UNH Hockey 2023-2024 Season Thread - End Of The Cellar-Dweller Era??

[HockeyRef]

Anyone surprised the 'Whitt wasn't a 'sell out'? I mean, it was a Wednesday night but heard from a ticket guy that only 3900 tickets were sold...of course
if UML were having a better season maybe more of their fans would have come perhaps just thinking out loud. No big deal...

[HockeyRef]

Ref - thanks for the welcome. And think we see things very similarly. By no means am I looking at the program through rose colored glasses, but I have genuinely enjoyed watching this team play (I wish in person) this season. I just try to keep everything in perspective. This team has exceeded most expectations this season. HE is loaded but our guys are right in the mix.

Yes they have! I think we have a shot Saturday if they can bring their game and can handle the in house pressure. It has been nice to see so many W's at home for sure...

[BlueLine Bob]

Anyone surprised the 'Whitt wasn't a 'sell out'? I mean, it was a Wednesday night but heard from a ticket guy that only 3900 tickets were sold...of course
if UML were having a better season maybe more of their fans would have come perhaps just thinking out loud. No big deal...

Not really surprised. Wednesday night when the kids are leaving for spring break is tough. Northeastern only drew 1,200. UConn about 2,000. I still like when the first round was a 3 game series - either Thursday through Saturday or Friday through Sunday

[d.gerry]

Not really surprised. Wednesday night when the kids are leaving for spring break is tough. Northeastern only drew 1,200. UConn about 2,000. I still like when the first round was a 3 game series - either Thursday through Saturday or Friday through Sunday

This MBPBEGAM format is just silly, and really there is no need for it. I agree, bring back the best of 3 quarterfinal series, I always enjoyed that start to the playoff run.

[HockeyRef]

Not really surprised. Wednesday night when the kids are leaving for spring break is tough. Northeastern only drew 1,200. UConn about 2,000. I still like when the first round was a 3 game series - either Thursday through Saturday or Friday through Sunday

We did have a decent student section going...like I said not really a big deal I really shouldn't read any Maine social media hahaha

Agree HE should go back to the traditional playoff format..but if they did we wouldnt have been in
many post season games in the past few seasons..

[e.cat]

UNH got the dub as predicted.

Teams should be rewarded for their RS records and not have to endure a MBPBEGAM game. I do not like the old best of three quarters though. It should be one and done throughout the tourney.

Onto Maine. Should be interesting. Hellsten could be the difference maker in this one. We'll see.

[OvahInDovah]

A win is a win, but that was not exactly confidence inspiring. Sloppy, lack of urgency. Great teams put that game away; something New Hampshire never did. I hope it was a bit of looking past UML, because if they play like that up in Orono Saturday night...

[HockeyRef]

A win is a win, but that was not exactly confidence inspiring. Sloppy, lack of urgency. Great teams put that game away; something New Hampshire never did. I hope it was a bit of looking past UML, because if they play like that up in Orono Saturday night...

Lack of urgency that is exactly how it seemed. Didn't get any better as the game went on..if UML had tied the game can only wonder about how OT would have gone. Game belongs to Jakob Hellsten who rose to the occasion once again.

Speaking of Hellsten 5 shutouts this season...second only to Ty Conklin in program history for goals against..who knew he would turn out to be such a gift...(From UNH notes)

Urgency...desperation...are they the same thing? UNH has their backs against the wall how will they respond?

Got to take it right to them...from the get go.

[Chuck Murray]

JB, yes I suspect we were not watching the same game. You're talking about all of Lowell's "Grade A" chances ... and I'm counting those shots on my thumbs. Agree that I would have liked to see a better forecheck, and I'm guessing that's probably what Norm focused on after last weekend. But I watched this live on the tube (NESN), start to finish, and I never for a second thought Lowell was on the verge of breaking through. Even on the few odd mans they managed, the kids on the puck looked like they were indecisive and slowed down instead of speeding up. Honestly, the only thing that spooked me was when LeClerc missed the open net, was stuffed on the rebound, and then UNH iced it at the end with 3 seconds left. THAT would have been SO UNH ... ;-)

Urgency...desperation...are they the same thing? UNH has their backs against the wall how will they respond?

