UNH Hockey: Treading Water or Trending Upward

[HockeyRef]

Re: UNH Hockey: Treading Water or Trending Upward

Woooo 'Cattts!!! Robinson gets the shutout and the "Cats hold on to beat #7! #AnotherOneBitesTheDust

[HockeyRef]

Re: UNH Hockey: Treading Water or Trending Upward

Another huge road win!

And series win!!! Way to battle all night 'Cats...nice goal Will and big night to Robison!!

[wildcatdc]

Woooo 'Cattts!!! Robinson gets the shutout and the "Cats hold on to beat #7! #AnotherOneBitesTheDust

Early in the night, but moved into a tie with NU at #14 in PWR.

[Scott]

Re: UNH Hockey: Treading Water or Trending Upward

THAT is what you call a suhhhhhhwwwwweeeeeeet win!!!

[wildcatdc]

Woooo 'Cattts!!! Robinson gets the shutout and the "Cats hold on to beat #7! #AnotherOneBitesTheDust

7-3 in last 10 games, 5 of last 6. Averaging 3.3 for and 2.7 against in that 10-game stretch. In the 5 games leading up to this stretch, where we went 1-4, culminating with the NU blowout, we were scoring 1.2/g and giving up 3/g. Nice bounce back

[HockeyRef]

Re: UNH Hockey: Treading Water or Trending Upward

Another huge road win!

And series win!!! Way to battle all night 'Cats...nice goal Will and big night to Robison!!

[Scott]

Re: UNH Hockey: Treading Water or Trending Upward

5-5 on PK

^ ^ ^ ^
THIS

[wildcatdc]

THAT is what you call a suhhhhhhwwwwweeeeeeet win!!!

Agreed. Just played a massive 3rd period. Great to see. Now can we finish the job tomorrow night before the schedule “eases” a bit? Not that it has ever really “eased” for us in years

[wildcatdc]

Re: UNH Hockey: Treading Water or Trending Upward

Only thing really gnawing at me tonight was our inability to finish. for us to whiff on an open net was abominable. Then we had somebody walk into the slot, alone, nobody within 5 feet, and not get a good shot off. Multiple other great looks but ineffective shots. Maybe it was Murray playing the angles well. I just think back to Haydar or Collins, and you just KNEW they would bury it.

[HockeyRef]

Re: UNH Hockey: Treading Water or Trending Upward

Only thing really gnawing at me tonight was our inability to finish. for us to whiff on an open net was abominable. Then we had somebody walk into the slot, alone, nobody within 5 feet, and not get a good shot off. Multiple other great looks but ineffective shots. Maybe it was Murray playing the angles well. I just think back to Haydar or Collins, and you just KNEW they would bury it.

Yes that is the truth! Had to be frustrating. Like you said early in the night/weekend UNH at 14 by themselves (for now) Go 'Cats!!

[Chuck Murray]

Re: UNH Hockey: Treading Water or Trending Upward

Heard on the radio during the long drive home, Robinson stopped a penalty shot by Trivino just before the game-winner. Clutch.

It'll be interesting to see if MS7 sticks with Robinson, or persists with the rotation (and TT)?

WIS prediction: MS7 rides Robinson's hot hand for tomorrow, returns to the rotation next week.

These wins - on the road - against top HE teams are happening often enough, it's getting harder and harder to dismiss it as "they got lucky" or "(Team X) just had a bad night". Heck, this is two straight against a team that swept them out of the HE playoffs almost 11 months ago, in what was supposedly such a mismatch that a lot - LOT - of folks on here dismissed the significance of UNH blowing a 3 goal lead late in the second period of Game One. I mean, Cale Makar was good … but that's a big gap between two programs that has now shrunken significantly.

