Sophomore Ayers was also in net at the Garden in mid-March when UNH beat Maine 3-1 for HEA tourney championship, and was in net for the 7-2 loss to Maine for the FF semifinals game at the Exel Center in early April, where I still think to this day that game should have been senior Matt Carney's start in net, as the two had rotated the entire season with nearly identical stats. Neither got much time in the net during the 2000-2001 season when senior Ty Conklin got nearly every start. But given Ayers' February 2002 heroics in Orono and his HEA tourney championship, he got the start at Exel.
In retrospect, Ayers turned out to be a fantastic postseason goalie. Won both of UNH's two Hockey East trophies back-to-back, with the second being a two OT shutout, where the slightest goof could have spelled disaster (ask Ryan Whitney). Always thought he took WAY too much of the blame for the 7-2 FF semis shellacking by UMaine, as he did a year later in the FF Finals in Buffalo vs. defending champs Minnesota. Carney was a career backup, and as a senior with limited big game experience, now with a soph who had shown an ability to come up big in big games, I've always thought the "Carney should have started" narrative was a bit too MMQB for my liking.
But that was back when the whole "Umile can't win the big ones" was starting to lead the national UNH narratives, and the 3rd period collapses against UMaine in '02 (especially) and to Minnesota in '03 (which was IMO simply a case of a more talented defending champ with a transcendant player capitalizing on the absence of UNH key player Gare) really started to stoke that argument big-time. Some of us were hoping that winning HEA trophies was a sign that the BIG breakthrough couldn't be far away ... sooo achingly close, but then the inexplicable losses along the way to the Niagaras and RIT's just overwhelmed the counter-narrative, and without his same recruiting binky (McCloskey) to rely upon, UNH just kept slipping further and further away.
And first it would be BC who ended what was a great on-board rivalry here (to some degree) in 2001, and then (emphatically) with the 3-in-5 seasons a decade later ... followed by also-rans sticking the boot in, like Union and Yale, and then fellow HE rivals Providence and UMass since. I've always wondered if Providence's fortunate win, where the BU goalie literally threw the puck into his own net with a late one goal lead, just broke Umile's mind one last time and forced the "Long Goodbye"? As in "With all of the times we were really close, WHY did UNH never get a break like that?" I'll admit, maybe that was me projecting a bit. Anyway, that was in April 2015, and the Souza hiring as coach in waiting was two months later ...
THE UNH MEN'S HOCKEY BLOG: UNH Preparing To Name Alum Mike Souza as Associate Head Coach (unhhockeyblog.blogspot.com)
So Mike Ayers toils on in the best job he'll ever have, as BC's Associate Head Coach, knowing he would never get the head coaching nod, and I wonder if the kid who helped UNH figure out the post-season funk - to a point SO close to winning the whole shooting match - wonders if the man he now is will ever get that chance to "finish the job" back at his old alma mater? What a story line that would be, folks ...
... but in the meantime, UNH is undisputed "Champions of October" yet again, and I'd give (much more than) a penny for a certain Michael Ayers' thoughts right now? Or Eric Boguniecki's?? Because unless Coach Souza is channeling his inner Sean MacDonnell, whatever is going on right now probably won't last too long, and even a token extension for a .500 season with no postseason success is gonna break some of the few remaining unbroken minds in the long-term UNH fanbase. So if you're gonna taunt and tease us with a good RS, PLEASE just go ahead and sell your soul, do the BIG deal MS7, and get UNH a "Yale" or a "Union" thing NOW (only half-kidding). JMHO.
