Tag Archives: Mark Dennehy

Feb 1 2013

Mass. College Hockey: Five Games To Watch This Weekend (Feb. 1-2)

By NoontimeSports.com 

It’s Friday, which means it is time to unveil our five hockey games to watch this weekend.

Also, make sure to stay up to date on the various games by visiting our blog throughout the weekend for press releases, recaps and roundups, as well as updates via Twitter (@NoontimeSports or @NoonSportsBlog).

Men’s Basketball:

Boston University at Massachusetts (Friday, 7:00 p.m.) – Danny O’Regan as been the Minutemen’s worst nightmare this season, as the Needham native has tallied four points (two goals, two assists) in both contests. UMass will need to locate the first-year skater, who has nine goals and 13 assists this season.

UMass has lost both games against Boston University, which occurred in October, and will turn to netminder Steve Mastalerz, who is 2-2 in the Minutemen’s last four contests. Mastalerz first win of the season came against Boston College, as he finished the match with 21 saves and two goals allowed.   

UMass Lowell at Merrimack College (Friday, 7:00 p.m.) – The River Hawks and Warriors are currently locked on a two-way tie for fifth place, so Friday’s outcome could certainly catapult one of these squads into at least fourth place.

Merrimack is coming off a 1-1 weekend against New Hampshire, which saw the Warriors win in North Andover, but lose in Manchester. Mike Collins was honored recently as the Athletic Republic Player of the Month. The Merrimack forward tallied 11 points (four goals, seven assists) in seven games.

UMass Lowell is one of the hottest teams in the Hockey East these days and hasn’t lost since the first Saturday in December. The River Hawks rallied in both of their contests last weekend with Northeastern, but only managed one win and one tie. Chad Ruhwedel has eight points (five goals, three assists) in his team’s last seven-games.

NESN will carry the contest live and provide an all-access pass for fans to hear Merrimack head coach Mark Dennehy’s pre-game speech.

Amherst College at Bowdoin College (Friday, 7:00 p.m.) – This is a very important game for the Lord Jeffs. Amherst is one of three teams in the NESCAC (New England Small College Athletic Conference) with seven conference wins, but also needs points to keep pace with Bowdoin College, a squad that’s 16-1-1 overall.

Amherst traveled to Bowdoin last year, and fell to the Polar Bears, 7-4. The Lord Jeffs managed to even the season series with a win on their home ice roughly one year ago from this evening.

Bowdoin defeated Amherst on their home ice earlier this season, as Colin Downey provided the visitors with the lead for good when he deposited the puck into the Lord Jeffs’ cage with just over two minutes remaining.

Amherst is 4-2-1 in their last seven games, while Bowdoin is 6-1.

Women’s Basketball:

Northeastern University at Boston University (Saturday, 3:00 p.m.) – The Huskies have rattled off three consecutive wins as of lately and will attempt to earn their fourth against the Terriers, a squad that’s defeated them twice this season. Boston University has outscored Northeastern in both meetings, 9-5.

In their last meeting, Sarah Lefort notched a hat trick; Kerrin Sperry deflected 18 shots between the pipes, but yielded four goals.

According to the latest Hockey East report, Boston University is currently riding a 12-game winning streak, which is the second longest to Minnesota. The Terriers have outscored opponents, 53-25 during their current streak.

St. Anselm at Holy Cross (Friday, 7:00 p.m.) – The Crusaders enter Friday’s contest coming off a 1-1 tie with Southern Maine. And even though the tie produced only one point in the ECAC East standings, it still kept them in the pack with St. Anselm and Salve Regina.

A win for the Crusaders would push them past the Seahawks with 17 points, and balloon their overall record 13-4-3.

Holy Cross defeated St. A’s earlier this season, as Rebecca Fleming netted two goals and one assist, while Krista Manzanares turned away 30 shots between the pipes and yielded two goals.

Nov 6 2011

Merrimack Rallies to Beat Northeastern, 3-2 OT

By Brian Willwerth 

BOSTON, MA – Merrimack College entered Saturday night’s game at Northeastern as one of only two unbeaten teams left in the country. The Warriors stayed that way thanks to a dramatic victory.

