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2009-2010 UNH Wildcats Season

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Re: 2009-2010 UNH Wildcats Season

IrishWildcat said:
Yup, that arena can only hold ~3,000 people. Technically, THAT'S the limit.

C'mon guys, I thought we were better than that...
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This rumor was posted by none other than our old friend Mike M, who has been begging for a Lawler Arena sellout as long as Merrimack has been in Hockey East. Just on the off chance he was right, I bought my tickets today for will call. If the game is a sellout, guaranteed there will be a million rugrats in hockey jerseys running around. Certainly won't be Merrimack students, most of whom have left for the weekend.
 
Re: 2009-2010 UNH Wildcats Season

That was quite possibly the WORST officiated game this season. I expected better from a Gravallese crew.

That's all I have to say. Good night, and let's hope for a better tomorrow.
 
Re: 2009-2010 UNH Wildcats Season

merrimack is now 9-1 at home and 0-11 on the road...hopefully the cats can capitalize on merrimacks difficulty playing road games.
 
Re: 2009-2010 UNH Wildcats Season

Greg Ambrose said:
This rumor was posted by none other than our old friend Mike M, who has been begging for a Lawler Arena sellout as long as Merrimack has been in Hockey East. Just on the off chance he was right, I bought my tickets today for will call. If the game is a sellout, guaranteed there will be a million rugrats in hockey jerseys running around. Certainly won't be Merrimack students, most of whom have left for the weekend.
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Pretty full arena tonight, though not quite full. A decent number of students (for Merrimack), and, in fact, not many rugrats. They actually did have a capacity crowd earlier in the season against BU.

IrishWildcat said:
That was quite possibly the WORST officiated game this season. I expected better from a Gravallese crew.
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Yeah...not really. A couple of questionable calls, one of which I think might be clouding your perspective, but not the worst I've seen this year.
 
Re: 2009-2010 UNH Wildcats Season

UNHHKYRKS said:
merrimack is now 9-1 at home and 0-11 on the road...hopefully the cats can capitalize on merrimacks difficulty playing road games.
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I think the large ice sheet will help UNH. Merrimack plays a very physical style that stifles a lot of what UNH does. I know this UNH team is more physical than in years past, but the still don't match up well against a team like this year's Merrimack squad on smaller ice (especially MC's tiny surface).

Also, not hitting three posts would help. They managed to hit both posts, and the crossbar, on three different shots. Wow, is that frustrating.
 
Re: 2009-2010 UNH Wildcats Season

thecomicbookguy said:
Yeah...not really. A couple of questionable calls, one of which I think might be clouding your perspective, but not the worst I've seen this year.
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Yeah, I agree with you. There were a few close offsides calls that the linesmen seemed to screw up, but the penalty calls were fine. The last cross-checking penalty on Thompson was on the soft side, but I can definitely see why they called it.
 
Re: 2009-2010 UNH Wildcats Season

UNHHKYRKS said:
merrimack is now 9-1 at home and 0-11 on the road...hopefully the cats can capitalize on merrimacks difficulty playing road games.
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It shows you one thing, the parity in hockey east is amazing. In the past, a team like UNH could go to the Mack, play a mediocre game, get a few bad calls against them, maybe give up a bad goal or two, and still win 5-2. One game won't change my opinion that this team is at the top of the heap in HE this year.
Didn't see the game (was @ bu-umass), but i imagine a lot of things broke the mack's way. Maybe a bit of a wakeup call for your squad. How long has it been since you lost a HE game? November?
 
Re: 2009-2010 UNH Wildcats Season

thecomicbookguy said:
I think the large ice sheet will help UNH. Merrimack plays a very physical style that stifles a lot of what UNH does. I know this UNH team is more physical than in years past, but the still don't match up well against a team like this year's Merrimack squad on smaller ice (especially MC's tiny surface).

Also, not hitting three posts would help. They managed to hit both posts, and the crossbar, on three different shots. Wow, is that frustrating.
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They hit a few pipes, but also got fortunate bounces on both of their goals.
I thought it was a pretty entertaining, fast paced hockey game. Merrimack plays a great game in their building.

MC also played very well at Wisconsin on the large ice sheet, lost 5-4 if I remember correctly.. I think tomorrow will be another fast paced game, hopefully UNH keeps them winless on the road.
 
Re: 2009-2010 UNH Wildcats Season

What I found to be particularly annoying about tonight was how Merrimack was able to beat them by having a guy hang out past the points and hit them with the long break-out pass to generate a lot of odd-man rushes. As much as I despise cherry picking, Merrimack executed it well by not only getting those odd-man rushes, but also by taking away a pass option for UNH offensively by forcing one of the point men to drop back and cover the guy trying to cut behind them for the long pass.
 
Re: 2009-2010 UNH Wildcats Season

UNHRouge5 said:
What I found to be particularly annoying about tonight was how Merrimack was able to beat them by having a guy hang out past the points and hit them with the long break-out pass to generate a lot of odd-man rushes. As much as I despise cherry picking, Merrimack executed it well by not only getting those odd-man rushes, but also by taking away a pass option for UNH offensively by forcing one of the point men to drop back and cover the guy trying to cut behind them for the long pass.
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Thats actually interesting to hear...

Mack has been pulling that crap for quite a few seasons now....and while I agree its extremely annoying.....I've never seen it actually pan out for them.

I wouldn't put too much stock into it as far as looking at tonight.....I'd call last night a blue moon. ;) It is, afterall, the Mack.
 
Re: 2009-2010 UNH Wildcats Season

Timely break out game for the second line tonight? Will need 2+ strong lines down the stretch. A win is a win.
 
