UNH Wildcats 2021/2022 - Return of the Champions of October?

[Scott]

Red Sox and Bruins win!!! Woot....instead of woof :-)

[HockeyRef]

Red Sox and Bruins win!!! Woot....instead of woof :-)

Well there you go...woot! Glad Swayman had a great start in net..I'm not a huge baseball fan but when the Sox are in contention that's alittle different. Maybe catch up to you next Sunday Scott!

[Irishdave]

I am an ASU fan and watching the two games. Last night ASU Played a whole game but UNH seemed to "coast" in the 3rd period and when ASU broke the tie seem to forget how get it in gear. I kept waiting for UNH's other shoe to drop but no it did not happen. Tonight's game I am not sure what happen I thought The Wildcats would bounce back like UMass Lowell did. Hope you guys have a better rest of the season (it will help ASU's pair wise)

[HockeyRef]

I am an ASU fan and watching the two games. Last night ASU Played a whole game but UNH seemed to "coast" in the 3rd period and when ASU broke the tie seem to forget how get it in gear. I kept waiting for UNH's other shoe to drop but no it did not happen. Tonight's game I am not sure what happen I thought The Wildcats would bounce back like UMass Lowell did. Hope you guys have a better rest of the season (it will help ASU's pair wise)

That's pretty generous of you thanks so much. I don't know...I didn't see the game really only in small segments so I don't know but it sure was a disappointing weekend. Lots of things to work on it's early yet yada yada yada. Was saying that how things went tonight would be huge. Well...not so huge I guess. Imagine we'll turn the page and get onto Providence next weekend. Still an entire season ahead. Players to develop. Lessons to be learned as you go along. You know, we UNH fans aren't asking for the moon, just a competitive team and something to be proud of at the end of the season. Hopefully we can look back on this at the end of the year and realize it was a bump in the road and a big learning curve. Time will tell.

Good luck to you as well on the rest of your season.

[Scott]

I am an ASU fan and watching the two games. Last night ASU Played a whole game but UNH seemed to "coast" in the 3rd period and when ASU broke the tie seem to forget how get it in gear. I kept waiting for UNH's other shoe to drop but no it did not happen. Tonight's game I am not sure what happen I thought The Wildcats would bounce back like UMass Lowell did. Hope you guys have a better rest of the season (it will help ASU's pair wise)

It all boils down to coaching. Powers (ASU) knows how to make adjustments. Souza (UNH) is clueless in this aspect and has been for quite some time.

Good luck to the Sun Devils the rest of the season.

[Snively65]

And then there were three: DU, Michigan, and NICC.

[d.gerry]

Same crap, different year. Meanwhile, the clown at the top continues to collect his cool quarter mil salary with apparently no accountability for the athletic department’s lack of success. Hey at least we have the top D1 football program in the state… oh wait.

[NCAA watcher]

Nice to be led by a competent administrator. Look at the Red Sox. Imagine, hiring someone from outside the organization from a successful team. Bloom has a plan for rebuilding, took his lumps last year to get under the cap, and now has about 4 top 100 prospects next year, even while winning.

[d.gerry]

Why mediocrity, at best, within the athletic department and more specifically your biggest money makers in hockey and football is allowed is beyond me. The blame lies solely at the feet of Blue Skies (and Jimmy Dean for not demanding more). Going to Arizona, getting swept in ugly fashion by a program that just discovered how to make ice, is a new low.

[Snively65]

Why mediocrity, at best, within the athletic department and more specifically your biggest money makers in hockey and football is allowed is beyond me. The blame lies solely at the feet of Blue Skies (and Jimmy Dean for not demanding more). Going to Arizona, getting swept in ugly fashion by a program that just discovered how to make ice, is a new low.

Driving over to Waltham for one of those two games would been a bit cheaper than flying to Tempe, and would have been playing in a 1917-seat arena rather than a 700-seat arena.

But, how about the UNH soccer team? UNH held on for 1-1 tie even with the corrupt refs on the take last night for forcing UNH to go a player short nearly the entire game against a dirty-playing UVM team.

[HockeyRef]

It all boils down to coaching. Powers (ASU) knows how to make adjustments. Souza (UNH) is clueless in this aspect and has been for quite some time.

Good luck to the Sun Devils the rest of the season.

Well you got that right Scott...adjustments are what coaches get PAID FOR. Two goals this weekend is NOT...acceptable. Just look at how Rick Bennett's team Saturday night. Came prepared. If not for that last second goal we might have gone into OT and lost. I'm all for the boys here...but I expect alot more from whom so much, is given $$$.