Ryan Flanigan scored a shorthanded goal with just over three minutes remaining in overtime, as Merrimack defeated Northeastern, 3-2, in a physical game at Matthews Arena.

“I’m very proud of the effort tonight,” said Merrimack head coach Mark Dennehy.  “I thought our guys played better as the game went on.  Northeastern puts a lot of pressure on you… then we responded.”

In the first period, just after the Huskies’ initial power play had expired, they broke out on top first. Joseph Manno and Mike McLaughlin broke in on an odd-man rush, and McLaughlin finished it off by beating Joe Cannata to put NU up, 1-0. It was McLaughlin’s third goal of the season.

Just over three minutes later, the Huskies got another highlight-reel goal. Rob Dongara took a beautiful feed from McLaughlin and beat Cannata to make it 2-0.

“I thought we started off really well,” said Huskies’ head coach Jim Madigan.  “What happened in the first period was going to be our downfall as the game went along…too many bad penalties.”

The first of those penalties came later in the period. John Manson got a major penalty and game misconduct for hitting from behind. The Warriors took advantage with 47 seconds remaining on the man advantage. Mike Collins’ wrist shot beat Chris Rawlings to make it 2-1. It’s Collins’ first goal of the season. The Warriors outshot the Huskies in the opening period, 8-5.

In the second period, the Huskies got an early 5-on-3 advantage, but could not add to their lead. Another NU power play did produce any scoring. Both Rawlings and Cannata were solid in their respective nets. Rawlings turned away all 11 shots from the Warriors, while Cannata stopped all nine coming from the sticks of NU players.

Merrimack tied the game on the power play with 8:30 to go in the 3rd period.  Mike Collins scored his second goal of the game, almost a carbon-copy of his first one, to make it 2-2.

“When you’re struggling, frustration sets in,” said Madigan.  “The puck movement isn’t as fluid.  That’s something we’ll have to get better at.”

Merrimack’s Carter Madsen became the second player to get record a major penalty/game misconduct for hitting from behind. But the Huskies could not cash in. Then with 1.7 seconds left, Kyle Bigos was whistled for high sticking, a penalty that carried over into overtime. In OT, Rhett Bly flipped the puck high out of the defensive end, into the glove of Flanigan, who broke in alone on Rawlings and did the rest.

“I didn’t see (Flanigan’s) celebration,” said Dennehy. “He finished it off pretty nice.”

Both teams return to action Friday night. The Warriors travel to Boston University, while the Huskies go on the road to take on Boston College.

Sep 30 2011

Catching Up With Mark Dennehy (Merrimack College Men’s Ice Hockey Head Coach)

By Matt Noonan 

Noontime Sports is kicking-off its 2011-12 Hockey East coverage with an interview with Merrimack College’s head coach Mark Dennehy from Tuesday’s Media Day.

Here are Dennehy’s thoughts on the upcoming season, as well as some players and things to watch out for this year. Also, the Warriors are currently ranked fifth in the conference and certainly would like to duplicate their performance from last season, where they earned 25 wins, as well as a spot in the NCAA’s Frozen Four tournament.

Do you feel that you’ll be able to build off last year’s success?  If so, why? 

“I find myself repeating things I say often, so if it gets redundant, I apologize. [Although], it helps with my players – I’ll just keep pounding it in, [but] you can’t transfer wins, you can’t transfer goals, [yet] what you hope to do as a coach is to establish a culture and if it’s really taking root, then it will transfer from one year to another. In the little bit of time that I’ve been around our current team, I really get a sense that these guys understand what we need to do to have success and so far, they’re willing to pay the price, so that’s the biggest thing -[continuing to] foster that culture.”

What are some challenges or things you’re worried about going forward with this particular team?

“We scored 143 goals last year in 29-30 games and I don’t know if scoring will be as easy for us, as it was last year [because] goal scoring was a commodity and the way the game [is] played now, it’s tough to come by anyways. I think we’re going to have to manufacture some goals some more and our power play – we’ll have to work really hard to be consistent on our power play, but those are the fun parts of the game, so I don’t think working on that is as hard as [defensive] zone and blocking shots, but I think that’s probably the two biggest areas. [Also], scoring goals with regularity again and then making sure our special teams are where they need to be.”

Who are some players that you’re expecting to lead the Warriors to victory this season?

