November
26, 2002
East
Notebook
ECAC
| HOCKEY EAST | MAAC
OK,
you can exhale now
By
Nate Ewell
That
collective sigh of relief that echoed this week across the
18 miles of coastline that link Maine, New Hampshire and
Massachusetts can be easily explained.
After
a week in which the three top teams in Hockey East faced
off against each other in a pair of spectacular overtime
games, they all take a well-deserved break from conference
play.
 |
|
Maine
forward Colin Shields (Photo by Monty Rand) |
| This
week's schedule |
| Last
week's East
Notebook |
| This
week's notebook is slightly abbreviated due to the Thanksgiving
holiday. We will return in full force next week. |
Of course,
Tuesday night Boston College suffered the understandable
letdown at Dartmouth, and Maine needed a late goal to beat
Quinnipiac, 2-1. New Hampshire gets its letdown test on
Saturday, at home, against Connecticut.
But
BC's loss doesn't count in the Hockey East standings, where
these three teams figure to be battling until the regular
season ends March 1. (In fact, when you consider that Dartmouth
is underrated and 6-0-0 at home, the loss doesn't look that
bad.)
Regardless,
they were great hockey games for fans, players and coaches
alike.
"That
was a great hockey game," Maine head coach Tim Whitehead
told the Union Leader. "The atmosphere was
fantastic. I thought UNH controlled play for the most part.
We did feel pretty fortunate to come out of it with a win.”
Fortunately
for fans, there's not a long wait before the next big Hockey
East showdown. Following Tuesday night's games, both Boston
College and Maine relax during the Thanksgiving holiday
and prepare for the Black Bears' visit to Conte Forum Dec.
6-7. Maine will enter the weekend with seven straight wins
and a 10-game unbeaten streak.
THREE
MORE NOTES NO FAN SHOULD BE WITHOUT
1.
Meanwhile, in the MAAC – While the top teams
in Hockey East were beating up on each other, two under
.500 teams were beating the leaders of the MAAC.
Fresh
on the heels of last week's Mercyhurst upset loss to Iona,
Army handed Quinnipiac a 3-1 defeat and Connecticut beat
Holy Cross, 3-2. Both upsets came on Friday night.
Freshman
Brad Roberts backstopped Army to its win over Quinnipiac,
stopping 53 shots.
"That
was one of the best performances at Tate Rink that I can
remember," said Army head coach Rob Riley.
The
two teams combined for a remarkable 100 shots on goal –
54 by the Bobcats, 46 by the Black Knights –
as Justin Eddy made 43 saves for Quinnipiac. Three different
players scored for Army, which withstood a 24-12 Quinnipiac
shot advantage in the third period, after Army had already
built a 3-0 lead.
"(Roberts')
second- and third-period efforts were tremendous, considering
the enormous pressure he was under. It was outstanding for
a freshman to respond the way he did for a team that really
needed a win." Riley said.
Connecticut
beat Holy Cross thanks to senior captain D.J. Miller, who
scored all three Huskies' goals. Miller doubled his goal
total for the season (6-2—8) and earned MAAC Player
of the Week honors. The victory was just Connecticut's third
of the year, while it snapped Holy Cross' seven-game winning
streak.
Connecticut
couldn't maintain the momentum in an 8-0 loss to Union Sunday,
and the going doesn't get any easier this weekend. The Huskies
visit New Hampshire for the program's first-ever game against
a nationally-ranked opponent.
|
Three
Great Weekend Getaways |
1.
Boston University at Cornell (Sat.-Sun.)
These
meetings renew a great rivalry from the old ECAC, much
like the College Hockey Showcase games do this weekend
out west. "We hear their crowd really gets into
it," BU captain Freddy Meyer said in anticipation
of his team's visit to Lynah. "And we hear all
about the old BU-Cornell rivalry, from back when Coach
was playing."
While You're There: Sick of turkey? Try some Asian
cuisine at Taste of Thai. The chicken panang comes highly
recommended. |
| Runners-up:
2.
Providence and Northeastern at Clarkson and St. Lawrence
– North Country is full of storylines this weekend,
as Providence tries to right the ship, Clarkson continues
its tumultuous season, and Northeastern and St. Lawrence
try to get untracked.
3.
Princeton at Massachusetts (Sun.) – Don Cahoon
welcomes his old team to the Mullins Center. The Tigers
(1-7-0) are struggling, while the Minutemen continue
to impress. They outshot New Hampshire 32-18 on Sunday,
but were turned away by Mike Ayers in a 4-0 shutout. |
2.
Atop the ECAC – After Tuesday night's upset
of Boston College, no one's about to overlook Dartmouth.
But even considering the Big Green's resurgence, the Cornell-Harvard
game earned its status as the ECAC's most compelling game
of the first month of conference play.
"You
need a game like that, and that's no disrespect to the ECAC,"
Harvard coach Mark Mazzoleni said, "but when you play
a top-notch team like that – and
the same with them playing us – it
helps you find out where you've got to work on your game."
Mazzoleni
liked what he learned Friday night at Lynah, even though
his team lost, 5-2.
"We
continue to battle, and I like that about our team,"
he said. "We just kept coming, and over the long haul
you're going to win your share of games when you do that.
