UNH At The Starting Gate....

[MUhawks628]

Re: UNH At The Starting Gate....

Gotta feel for you guys. The officiating can be rougher than your opponents. The ref, Wilkins has a bad rep in the CCHA and just when you think you have a chance he'll screw you.

Figured Shegos would be down in Oxford, but we had a nice chat with Mark before he left the tunnel for the 2nd, he told us he would write our suggestions down when we asked him to stop picking on Vavie (he does try so hard), but he tossed us a puck at the end of the game so he's ok in my book.

Looking foreword to a good game tonight. Just out of curiosity, did the UNH fans there have a good experience last night? Saw more visiting jerseys in the stands then I can recall for any other team in recent years so quite the impressive turnout.

[zoofer]

Re: UNH At The Starting Gate....

Like CHC, I really enjoyed watching our Blue on a big stage....a very long way from good old Snively....even with Eric Frede doing his best to represent UNH, the colour guy is such a lover of his CCHA and Miami, not that the RedHawks don't deserve it...their fans should be awful proud of that team....many talented players who have been bitten by Lady Unlucky the last 2 years...I was really happy to see DiGi playa good game...now I see his 1.78 GAA in Juniors...maybe if Kessel hadn't fanned on his chances early it would've been closer....a tie tonight will be nice, but as Umile says, we now know what we need to do and become in order to make the NCAA's again...Miami, Michigan, Cornell, BC....yea I think you have to get better!

[RockTheWhit]

Re: UNH At The Starting Gate....

This UNH fan is having a great time in Oxford. What a lovely college town, and the weather could not possibly be better. Walked around and saw more of the campus today and I was very impressed. Reminds me a bit of Durham, a nice small rural college town. The people here are very nice and friendly and it has been great to talk hockey and other stuff with them. The rink is absolutely gorgeous. The pictures I had seen of it do not do it justice. Last night was a very fun hockey game and hopefully we get a better result tonight!
Burke left the game in the first and was in street clothes the rest of the night. Lower body injury. Doesn't appear to be serious, but he is not playing tonight. Look for Greg Manz to replace him.

[GoUNH]

Re: UNH At The Starting Gate....

Digi was a pleasant surprise in net making some very impressive saves, and he will only get better. I feel this team is going to gel very quickly and make some noise. I hope I'm right!

[UNHHKYRKS]

Re: UNH At The Starting Gate....

now thats a period of hockey i could get used to

[Malts18]

Re: UNH At The Starting Gate....

Great to see the Cats sack up and really come to play in the second game out at Miami. Tough building, team, and coach.... and to come away with a split is pretty darn good. At this point of the season, I think we are ahead of schedule in terms of learning to play together and gelling as a team.

Who knows?? When you least expect success, sometimes it happens anyhow.

[sterlippo1]

Re: UNH At The Starting Gate....

Great to see the Cats sack up and really come to play in the second game out at Miami. Tough building, team, and coach.... and to come away with a split is pretty darn good. At this point of the season, I think we are ahead of schedule in terms of learning to play together and gelling as a team.

Who knows?? When you least expect success, sometimes it happens anyhow.

good win for you guys against a great team...........HE needed it too!

[acs64]

Re: UNH At The Starting Gate....

Good win guyz

[C-H-C]

Re: UNH At The Starting Gate....

Balanced Scoring From 3 Top Lines plus 36 saves by DiGi. Very nice.
Already an Out-of-Conference win against a top-ranked team. Very important.

[zoofer]

Re: UNH At The Starting Gate....

Well said Malts et al.....huge win for the Cats....now on to the Wolverines....geez I wish that football would've beaten the Spartans, a little less venom on the home campus.....should be a great game satuday night!

[DaveDan]

Re: UNH At The Starting Gate....

Balanced Scoring From 3 Top Lines plus 36 saves by DiGi. Very nice.
Already an Out-of-Conference win against a top-ranked team. Very important.

Yes C-H-C, after watching the game Friday with offense from just the top line for the most part, I am pleasantly surprised to see the 9 goals spread among 9 skaters. Whodathunk?

[Verkligen]

Re: UNH At The Starting Gate....

Holy heck in the morning... Agree with folks in a number of ways...

Good weekend in Oxford. Beautiful college town with lots of friendly folks.

The kids looked good... Tough even. While I didn't feel too rough about Friday night (We played tighter than the final score), I Saturday night was treat... (The score was tighter than they way we played.)

I think there's reason to feel a bit confident about the season ahead.

[PSW]

Re: UNH At The Starting Gate....

