UMaine Hockey 23 - 24: The Barr Crawl to Glory!!!

[StillKIA2]

In any event, good to see a win against a ranked team in their own barn. A shutout even. Defense limited chances and goaltending was solid. Got to get the O cranked up ....cant live on one goal a game, thats for sure.

Yeah but!!!

finally we see that they can win one where the goalie steals the game.

 

[StillKIA2]

One other thing, it seems on the pregame radio show Barr was asked about Poisson penalty. He thought taking that penalty in Offensive zone wasn't brilliant and that he called league director of officials who told him it was a legit call.

Even if the director spanks esposito for a shit call, you don’t he’s going to tell Barr that, do you?

and it was a legit call. Poisson left his feet and made head contact first.

i have a feeling though, because of how little contact there was, if there had been no call at all, nobody would have sent the tape to the league.

 

[StillKIA2]

Been thinking and not sure how the boys won that last night. Didnt play all that great. Back to having lots of neutral and d zone turnovers and just giving the puck away to get out of the d zone. At times they had some good offensive zone time but struggled through the neutral zone and had to result to dump in to get inside the blue line, didnt seem like they could carry it in.
I guess its fair to say the D and Boija won it for them.
Going to lose the last few hairs on my head if this keeps up for the stretch.

I saw a very different game. I saw great team defense. Maine gave up very few quality chances and boija played very well.

Umass did a great job keeping maine out at the perimeter much of the time, but maine also had more chances in deep than mass did.

yeah, the soft, behind the back passes were picked off, but there was someone there to defend in all but one case

regarding Brad…he needs to move his feet in the offensive zone. Hell, i could defend against him and I haven’t skated in 10 years, but I know exactly where he will be standing, waiting for a feed for his one timer.

 

[StillKIA2]

edit: hard to believe Umass only had 15 shots on net.

Antonacci and the rest of the whole team blocked the rest or tipped pucks

great team D

 

[9twenty]

I saw a very different game. I saw great team defense. Maine gave up very few quality chances and boija played very well.

Umass did a great job keeping maine out at the perimeter much of the time, but maine also had more chances in deep than mass did.

yeah, the soft, behind the back passes were picked off, but there was someone there to defend in all but one case

regarding Brad…he needs to move his feet in the offensive zone. Hell, i could defend against him and I haven’t skated in 10 years, but I know exactly where he will be standing, waiting for a feed for his one timer.

That's why he needs to change his game...too predictable.

 

[NorthMike]

I saw a very different game.

People look at and pick up on things differently.
No clear right or wrong.

 

[AMC]

I think you keep the goalie rotation, even if Ostman is fighting it a bit. There's a good goalie in there, and if you bench him and destroy what's left of his confidence, you don't have him if you need him in the playoffs/NCAAs if Boija starts struggling.

 

[grooverider]

I think you keep the goalie rotation, even if Ostman is fighting it a bit. There's a good goalie in there, and if you bench him and destroy what's left of his confidence, you don't have him if you need him in the playoffs/NCAAs if Boija starts struggling.

I think Ostmans confidence is almost destroyed right now he's been downright bad any shot on the shoulder side he is missing by a country mile

 

[walrus]

I wouldn’t be shocked to see Ostman start a game this weekend. That’s why Barr gets the big bucks, he gets to watch Ostman in practice and try to do what he feels is right for the team. I think most of us feel Boija should go both nights, we shall see.

 

[9twenty]

I wouldn’t be shocked to see Ostman start a game this weekend. That’s why Barr gets the big bucks, he gets to watch Ostman in practice and try to do what he feels is right for the team. I think most of us feel Boija should go both nights, we shall see.

Your right in Barr see's what practices bring out...and I figure(and mostly wrong)that they Ostman/Boija each get a start this weekend...but not surprised if Boija starts and wins Friday that he's right back in net Saturday...they as a team need to be discipline...and continue to block shots...and improvement in faceoffs wins....goaltending needs to be key improvement but the whole team needs to improve in every area of the game...40 minutes of hockey does not cut it...60/and with this team it should not be a problem...they play hard and never quit.(imo).

 

[McGoverners]

Boy did Maine got lucky with the other scores around college hockey. PC and UConn split so we didn't lose any HE ground and pretty much everyone out of conference split so we stay at 4 in the pairwise.

I was only able to watch about half of both games this weekend so forgive me if something changed late in the game. One thing that stood out to me in the NU game is the amount of time Ostman spent flailing around on his booty. I'm not sure if he just couldn't find the puck or if he was struggling to move, but it was chaotic.