“Well, Joe Cannata, who I think has really flown under a lot of people’s radar. He’s one of the most consistent goalies that I’ve been around. He’s a big time goalie, who usually plays his best when it matters. Karl Stollery is a guy who has played literally herculean minutes from day one and then we have a senior line, which is refreshing because I think in the past we’ve really relied on our younger players of Ryan Flaigan, who had 16 goals for us [last season and], Carter Madsen another machine that brought a lot of energy. Mike Collins was on the all-rookie team, Jesse Todd had 17 goals [last season] – we like our team. We’ve got some pretty good depth and really looking forward to the year.”

What’s your overall outlook for the season? Where do you see your team finishing once the season is complete?

“I can’t get that far ahead, [but] I wish I could predict what’s going to happen a week from Friday, but we’re going to have our hands full in Maine – it’s a tough place to go and I think if we cannot get too high with the highs, to low with the lows, I think we have a pretty good team.”

Mar 13 2011

Merrimack beats Maine, Advances to Hockey East Semi-Finals

Keep the party going! Merrimack punches their ticket to Hockey East semi-finals.

By Josh Kummins

NORTH ANDOVER, MA – After opening their best-of-three Hockey East Quarterfinal series with a win on Friday, the Merrimack Warriors used the momentum of an energetic sold-out crowd to outplay the Maine Black Bears, 6-2, at Lawler Arena on Saturday.

With the win and a two-game series sweep, Merrimack has advanced to the Hockey East semi-finals for just the second time in school history. There last visit to this special event was back in 1998. However, this marks the first time that the Warriors have won back-to-back Division I playoff games too.

Merrimack juior Carter Madsen, netted his first career hat-trick and second-career multi-goal game, while junior Ryan Flanigan scored one goal while recording three assists to set a new career-high mark.

The Black Bears only mustered two goals by Merrimack goaltender Joe Cannata, who saved on 29 of 31 shots in net. Junior Brian Flynn and senior Jeff Dimmen each scored goals in the second and third periods, while junior defenseman Will O’Neill was Maine’s only multi-point scorer of the series, as he assisted on both goals.

Maine’s goalie, Dan Sullivan made saved 22-shots, before Shawn Sirman stopped nine shots during the final 18:24.

The Black Bears finish the season with a record of [17-12-7] and entered the playoffs as the fifth place team in Hockey East.

Merrimack will await Sunday’s Boston University – Northeastern winner for the semi-finals at the TD Garden. Both the Huskies and Terriers are tied, 1-1.

University of Maine head coach Tim Whitehead:

On the loss:

“It is a tough loss obviously…It was a real good couple of games for them to advance, so the credit goes to them.”

Commenting on the seniors and team as a whole:

“I really feel for the seniors and the entire team. I am very proud of this team. As much as any team I have coached, they fought through a ton of adversity. A lot of injuries to key players, they never quit and they went right to the end.”

The play of Merrimack College:

“We got out of the gate pretty good in the first and in the second period, they just got it going.”

Keys to having a successful season:

“The key for us this season was not getting those two points to clinch home ice. If we had hosted, it would have been a totally different series.”

Merrimack Head Coach Mark Dennehy:

Commenting on Carter Madsen’s line:

“[The Madsen line was] great all weekend and they did it again tonight. We actually matched them up with the Nyquist line, because they did such a good job last night…They can all skate and are very tenacious. I think they really optimize the type of hockey we play.”

On offensive players on Merrimack:

“The best offensive players want to get going. They don’t want to spend that much time in their zone.”

On Carter Madsen’s last goal:

“Carter’s last goal was a great cycle down low. They used the net, they used each other and [Flanigan] came out for the wrap, so the rebound was just sitting there.”

On particulars before the season began:

“We thought from the start of the season that we would have some good players. That is what brought guys like [Stephane Da Costa] back. We thought we were going to be pretty good.”

Commenting on recruiting players to Merrimack:

“Part of our recruiting pitch to this group was that you get to make footprints and raise the bar. That is why we went after championship players.”

CARTER MADSEN (Merrimack):

Commenting on his play and performance:

“That was defiantly nice. A big game like that to come out and contribute was great.”

Josh Kummins is the Hockey East beat writer for BostonSportsU18.com.