Special thanks to Kevin Yetman, a '92 Merrimack grad now at UAF, who sent me the following report on tonight's Merrimack-UAF game. With his permission, I am forwarding it to HOCKEY-L. It is really great that for those rare games I can't make it to, HOCKEY-L provides a way to get the lowdown. I bet Kevin is the only Merrimack grad at UAF, too. :-) Quick synopsis: Merrimack 1 1 2 - 4 Alaska-Fairbanks 0 0 1 - 1 Matt Adams had 2-1--3 for the Warriors, now 8-12-4. Martin Legault nearly posted the shutout until UAF's Forrest Gore scored with 57 seconds left to make it 3-1, after which Daryl Krauss added the ENG. The second game should be a good one. Without further adue... - mike Date: Fri, 20 Jan 1995 22:48:04 -0900 From: KEVIN R YETMAN <[log in to unmask]> Subject: Merrimack 4 UAF 1 To: [log in to unmask] Mike, I have not sent this to Hockey-L. Should you care to forward it, be my guest. Friday night at the Carlson Center here in Fairbanks the Nanooks took to the ice against Merrimack College. For me, it was my first Merrimack game in about two years. Merrimack did not disappoint, although I do feel that they were outplayed by UAF. Merrimack jumped on the board first about halfway thru the first period. Matt Adams let a shot go from the right wing face off circle that trickled between goaltender Brian Fish's pads. It remained that way for the rest of the period. The first period was pretty even. In the first half of the period Merrimack had four or five quality oppurtunities that had they cashed in on, they would have put the game out of reach early. UAF only had one that I can recall. The shots for the first period were 14-13 in favor of UAF. The second period saw a lot more oppurtunities for UAF. The only time play seemed to leave the Merrimack end was when the line of Adams Kesselring and Beck was on the ice. Other than that, the play was seemingly in the MC zone an awful lot more. UAF had many quality, point-blank oppurtunities on goaltender Martin Legault. Legault was equal to all of them. Legault surprised me with his speed to drop to the ice and get back on his skates. He was definitely on his game tonight. In my mind, he was the number one star. Merrimack did score once in the second period. Again it was the line of Beck Adams and Kesselring. This time it was Kesselring from Beck and Adams. Adams had been wreaking havoc in the UAF zone, and Merrimack snapped off a couple quick shots. The puck came to Kesselring, on a feed from Beck. Kesselring had Fish point blank, and beat him clean, low and on the ice. The shots in the second period were 10-8 in favor of UAF, and many of the UAF shots were of the quality variety. The third period was much like the second. UAF stormed the Merrimack end, and threw everything but the kitchen sink at Legault. The Merrimack netminder stopped all but one of the shots that came his way. About halfway thru the period, Merrimack clicked again for the goal that really drove a stake in the heart of the Nanooks. This time it was Matt Adams again from Mark Cornforth and Rob Beck. It was your basic two on two. Beck took the pass from Cornforth. Beck was on the left wing side at the UAF blue line. Beck quickly shuffled it to Adams, who put a beautiful fake on the defenseman covering him, and walked in alone. Fish appeared to have the puck at first, but it trickled thru and into the net for the goal. I must confess I left the game with about a 1:45 left, because I had to catch a bus back to the school, but on the bus, the game was on the radio, so from here, details may be a bit sketchy. UAF jumped on the board at the 19:03 mark of the third period when Freshman winger Forrest Gore took a pass from Eon MacFarlane and beat Legault low and to the glove side. A second assist was awarded to junior Trent Schachle. Down by two goals, and with 57 seconds left, UAF coach Dave Laurion decided to pull Fish in favor of an extra attacker. UAF did get the puck into the Merrimack zone. However, when defenseman Dallas Ferguson tried to pass the puck to his defensive parter, Daryl Krauss intercepted the pass, and skated in alone on the empty net. The unassisted goal put an end to any hopes of a late UAF rally. I did not get the final shots on goal, as the game was turned off as soon as Merrimack scored to make it four to one. If I had to guess I would say on the order of 40-30 in favor of UAF. General thoughts: UAF clearly outplayed Merrimack, except when The Adams-Beck-Kesselring line was on the ice. Martin Legault was THE difference, and if he didn't earn first star honors (* it wouldn't surprise if it went to Adams or Beck *), he deserved it. Generally the game was very clean. There were two four on four situations, one Merrimack power-play, and two Nanook powerplays, including a two man advantage for 11 seconds. The attendence announced was 3041. It didn't seem like it...I thought about half that number. I was talking with a fellow tonight who has watch the Nanooks for years, and some of the stories he told me sound a lot like the stories we were telling a few years ago at Merrimack. UAF I feel is furthur along in their movement to full time Division I than Merrimack was when they were at this stage of the game. If Merrimack is going to compete and go ANYWHERE in the playoffs this year they have to do a few things: 1.) They can't give up so many quality oppurtunities 2.) They have to cash in on their chances, especially early in the game. 3.) They can't take foolish penalties. 4.) Hope they don't run into UMass-Lowell! :) That's about it from the Great White North. I'll try to report on tomorrow nights game too. And yes by the way, other than Coach Anderson, I was the only was clapping when Merrimack scored! :) Kevin Yetman Merrimack College '92 University of Alaska-Fairbanks '96(?)