A few thoughts
1. In the end I think sliding into 3rd place got us the best draw of any of the home teams and probably for PC.
2. From a PC perspective they caught a slumping Maine team which did not match well with us.
3. My thought about Maine as they tried to rally seemed they displayed the same type of desperation Pooley's team use to have where the discipline breaks down.
4. Also they seem to be about where we were after Army's first, do well with the anyone but the former coach, then after a good start reality sets in. The one advantage is Army had no one of Shore's caliber
5. You knew when O'Connor was on the ice for Maine, but his recommitting led to us getting Shamanski and I wouldn't trade him even up for Shamanski.
6. Speaking of which Shamanski seems to fly under the radar, but he certainly has been key in the last 6 games. Derek also seemed to come back to life being reunited with Tanev and paired with Accari. He went out in style at Schneider.
7. I also believe Friday Derek sets the PC record for games played. Tops Zanc for record, but it was his dad's record when he graduated
8. I think Hart has found his role too, it helps that MacKenzie plays solid defense and in recent games Parisi has found his stride and Florentino has adjusted to college, thus allowing him to play so he doesn't have to do more than he is capable of.
9. Speaking of Hart, last time we went to the NCAA's one of our captains was from Maine. After all those years the answer was right in front of our faces--recruit more in Maine.
10. Wasn't thrilled we seemed content to sit on the lead, it made the time go by so slowly and it gave Maine some life.
11. Still might have been a reason. In the post game Leaman noted several of the players, notably Saracino, during the week Divver noted guys were held out of practice, though he left the impression it was a planned thing, and stretching back to game 2 at Maine Hart missed the game due to illness. Hopefully that is behind us.
12. Playing to hold the lead certainly let Gillies sparkle. Bottom line is we are going as far as he can carry them.
13. Still we need to manufacture about 3 goals a game in grinding playoff style hockey
14. Playing with a lead helped....we led 99:31 out of 120 minutes, we were tied 12:27 and trailed only 8:02.
15. No match ups from here on out is easy. I suspect UNH is the match up Gillies relishes the most. He seems to like the challenge of playing head to head vs his buddy DeSmith (he has DESmith's number on his helmet, as does DeSmith have Gillies' on his)