 

[grooverider]

I wouldn’t be shocked to see Ostman start a game this weekend. That’s why Barr gets the big bucks, he gets to watch Ostman in practice and try to do what he feels is right for the team. I think most of us feel Boija should go both nights, we shall see.

Big weekend. A sweep would go a long ways but it won't be easy. Then at UNH for two. Take 3 out of 4 or 4 out of 4 next 2 weekends would be amazing.

 

[NewEnglandGuy]

9 points in the next 4 would be top shelf stuff.

I would be happy with anything over 7.

The ultimate goal at this point is get a home game in the conference tournament. Ideally against a team who doesn’t have a bye (top 3 seeds in current format).

 

[McGoverners]

9 points in the next 4 would be top shelf stuff.

I would be happy with anything over 7.

The ultimate goal at this point is get a home game in the conference tournament. Ideally against a team who doesn’t have a bye (top 3 seeds in current format).

With how far BU and BC are in front right now, the three seed is the most realistic goal. Win both this weekend and have a massive lead and the tiebreaker on both PC and UConn.

 

[Drew S.]

I think if Maine can split with Providence and UMA then go 4-2 in the other games they will be in a good place as far as making the NCAA tournament. They’re going to have a tough game in the first round of the hockey east tournament regardless of who you play.

 

[NewEnglandGuy]

With how far BU and BC are in front right now, the three seed is the most realistic goal. Win both this weekend and have a massive lead and the tiebreaker on both PC and UConn.

Agreed.

1st seed brings hardware and bragging rights. There’s no appreciable difference in advantages between the 2nd and 3rd.

Looking at the current standings, we have 3 games in hand, 5 point lead, and the tie breaker against UConn. UMass and UNH also have 3 games in hand compared to UConn while only trailing by 1. UConn has home and homes vs UMass, BU, and NU before ending with 1 vs UVM. They would be fortunate to go 3-3-1. I see them falling from 5th place currently.

The battle for 3-6 will be with UMass, Providence, and UNH. Northeastern and UConn will go 7-8. And UVM, Merrimack, and Lowell will fill out 9-11.

 

[tylerzx2002]

With how far BU and BC are in front right now, the three seed is the most realistic goal. Win both this weekend and have a massive lead and the tiebreaker on both PC and UConn.

Here are the current percentages for Maine's Hockey East tournament seed (per PlayoffStatus): [TABLE="border: 1, cellpadding: 1, width: 750"]
[TR]
[TD]1st[/TD]
[TD]2nd[/TD]
[TD]3rd[/TD]
[TD]4th[/TD]
[TD]5th[/TD]
[TD]6th[/TD]
[TD]7th[/TD]
[TD]8th[/TD]
[TD]9th[/TD]
[TD]10th[/TD]
[TD]11th[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]8%[/TD]
[TD]20%[/TD]
[TD]48%[/TD]
[TD]14%[/TD]
[TD]6%[/TD]
[TD]2%[/TD]
[TD]1%[/TD]
[TD]<1%[/TD]
[TD]<1%[/TD]
[TD]<1%[/TD]
[TD]<1%[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
Two seed is definitely still in play, but Maine would likely need a sweep this weekend.

 

[Fishman'81]

I wouldn’t be shocked to see Ostman start a game this weekend. That’s why Barr gets the big bucks, he gets to watch Ostman in practice and try to do what he feels is right for the team. I think most of us feel Boija should go both nights, we shall see.

I think Boo Boo needs to go *every* night from here on out. These PC games are PW gold, and a sweep would put Maine in great shape for HE.

I feel bad for Victor, but this is a no-brainer to me. Even last year when he put up decent numbers, he didn't really pass the eye-test to me, and right now he's playing like a #3.

 

[StillKIA2]

One thing that stood out to me in the NU game is the amount of time Ostman spent flailing around on his booty. I'm not sure if he just couldn't find the puck or if he was struggling to move, but it was chaotic.

Yeah…that’ll happen when the D is not clearing out the front of the net and the opponent gets chance after chance… (I wonder how much of that is on Ostman (like was he giving up too many rebounds that just landed loose in the crease?)

 

[McGoverners]

Yeah…that’ll happen when the D is not clearing out the front of the net and the opponent gets chance after chance… (I wonder how much of that is on Ostman (like was he giving up too many rebounds that just landed loose in the crease?)

The defense definitely could have cleared the netfront better, but passes and shots coming in from the corner had him in an absolute pretzel. Rebounds were getting thrown into the slot and he absolutely couldn't find it.