Re: 2009-2010 UNH Wildcats Season

Cats started out great tonight getting the lead at 1:33, and really taking it to the Mack for the first half of the period. UNH had 7 shots before MC had one. Then MC really came at UNH for the second half the first and just wouldn't quit. UNH didn't get their first PP until well into the third when Bigos got tossed for hitting Burke from behind. Burke was hurt on the play and I'm not sure if he returned. Speelman hurt his arm in the first period and to my knowledge didn't return for the remainder of the game. Nice to get the win in OT, because a tie would have been disastrous for the Cats. We made up our game in hand on BC, so a tie would have really sucked tonight. As it is we regained the 5 point lead atop HE with the win. UNH probably wins this game fairly handily if not for Braithwaite and the fact that MC is deadly on the PP (they went 2/4 tonight and are over 25% on the year). I was much happier with the Cats game tonight, then I was last night for sure.

Now it's onto Orono for two.
 
Re: 2009-2010 UNH Wildcats Season

Irish - tonight's game may have been the worst officiated game I've seen this season. Leblanc gets elbowed, cross-checked, and held, and the ref calls him for elbowing?

Bigos is a punk. He was whining to the refs after every period (except the 3rd), and then had the audacity to stand there with his hands out questioning why he was kicked out after the brutal hit on Burke. What a goon.
 
Re: 2009-2010 UNH Wildcats Season

thecomicbookguy said:
Irish - tonight's game may have been the worst officiated game I've seen this season. Leblanc gets elbowed, cross-checked, and held, and the ref calls him for elbowing?

Bigos is a punk. He was whining to the refs after every period (except the 3rd), and then had the audacity to stand there with his hands out questioning why he was kicked out after the brutal hit on Burke. What a goon.
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Normally Dan and Pete are quite reserved in their commentary re: the refs. They don't normally get to upset about the calls one way or the other. It's nice to hear that kind of objective commentary from a team specific broadcast team. That being said, they lost it a couple of times this weekend at some of the calls that were made. I can't fairly comment, only hearing a radio call, but I'm thinking this wasn't a banner weekend for the refs.
 
Re: 2009-2010 UNH Wildcats Season

thecomicbookguy said:
Irish - tonight's game may have been the worst officiated game I've seen this season. Leblanc gets elbowed, cross-checked, and held, and the ref calls him for elbowing?

Bigos is a punk. He was whining to the refs after every period (except the 3rd), and then had the audacity to stand there with his hands out questioning why he was kicked out after the brutal hit on Burke. What a goon.
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Agreed Matt. This entire weekend was a travesty. Last night I had more of an issue with the non-calls Merrimack was getting away with. Tonight it was simply atrocious all-around.

That beign said, the entire emotional roller-coaster it brought about (this series just had an up-and-down, us-against-them sort of feel to it...street-fightish) was encapsulated in the overtime period. These guys just gave it everything they had and both games were about as tough and hard-fought as you could have gotten.

They say with boxers, two differing styles tend to bring out the best in both fighters. The same for these 2 teams. Merrimack has certainly become a talented defensive team, and Braithwaite is a great goaltender. He made some saves this weekend that most professional goalies wouldn't be able to make. It also helps when we sail pucks through the crease or hit posts, but man...he did a heckuva job keeping the puck out of the net.

Credit to the Warriors, they gave us everything they had and came away with 2 points on Friday. Credit to the Cats for fighting 60+ minutes tonight (best overall weekend effort all season, I think). I'm just grumpy about officiating as a whole.

Sadly, kinda, I won't be traveling next weekend to Oh-No. Have fun up there...if you dare!!!
 
Re: 2009-2010 UNH Wildcats Season

Big win for UNH last night....the 2 points will make it hard for anyone to catch them for the RS title and #1 seed. Assuming they can hold serve at home the rest of the way.....or basicly split every weekend. If they do this (5-4):

UMass would need to go 7-0-1 to tie them in points.
BC-----7-1-1
Maine 8-1-1
Lowell 9-0-1

So a split next weekend in Maine would be huge. On paper the toughest weekend left on the schedule (due to opponent and both on the road).
 
Re: 2009-2010 UNH Wildcats Season

CatMan UNH said:
Big win for UNH last night....the 2 points will make it hard for anyone to catch them for the RS title and #1 seed. Assuming they can hold serve at home the rest of the way.....or basicly split every weekend. If they do this (5-4):

UMass would need to go 7-0-1 to tie them in points.
BC-----7-1-1
Maine 8-1-1
Lowell 9-0-1

So a split next weekend in Maine would be huge. On paper the toughest weekend left on the schedule (due to opponent and both on the road).
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Admittedly a big two points for the Wildcats last night. But another big weekend coming in Orono. Agree we need to get at least two points there. But after that, they have five of their last seven at home. I'd like to think they're in good shape, but historically February has sometimes been a cruel month for UNH when they were at or near the top in the league.

What I took away from this weekend is how tough Merrimack is, particularly in their home rink. UNH has had a problem all year playing teams that have some size (Wisconsin and Cornell come to mind) and this weekend was no different. They weren't that far away from losing all four points and it doesn't make feel too comfortable when I think that, if Merrimack does indeed get into the playoffs, we may have to play them again.

Any further word on Speelman and Burke? We don't have much depth at forward, so if these two guys are out next weekend, I can see the first and second lines getting a lot of ice time. BTW, no surprise to me that LeBlanc had his most productive game of the season (he could have had four goals) when he skated with Moses. That should be a keeper.
 
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