UNH is now in a 3 way tie for 6th place in HE (level on games with BU, and with 2 in hand on Luce) , and one point out of 5th with a game in hand over NU. The 'Cats are 3-1-0 on their first much-discussed "gantlet" (?) so tomorrow night almost feels (to me) like UNH is playing with house money. Then two apiece with UConn and UVM, which really needs to be at least a 6 point stretch, with BU and UML for two apiece, and not looking so daunting as they may have looked earlier in the season.

As far as playoff casualties this year … UVM and Merrimack look like definites, and after that, I suspect it comes down to either of UConn or UMaine (and you guys know who I'm rooting against there).

If UNH can pull 7 or 8 points out of tomorrow night, and the next two weekends, I say that a 4th place finish is still in the cards. And every weekend further we get into the season without the "el foldo" moment that we all have been pre-conditioned by, then the more exciting this all gets. It's starting to feel like these are not your dad's Wildcats any more. Keep up the good work, MS7!!

[Ray Dorn]

Re: UNH Hockey: Treading Water or Trending Upward

A tough road game tonight and a good win!

I was pleased with the penalty kill tonight. The team did a better job with the face-offs. We won more of them and did a better job reacting to draws that were not won cleanly. Even the face-offs we lost on the pk we hustled and pressured UMass right away.

The one thing that stood out to me that the team needs to improve on from the game tonight comes from the first unit power play. There are a few players on this unit that hang on to the puck too long. When we are set-up in full control in the offensive zone all of the players need to keep the puck moving. Some of our players are over dribbling and keeping the puck for up to five seconds. The movement of the puck on the pp pulls the opposing team's pk players out of position and wears them down. The goal of all five players should be to not keep the puck more than one second. All passes should be one-touch passes. They are all capable of this and they will have a lot more success when they start doing it!

[deltabravo62]

Re: UNH Hockey: Treading Water or Trending Upward

My biggest concern with the power play is based in our shape and how it leads to us losing a lot of offensive zone possession. We basically run a 1-3-1 in the zone with the two wings rotating from the goal line to the blue line as needed. Our point man (typically Gildon and Eriksson) usually plays the middle on the blue line and moves as needed. The problem comes whenever a shot goes wide of the net and is relatively hard off the boards or glass. When the shot is taken the wings usually move up looking for rebound shots or rebound possession. If the puck goes in hard off the glass or boards, typically it gets by our wings and our man at the blue line is out of position to keep it in. Add that to our struggles in zone entries and that one missed shot can kill 30-60 seconds of PP time.

Not sure how they would be able to fix it with the current shape/strategy that they are using.

[HockeyRef]

Re: UNH Hockey: Treading Water or Trending Upward

Heard on the radio during the long drive home, Robinson stopped a penalty shot by Trivino just before the game-winner. Clutch.

It'll be interesting to see if MS7 sticks with Robinson, or persists with the rotation (and TT)?

WIS prediction: MS7 rides Robinson's hot hand for tomorrow, returns to the rotation next week.

These wins - on the road - against top HE teams are happening often enough, it's getting harder and harder to dismiss it as "they got lucky" or "(Team X) just had a bad night". Heck, this is two straight against a team that swept them out of the HE playoffs almost 11 months ago, in what was supposedly such a mismatch that a lot - LOT - of folks on here dismissed the significance of UNH blowing a 3 goal lead late in the second period of Game One. I mean, Cale Makar was good … but that's a big gap between two programs that has now shrunken significantly.

UNH is now in a 3 way tie for 6th place in HE (level on games with BU, and with 2 in hand on Luce) , and one point out of 5th with a game in hand over NU. The 'Cats are 3-1-0 on their first much-discussed "gantlet" (?) so tomorrow night almost feels (to me) like UNH is playing with house money. Then two apiece with UConn and UVM, which really needs to be at least a 6 point stretch, with BU and UML for two apiece, and not looking so daunting as they may have looked earlier in the season.

As far as playoff casualties this year … UVM and Merrimack look like definites, and after that, I suspect it comes down to either of UConn or UMaine (and you guys know who I'm rooting against there).