Both teams will be playing with urgency to win, and to earn a long-awaited trip to Boston and the HEA semis.

Only one of the two teams will be desperate to win, knowing a loss ends their season (and possibly Coach's career).

The only thing that'll disappoint me more than UNH losing to UMaine Saturday, would be MS7 getting a multi-year extension.

Winning cures all ills. Winning solves all problems. Winning isn't everything ... it's the only thing (Saturday anyway) ...

[Chuck Murray]

As an aside to our readers ... while searching for some good Lombardi content, I came across this video, which portrays the history of what was potentially the most meaningless game(s) ever arranged in the history of pro sports (NFL to boot) ... enjoy!!

[goblue]

Tom Fortney is a NH-based orthopedic surgeon these days. Good for him!

https://nhoc.com/doctor_bios/fortney/

[Snively65]

UNH got the dub as predicted.

Onto Maine. Should be interesting. Hellsten could be the difference maker in this one. We'll see.

I think that Hellsten WAS the difference maker LAST NIGHT as no way that we would have won that game with Muszelik in net. There was continuous chaos in front of Hellsten through extended parts of the third, and not just during a two-minute PK. If UNH were looking ahead to Orono, that was nearly a huge mistake.

I did notice last night that we had a bigger guy in front of the UML net during most of the eight minutes of our power plays, but it seemed to me that our passes were not crisp and accurate enough for one-timers, and the Ospreys blocked a lot of our shots. We were nearly 11 below our season average 30 SOG per game, which you also must have noticed, e.cat. I thought that throughout the game we spent way too much time looking for passing seams instead of shooting (shoot the dang puck!), although our d-men did pick up six of our 19 SOG.

But, I give credit to Bazin, too, for getting his team up and not rolling over again in what turned out to be the last game of their season, and for some the last game of their college careers. I agree with all the comments of concern about Orono on Saturday night if we play like we did last night. We need to play in Orono like we did in our weekend sweep against the Black Bears at the Whitt.

Hellsten is now third in Div 1 with a 1.93 GAA thanks to shut outs in these last three games, admittedly against a bad team, but other HEA goalies got to play against UMass-Bazin earlier in the season, too. Hellsten’s 0.914 SV% earns him only a tie for 24th now, but without him in net this season we may have had trouble reaching even 15 wins, which would have meant UNH coaching career over for MS7. So, good job by MS7 in grabbing Hellsten from the portal, and hoping that Hellsten stays for senior year, being closer to home than he was in North Dakota and all. :-)

[OvahInDovah]

Got to take it right to them...from the get go.

Agreed. Getting the first goal would definitely help in taking the crowd out of it. I know Maine is currently on Spring Break, so maybe the student section won't be so bad.

I feel like that the 12/1 game up there really changed with the late goal (4 seconds, IIRC) left in the first. Need to be a lot tighter than they were last night.

[Snively65]

Tom Fortney is a NH-based orthopedic surgeon these days. Good for him!

https://nhoc.com/doctor_bios/fortney/

Super way cool! Thanks for posting, goblue. Do we have any other hockey alums who have gone on to become orthopedic surgeons? Or earn any kind of MD?

Tom Fortney’s career goal must have been in the Manchvegas semi’s in 2009 when he tied the game 5-5 against Nodak with one second remaining in regulation, before Peter LeBlanc won in OT. Then we lost 2-1 to BU the next day depriving us of yet another FF appearance. Dem were da days.

[JB]

JB, yes I suspect we were not watching the same game. You're talking about all of Lowell's "Grade A" chances ... and I'm counting those shots on my thumbs.

Hmmm... I watched it live from my normal spot up high in the corner. I didn't get the benefit of replays etc. you got on NESN.

Wondering if those of us in attendance have that different impression because we were in building. I will note that over on the Maine thread more than one of them hopes they see last nights UNH team not the mid February one they got the last time. Their impressions seem more aligned with mine.