UNH-Merrimack: hitting the links
I had some trouble with my E-T link posting, so I copied the text here — links to other stories are below.
Warriors declaw the ‘Cats
By Mike McMahon
mmcmahon@eagletribune.com
DURHAM, N.H. – After a lackluster effort on Tuesday night against UMass Lowell, Merrimack head coach Mark Dennehy sent a message to his squad.
He scratched second liners Joe Cucci and Francois Ouimet from the lineup, as well as goal-scoring winger J.C. Robitaille and senior defenseman Grant Farrell.
His team got the hint.
The Warriors battled back from one-goal down in the third period to topple No. 15 UNH 4-3 at the Whittemore Center. It’s the Warriors’ first win at UNH since a 7-2 drubbing of the Wildcats on Dec. 13, 2003.
“When we outwork teams, we can beat anybody,” Dennehy said. “That’s what we have to do, though. I heard that there is a sign in the Patriots’ locker room that says “do your job,” and that’s it. I’ve heard that’s the only sign in their locker room. It doesn’t matter what number is called, you need to do your job. Tonight, we had some different numbers called in our lineup, but guys did their jobs.”
Bobby Kramer scored his first collegiate goal for the Warriors 8:46 into the game. After UNH tied the score, Elliott Sheen gave the Warriors the lead early in the second period on his first collegiate goal. Then, the Wildcats took over. Steve Moses tied the score at 2-2 late in the second.
UNH took its first lead of the game at the 6:46 mark of the third period when Bobby Butler flew in from the neutral zone on a breakaway and roofed a wrister over Merrimack freshman goaltender Joe Cannata (33 saves).
“No one had their heads down,” said freshman center Jesse Todd. “Coach told us not to hang our heads and to go get the next one because we had them.”
Added Dennehy, “We had guys banging their sticks on the dashers yelling to get the next one. There wasn’t any deflation on our bench. Guys came alive.”
Merrimack responded just 51 seconds later when Rob Ricci scored his second goal in as many games to knot the score at 3-3.
Todd gave the Warriors the lead just over three minutes later off of a beautiful read from sophomore John Jamieson, who found Todd charging to the net on a broken play and the rookie tipped a puck past UNH netminder Brian Foster (23 saves).
“I didn’t have to do much,” explained Todd. “Johnny made a great play and he told me afterwards that he saw me the whole time. So he slid the puck over and I really didn’t even have to shoot, it went off my stick and in.”
For UNH, it was their first loss at the Whittemore Center this season.
“We’re finding ways to lose games,” said UNH head coach Dick Umile. “That takes nothing away from Merrimack, they won the battles. They won all of the one-on-one battles and they played well in transition.”
The Warriors won with seven freshman, six sophomores, six juniors and no seniors in their lineup.
“We were resilient,” said Dennehy. “We’ve showed that a few time this year. We were down two goals to Boston College a few weeks ago and battle back for a tie. We’ve recruited guys from winning programs. It’s easy to bring new faces into a program, but it can be hard to change the culture. Losses can wear on guys. But we have guys like Jesse Todd who has been in two Royal Cup Finals in Canada; he’s been in high-pressure games before. Joe Cannata played in international competitions representing Team USA, so he’s been in high-pressure spots. You can tell that there is a belief system that’s starting to take shape.”
Union Leader – “Merrimack rallies past UNH”