If UNH can pull 7 or 8 points out of tomorrow night, and the next two weekends, I say that a 4th place finish is still in the cards. And every weekend further we get into the season without the "el foldo" moment that we all have been pre-conditioned by, then the more exciting this all gets. It's starting to feel like these are not your dad's Wildcats any more. Keep up the good work, MS7!!

Nothing against TyT but I say he has to stick with MikeR. His play last night was beyond excellent and you know UMass is going to be gunning for the W tonight. I would love to see the 'Cats win of course; doing what we did with PC last weekend doesn't have to repeat itself but I also know that we will have to come ready to play for 60 full mins. There's plenty of games to TyT to play in coming up, but, this one belongs to Mikey. A fellow fan and I were texting last night during the game and I mentioned that our PK was standing up pretty good for a change and their response was that UMass has a lousy PP so we looked good. I don't know what to say about that guess I'll be paying more attention to that tonight. I'd agree our PP seems out of whack and hopefully they can get it on the right track.

Regardless they hung in there and that wasn't easy to do. But for this fan it took a good hour after the game for my heart to stop beating out of my chest so I don't know if I can take another game like last night ha! Go 'Cats...get the sweeeppppp!!!

[HockeyRef]

Re: UNH Hockey: Treading Water or Trending Upward

Heard on the radio during the long drive home, Robinson stopped a penalty shot by Trivino just before the game-winner. Clutch.

It'll be interesting to see if MS7 sticks with Robinson, or persists with the rotation (and TT)?

WIS prediction: MS7 rides Robinson's hot hand for tomorrow, returns to the rotation next week.

These wins - on the road - against top HE teams are happening often enough, it's getting harder and harder to dismiss it as "they got lucky" or "(Team X) just had a bad night". Heck, this is two straight against a team that swept them out of the HE playoffs almost 11 months ago, in what was supposedly such a mismatch that a lot - LOT - of folks on here dismissed the significance of UNH blowing a 3 goal lead late in the second period of Game One. I mean, Cale Makar was good … but that's a big gap between two programs that has now shrunken significantly.

UNH is now in a 3 way tie for 6th place in HE (level on games with BU, and with 2 in hand on Luce) , and one point out of 5th with a game in hand over NU. The 'Cats are 3-1-0 on their first much-discussed "gantlet" (?) so tomorrow night almost feels (to me) like UNH is playing with house money. Then two apiece with UConn and UVM, which really needs to be at least a 6 point stretch, with BU and UML for two apiece, and not looking so daunting as they may have looked earlier in the season.

As far as playoff casualties this year … UVM and Merrimack look like definites, and after that, I suspect it comes down to either of UConn or UMaine (and you guys know who I'm rooting against there).

If UNH can pull 7 or 8 points out of tomorrow night, and the next two weekends, I say that a 4th place finish is still in the cards. And every weekend further we get into the season without the "el foldo" moment that we all have been pre-conditioned by, then the more exciting this all gets. It's starting to feel like these are not your dad's Wildcats any more. Keep up the good work, MS7!!

Nothing against TyT but I say he has to stick with MikeR. His play last night was beyond excellent and you know UMass is going to be gunning for the W tonight. I would love to see the 'Cats win of course; doing what we did with PC last weekend doesn't have to repeat itself but I also know that we will have to come ready to play for 60 full mins. There's plenty of games to TyT to play in coming up, but, this one belongs to Mikey. A fellow fan and I were texting last night during the game and I mentioned that our PK was standing up pretty good for a change and their response was that UMass has a lousy PP so we looked good. I don't know what to say about that guess I'll be paying more attention to that tonight. I'd agree our PP seems out of whack and hopefully they can get it on the right track.

Regardless they hung in there and that wasn't easy to do. But for this fan it took a good hour after the game for my heart to stop beating out of my chest so I don't know if I can take another game like last night ha! Go 'Cats...get the sweeeppppp!!!