Feeling deprived after the long spring and summer, i'zon? Me too - it was a pleasure to see the men in blue play again.
As usual, your observations are right on the mark (i.e., I agree with them )
I think Burke only skated the first couple of shifts with Borisenok and Moses, then what happened?
I like Borisenok's grit and determination but I think he has a couple of weaknesses playing as a center. First, he has trouble banging against the boards and in the corners with the opposition's D-men - perhaps because of his size. As a result, he doesn't seem to steal the puck that often. Second, I think his faceoff percentage isn't very good, although I don't know what the data shows. I think Moses is dying for a center who can set him up more consistently and I don't know if Borisenok is the guy to do it.
In the past, DeSimone has received a fair amount of criticism on these threads for not living up to his potential. I think his ability to control the puck and dish out passes is outstanding and has been underappreciated. At this early juncture, it looks like this year's offense will be like many teams in the past - that is, a highly potent first line with only sporadic scoring from the other three lines. I hope one of the other lines surprises us with a breakout scorer or two.
Would be a reasonable outcome if UNH ties Miami tonight - like they did in the second game against Miami last year at the Whit.

Firstly Cat’s, congratulation on a nice start to the season. As stated by others a split with this caliber team is big. Even in the first a game against Miami, UNH looked good for much of the game. I think we are getting a answer to the big question for this season………yes fans…… we do have a goalie.

Regarding the above assessment watching Borisenok last year and 3 games this year, he is a very solid 2 way player including faceoff’s. He handles the puck well and has shown some creativity. In my view he has some upside offensive potential. Moses has a “free wheeling , run around “ style, no one can really set him up. He’s kind of a opportunist that gets to pucks other don’t because of his speed. For example his goal on Saturday night, Borisenok tips way a Miami pass, Moses gets to it because of his speed and scores. That’s the Moses game. The line of Moses /Borisenok/Bruke has showed some real signs of being a potent line……..but Bruke only lasted a half of period in the first Miami game before getting hurt AGAIN. I feel bad for this kid, he’s been hurt a lot of his junior and college career. The problem is it leaves a big hole on that line. Over the weekend we saw fill in’s….Sorkin…..McCarey…..on Saturday Goumas…. none of which added much. I would not break up Speelman/Block/Henrion. I’m still not totally sold on Block yet. So……we will let the coaches figure it out.

[C-H-C]

Re: UNH At The Starting Gate....

Regarding the above assessment watching Borisenok last year and 3 games this year, he is a very solid 2 way player including faceoff’s. He handles the puck well and has shown some creativity. In my view he has some upside offensive potential. Moses has a “free wheeling , run around “ style, no one can really set him up. He’s kind of a opportunist that gets to pucks other don’t because of his speed. For example his goal on Saturday night, Borisenok tips way a Miami pass, Moses gets to it because of his speed and scores. That’s the Moses game. The line of Moses /Borisenok/Bruke has showed some real signs of being a potent line.

Your appraisal of Borisenok is more balanced and complete than mine. I had forgotten that Borisenok won the Warren Brown Award last year, "which is given annually to the best defensive forward on UNH's roster." You're description of Moses as a free-wheeler who is difficult to set up also makes a lot of sense. Borisenok is probably a good match for Moses since he can skate with him and when Moses' free-wheeling leaves him way out of position, Borisenok's defensive skills can compensate.
Is there any further information on the nature and seriousness of Burke's current injury? He has had a streak of bad luck. I think he has the potential to be a Daniel Winnik type forward if he could only stay healthy. It would be great if Borisenok and Burke could develop into a Micflikier-Winnik type combination.

[Greg Ambrose]

Re: UNH At The Starting Gate....

Looking foreword to a good game tonight. Just out of curiosity, did the UNH fans there have a good experience last night? Saw more visiting jerseys in the stands then I can recall for any other team in recent years so quite the impressive turnout.

Late coming to comment on these games. We had a great time in Oxford. Great weather, very friendly people, some great pubs (Steinkellers and Mac & Joe's were great places to hang out). And got some golf in at Hueston Woods, nice track but a bit of a challenge for an old guy like me, even from the white tees.

Love the arena but two things rankled me. First, we had standing room only seats. I think as a courtesy to fans who travel significant miles to watch their team, it is only proper that the host team give them someplace to sit. As much as I hate where Maine sits us, at least we are sitting. In all my travels to visiting rinks, I have never been given standing room only tickets before.

Second, what's up with these "media time outs", which always seemed to come just as Miami is going on a power play. Very fishy to me. Is this a standard practice in Oxford or the CCHA?

The one big thing I took away from these games is that UNH should be able to skate with anybody. They go up and down the ice pretty well, and for early in the season, I thought they played well positionally. Too early to single anybody out but I was pleasantly surprised at DiGirolamo's composure in net. He got beat, no question, but he was not racing all over the place like he seemed to do last year and the year before. One guy who may have to sit though is Beck, got beaten badly a few times. Other than that, I'm optimistic. See how it goes this Saturday.