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

[HockeyRef]

I wasn't disparaging the guy at all, just responding to Whalers post. He was kind of like a slower version of Sato now that I think about it.

Oh I know you weren't! Just making a point about how we could use players like him...scoring 12 18 points a season...along with the big guns who score 40! Now...18 points a season seems like a dream come true right about now..ho hum.

[NCAA watcher]

With so many players underperforming, it highlights the role one big player (Crookshank) plays in lifting "B" guys like Ward/Pierson/Engaras. With him they are "B+" players. Without him, the "B" guys are, well, "B-/C+" forwards. Not great when they are first liners.

[HockeyRef]

With so many players underperforming, it highlights the role one big player (Crookshank) plays in lifting "B" guys like Ward/Pierson/Engaras. With him they are "B+" players. Without him, the "B" guys are, well, "B-/C+" forwards. Not great when they are first liners.

As we saw with TyK elevating the games of players like Grasso and to a lesser extent Salvaggio...So if you are using the term under performing...do you think these forwards could be better than they are playing? (Sounds redundant I know)...And if that's the case...why?

[Dan]

I was ‘negative’ when I questioned Souza early - but if youre recruiting guys who can’t score at the lower levels they’re not going to start in college. This was the only outcome...

Rogers, at least as a SR, was more like Devlin, the guy you have to hang your hat on now because there are no Hemingways. He was so much more talented than a Sato, but was a standard UNH 4th liner in the day. He had a huge goal at the garden - back when UNH used to mix in a garden trip...

it’s so sad what the team has been reduced to, trailing Mercyhurst as we speak...

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Maybe I just post more, the secret to UNH success...

[HockeyRef]

2 goals whodathunk it...and some puck luck. Let's see where this goes.

[HockeyRef]

Well I like how this is going! Welcome back Ryan Verrier... 4 goals oh my!!!

[Scott]

Cippellone makes it 6-1!! WHO are these players wearing the UNH jerseys tonight, and WHERE have they been all season???

EDIT - Gagne apparently credited with the sixth goal.

[Scott]

58th out of 59 NCAA teams in goals per game. Thank god for St.Thomas (and carrying out to the third decimal), the new Division 1 team. With that, it is amazing that we've won 7 games.

50.Union	17	33	1.941176
51.Wisconsin	20	38	1.9
52.Niagara	16	30	1.875
53.Yale	12	22	1.833333
54.Maine	17	30	1.764706
55.Alaska	16	28	1.75
56.Brown	12	21	1.75
57.Vermont	17	29	1.705882
58.New Hampshire	18	28	1.555556
59.St. Thomas	20	31	1.55

According to my math, after tonight's 7-1 blowout win over Mercyhurst, we overtake Yale and are right behind Niagara at 1.84 GPM. Woot. Woot.

[Darius]

Mercyhurst is 57th in scoring defense allowing 3.89 GPG. Still, I’ll take it.

[HockeyRef]

Today the 'Cats let down their hair if you will and once they got on track just let it rip. Yeah I know who they were playing etc but after they tied it up the goals came. Let's hope this can carry over into next weekend. I mean..it had to feel good to light the lamp more than once!

Engaras had quite the game with 3 points and Verrier was a difference maker out there. Pierson was Pierson and Devlin continued to show he's a legit top line kid. Nice to see Eric Esposito have a great night as well.

A much better day for the Cats and that is the game they need to bring. Of course it remains to be seen but at least for today it was just what was needed to close out this most interesting year...

Happy New Year !

[Chuck Murray]

Rogers, at least as a SR, was more like Devlin, the guy you have to hang your hat on now because there are no Hemingways. He was so much more talented than a Sato, but was a standard UNH 4th liner in the day. He had a huge goal at the garden - back when UNH used to mix in a garden trip...

Nailed it. Rogers' moment in the sun came in the '99 HE Final vs. BC, a game where UNH fell behind 4-1 after one period, scored two quick goals in the second period (Shipulski IIRC?) to trim the deficit to 4-3, before Rogers scored late in the third period on what I think was a wraparound with about 5 minutes left to force the game to OT. That was a landmark game that pitted the up-and-coming BC program (which had lost the '98 FF Final in OT to Michigan) and a UNH program that was in the midst of their apex years, and would lose in the '99 FF Final in OT to UMaine. BC won that '99 HEA Final 5-4, I forget if it was Farkas or Bellefeuille who scored after a lopsided first few OT minutes? USCHO was understandably hopping before and after. Those were the days, my friend ...

But yeah, Johnny Rogers was basically a reliable 4th line/3rd line center on a checking line, great skater, and someone who would pop up with a goal here and there - something we could say about most of the guys on today's UNH roster. It wasn't that long ago that we used to give Coach Borek lots of grief for over-recruiting mid-range prospects by the bushel, now his recruiting "exploits" would be heralded as a level or two above what MS7 and his guys are churning out.

