep at the hands of Maine, and they were clearly determined not to let this one get away as evidenced by their comeback. But right now, this is a team that also needs a lot of work...one of the goalies (Heinke?) needs to step up and get the job done, and the seniors must start to score goals. One other note: as I said, tonight's game was the first this season for UNH in Manchester. The UNH folks have done a great job of making Manchester their home, from the UNH logo on the ice to the HE flags hanging overhead, to the fish that appears after the first UNH goal. The partisan crowd stayed silent during the opening onslaught by the visitors, but they got into the game just like the fans at old Snively once their team bounced back. It's not going to be easy playing every game away from Durham, but if UNH keeps getting support like this, they'll be all right. The teams meet again Saturday night at Merrimack at 7 pm. --- --- Mike Machnik [log in to unmask] Cabletron Systems, Inc. *HMM* 11/13/93