Speaking of making adjustments, from the ASU hockey website regarding last night's game:

On the team's adjustments:
"I think we just talked as a group before the game, and we knew they were going to come out because they've watched film before so we switched a little bit and it ended up working."

Now I could be completely full of it and acknowledge my own limitations to watching a game and seeing things like adjustments...but, I do know enough that players seemed to be alot more creative and fluid in what they were able to do in my 'early days' of watching guys like Kevin Goumas, TyK, Pots, etc....not laying this on any current player, because I do believe they do their best out there, but, I bet they are indeed coachable! You know what they say 'keep doin' what you're doin' and you'll keep gettin' what you're gettin'....

[HockeyRef]

Driving over to Waltham for one of those two games would been a bit cheaper than flying to Tempe, and would have been playing in a 1917-seat arena rather than a 700-seat arena.

But, how about the UNH soccer team? UNH held on for 1-1 tie even with the corrupt refs on the take last night for forcing UNH to go a player short nearly the entire game against a dirty-playing UVM team.

Pretty psyched for the soccer team!!! Number 4 in the nation; that's a lot to be proud of. Gee just what IS that soccer coach's secret??? And what, drive over the Waltham to get beat? I don't think so. hahaha UNH also boasts a highly competitive women's gymnastic as well as Swim and Dive team.

[Felger]

It all boils down to coaching. Powers (ASU) knows how to make adjustments. Souza (UNH) is clueless in this aspect and has been for quite some time.

Pound on Souza all you want. I'm not here to defend him. Just don't cherry pick the intelligence. Haven't seen you or anyone else call out the goalie coach yet. The performance has been even worse than when the job was being done via Skype. I get that he is among the greatest and most popular players in the program's history but if you're going to call out Ricky Santos don't be afraid to do the same for Ty Conklin.

[d.gerry]

Pound on Souza all you want. I'm not here to defend him. Just don't cherry pick the intelligence. Haven't seen you or anyone else call out the goalie coach yet. The performance has been even worse than when the job was being done via Skype. I get that he is among the greatest and most popular players in the program's history but if you're going to call out Ricky Santos don't be afraid to do the same for Ty Conklin.

I think most of the complaints here go beyond the current team (they are what they are), or the coaches for that matter. It’s the current AD who’s been satisfied with the status quo for far too long. Also, what do you expect from a volunteer goalie coach?

[Chuck Murray]

Driving over to Waltham for one of those two games would been a bit cheaper than flying to Tempe, and would have been playing in a 1917-seat arena rather than a 700-seat arena.

But, how about the UNH soccer team? UNH held on for 1-1 tie even with the corrupt refs on the take last night for forcing UNH to go a player short nearly the entire game against a dirty-playing UVM team.

Snives, sometimes it feels like you are my "brother from another mother", as the kids say these days.

Landmark win for the alma mater against the Chestnut Hillbillies (I haven't used that tag for at least a decade!), can't wait to share that sucker with one of my best pals from The Heights. Coach Soderquist presumably continues to build things slowly but surely at the corner of Beaver & Forest, and now has a real rink to host a real program on top of that. I still don't follow the Falcons too closely, 'cuz I'm lazy and know I can depend on you to get me the news I need to know. :-)

On the other hand, UNH Men's Soccer and Coach Hubbard are pushing legitimately hard near the top of D-1, which in and of itself is amazing. With the idea that they're a much smaller fish in what is a much bigger pond (lake?) of NCAA D-1 Soccer - compared with D-1 Men's Hockey, and D-2 Football (or D-1ABC+ or whatever it is these days), his accomplishments already may rival what has otherwise been the national "high water mark" previously set by Coach Umile and Coach MacDonnell ... and Hubbard is really only still getting started. Ask the folks over at SNHU about the job he did for them. Fortunately for UNH, there's not many high-paying soccer HC jobs available stateside that could rival what he can make at his alma mater, so hopefully UNH has a long-term solution in place for that program, which traditionally had been a .500 "speed bump" program with no national profile for the last generation or so.

Apparently they had 5,000+ fans at The House That Blue Skies Built for the UVM game Friday.

Maybe UNH is on its way to becoming a "soccer school"?!? In the Northeast, that would be wild, largely unprecedented, and a testament to what an extraordinary coach with vision can accomplish.

You'd think such success under limiting circumstances might bring home some hard truths to BS+infinity on the true state of the former national-profile "flagship" hockey program across the street ...