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I didn't watch or listen to today's game, but I did catch most of last night's disaster against the hosts. Of all things, I was irked by MS7 seemingly allowing UNH to get worked by the officials from start to finish. And it's hard to tell if he's bothered too much. Say what you will about his predecessor, but if Coach Umile thought he was getting worked by the officials, he'd be apoplectic (sp?), and make it abundantly clear he would be in the officials' ears for the rest of the night if they didn't get things straightened out. And more often than not, Chris Serino would be doubling up on the messaging. We didn't see too much of that in the latter part of Umile's career ... which is kind of a shame, 'cuz way too often it looks like MS7 is way too deferential to the officials, and sometimes it comes across as if he doesn't give a toss.

Granted, it's a small point on a program with much bigger issues. But all of this stuff matters, and the messaging that comes across to me collectively from the whole MS7 experience to date is that he brings as much passion to the job as a twenty year public works supervisor just grinding away and keeping his head down until it's time to collect his pension.

If you want to recruit better players, you gotta show the world you're a better coach than being a JAG with a head coaching job at a lower level Hockey East program. At some point, there has to be transformation. Just showing up to get trucked by a low level ECAC program in their home holiday tourney isn't good enough. This is becoming "Groundhog Day" UNH style.

[Chuck Murray]

Final add-on point, and not necessarily to exhume the discussion of a few weeks ago on a "New Riverstone" or whatever ... but the main objection to the proposed event was seemingly that playing against low-level competition wouldn't be helpful for the UNH national profile, and yeah, I get it. So what did we get treated to this week(end)? A game against Dartmouth for the unofficial D-1 championship of the State of NH ... and a second game being a blowout against a D-1 imposter.

So it's all fine and dandy if we go all the way across the state to play in front of no (zero, zip, nada) fans in the Upper Valley, but talk about doing the same thing at a neutral site in a big-league rink with four programs' worth of NH hockey fans in a new and potentially dynamic growth opportunity event, and it's "nah, it'll never work, D-3 opponents suck, blah blah". 'Cuz blowing out Mercyhurst keeps UNH's "national profile" intact, but a similar win against St. A's or SNHU is, like, fatal?!?

Help me out here, guys (and gals). What's the difference? What am I missing?

Isn't there at least a "rising tide raises all ships" argument to be had for helping out non-Dartmouth NH hockey programs? Especially if someday Hockey East doesn't exist, and other competitive possibilities need to be created. Or (more likely) if the Ivies do like the Big Ten did, and leave the ECAC to do their own thing? Wonder if the non-Ivy ECAC schools discussed that last season when the Ivies basically blew up their season? Wouldn't it be nice if instead of just being a passenger on the BC/BU gravy train (take a bow, Blue Skies, that's meant for you), the new AD wants to be a transformational sort (see Gavitt, Dave), and programs like UNH, UMaine, UVM (and other current D-3's) end up in a reconfigured non-Ivy ECAC?

Anyway, just food for thought. Wishing all on here a very happy & healthy New Year in 2022!!!

[Carmine Scarpaglia]

I forget if it was Farkas or Bellefeuille who scored after a lopsided first few OT minutes? USCHO was understandably hopping before and after. Those were the days, my friend ...

It was Bellefeuille. Brave/risky pinch by Orpik on the left point to keep the puck in the zone.

Those indeed were the days! Happy New Year!

[Dan]

Nailed it. Rogers' moment in the sun came in the '99 HE Final vs. BC, a game where UNH fell behind 4-1 after one period, scored two quick goals in the second period (Shipulski IIRC?) to trim the deficit to 4-3, before Rogers scored late in the third period on what I think was a wraparound with about 5 minutes left to force the game to OT.

David Busch scored first followed by a Jason Shipulski breakaway off of a face off - then Rogers scored out of the far corner on a "shovel shot" according to the play-by-play announcer. I have quite a collection of UNH highlight clips on an old computer I cannot turn on. I've been meaning to recover the hard drive for years and share them...

It was great to have that kind of depth, but relying on those three to carry an offense would have been a problem.

As to your next post, the difference is Mercyhurst is DI, while SNHU and STA are DII/III. 7-1 would likely be 14-1, while a potential loss would be equally more embarrassing.

[Chuck Murray]

As to your next post, the difference is Mercyhurst is DI, while SNHU and STA are DII/III. 7-1 would likely be 14-1, while a potential loss would be equally more embarrassing.

Mercyhurst is D-1 in name only, we all know that. Isn't losing to Dartmouth embarrassing enough?

All in all, my point is, this Ledyard thing was no really different to UNH than my "NH Riverstone".

Sometimes you need to take a step backwards to take two steps forward, no?

I suspect we're all a little irked while awaiting the arrival of the new UNH AD ...