It's a mentality that you've got to create and we started
to move in that direction last year and we're getting there."
The
Crimson certainly competed hard Saturday night, beating
Colgate, 7-1.
Meanwhile,
Cornell's wins over Harvard and Brown (5-0) helped the Big
Red shake off their loss the previous Saturday to Dartmouth.
"It
was a well-fought, hard hockey game," Cornell head
coach Mike Schafer said after the Harvard game. "They've
got a great hockey team and that kind of game is just going
to make both of our teams right now, a better hockey team.
That kind of competition is the only way you find the true
strengths and weaknesses of our hockey team and we found
both tonight."
3.
SWAPPING
E-MAIL WITH ... QUINNIPIAC'S BRIAN HERBERT
Senior
forward Brian Herbert (5-15—20) leads the MAAC in
scoring, and his 152 career points lead all active Division
I scorers. We caught up with him via e-mail on Monday while
he and the Bobcats were in Orono preparing for Tuesday night's
2-1 loss to Maine.
Inside
College Hockey: I know this was a tough weekend for you
guys, losing to Army Friday then in a close one to Northeastern
Saturday. What was more disappointing – to drop a
league game or to just miss a chance to win against a Hockey
East team?
Brian
Herbert: You never want to lose any game, but I
think that the loss against Army stings more than the loss
to Northeastern. It would have been nice to beat a Hockey
East team, but that would have been a bonus. Losing a conference
game hurts us more.
INCH:
Do these non-league games carry a little extra importance
fo you guys? Do you feel like you're proving the MAAC on
a national level a little bit?
BH:
Definitely. I don't think that the MAAC will start to gain
respect until we start to compete and win non-conference
games. I would like to think that we are starting to gain
some national respect, but I still think that wins are a
must before other leagues take us seriously.
INCH:
You're in a tough stretch travel-wise. What types of things
do you do on the road to pass the time – both on the
bus and in the hotel?
BH:
On the bus, some of the boys watch movies, while the others
play cards. When we get to the hotel, many of the boys play
cards while others watch TV.
INCH:
Favorite road trip in the MAAC?
BH:
Sacred Heart, for sure. It's only about a 15-minute ride
and they are a big rival of ours.
INCH:
What's one thing you miss when you're away from school?
BH:
I really don't miss much when we are away from school. It's
a relief when we get a break from school and the work.
INCH:
I know you're from British Columbia, so your Thanksgiving
has come and gone ... but what are your plans to celebrate
U.S. Thanksgiving?
BH:
As of right now, I will be in New Hampshire at
my girlfriend's house. If the weather is not cooperating,
I will stay in Hamden.
INCH:
What was the nicest perk about playing in the NCAA Tournament
last year?
BH:
The nicest thing was seeing the support that our school
showed us in Worcester. Our fans were great. I'm not sure
of the number that showed up, but they sure were enthusiastic.
THIS
WEEK'S NHL TRANSACTIONS
•
Clarkson named former St. Lawrence defenseman Mike McCourt
assistant coach, rounding out interim head coach Fred Parker's
staff.
•
Boston University goaltender Sean Fields made 36 saves Tuesday
night against Harvard to earn his third career shutout.
The first two came against Merrimack. "It was good
to get a shutout against someone other than Merrimack,"
Fields said.
•
Yale scored four straight goals to erase a 4-1 Vermont lead
Saturday night and win, 5-4. Senior forward Evan Wax scored
four of the Elis' five goals in the game.
•
Brown traveled to Cornell and Colgate and was shut out
in back-to-back games, a first for the Bears since 1960-61.
•
Union freshman goaltender Kris Mayotte improved to 5-0-1
with the shutout win over Connecticut.
•
Cornell senior Shane Palahicky has 11 goals and 40 points
in his career. Three of those goals and nine of those
points have come against Harvard. Did the chance to play
in that kind of rivalry help convince him to go to Cornell?
"It's the biggest reason," Palahicky said. "The
program's great but when you get out there and you see
the crowd and you see how loud they are and how crazy
they are it just makes the decision so much easier."
•
Sacred Heart and American International dueled to a scoreless
tie Friday night, with sophomore Chad Davis (AIC, 38 saves)
and senior Eddy Ferhi (Sacred Heart, 24 saves) earning
the shutouts.
•
Quinnipiac was 0-for-2 on the power play Tuesday night at
Maine, its first game without a power-play goal this season.
Maine has allowed just five power-play goals all year in
62 short-handed situations (a Hockey East-leading 91.9 percent),
while scoring four short-handed goals.
•
Clarkson goaltender Mike Walsh has not allowed an even-strength
goal in his last three games. Walsh is under .500 at 2-3-0,
but has a goals-against average of 1.82 and a save percentage
of .932.
•
Dartmouth has won eight home games in a row, dating back
to last season, with a 6-0-0 record in Thompson Arena this
year. Brown has won 10 in a row at home.
•
Congratulations to St. Lawrence coach Joe Marsh, whose daughter,
Katie, earned All-America honors in the NCAA Division III
cross country championships. Katie, a sophomore at Williams,
finished 33rd while the Ephs captured the national title.
A
variety of sources were utilized in the compilation of this
report, including special contributions from Joe Gladziszewski.