Zhe: UNH and Maine not in NCAA tourney once again
The drama that is the NCAA Division I men’s hockey tournament began unfolding Friday: Sixteen teams, four regionals, everything leading up to the Frozen Four in Tampa, Fla.
For the third year in a row, neither the University of New Hampshire nor Maine will be a part of it. Forgettable seasons wound down earlier this month, far short of what the two fan bases have come to expect.
UNH finished 11-20-6, the first time a Dick Umile-coached team has lost 20 games and the first time one has ever finished 10th. Maine only won eight games and is now 38-61-13 in three seasons under coach Red Gendron.
Prior to this current dry spell, you’d have to go all the way back to 1996 — the Atlanta Olympics, “Macarena,” Whitewater — to find an NCAA tourney that didn’t include at least one of the rivals.
The fumes hadn’t yet dissipated when the departures began. UNH forward Andrew Poturalski, a top-10 finalist for the Hobey Baker Award and the Hockey East scoring leader, decided to forgo his final two years of college eligibility and sign with the Carolina Hurricanes; he’s currently playing in the AHL.
Maine lost junior defenseman Dan Renouf. So now we’re left wondering just where these two fierce rivals and once-proud programs go from here, after lousy seasons we didn’t see coming six months ago.
"I honestly thought we were going to be someone to get home ice and contend for that top spot (in Hockey East)," Umile told Seacoast Media Group. "We were far from it where we ended up.”
Interest is waning, too. Since the 2010-11 seasons, average attendance for games at the Whittemore Center has dropped 15 percent, to 4,892. It’s even worse in that span at Maine’s Alfond Arena, where it’s dipped 21 percent to 3,916, according to Hockey East figures.
UNH and Maine, despite their successful histories and some recruiting advantages, were always going to have to contend with programs like Boston College and Boston University. BC has owned the Massachusetts recruiting landscape for years and BU isn’t far behind.
But the Wildcats and Black Bears have also been passed by programs like reigning national champion Providence and UMass-Lowell, who are led by two of the country’s hottest young coaches in Nate Leaman and Norm Bazin, and look to be entrenched among the top tier for years to come.
Notre Dame will be exiting Hockey East after the 2016-17 season, so there’s a potential opportunity for everybody to move up one. But suddenly it’s a more crowded in that top tier than it used to be.
Coaching issues hang over both programs.
Maine had a decision to make with Gendron and pulled the trigger last month on a two-year contract extension, taking away any potential lame-duck status for next year and gambling that he’s the guy they thought he was when they hired him to replace Tim Whitehead, a guy with “presence” who could win games while spurring more interest in the program.
"We are confident in Coach Gendron's ability to continue to build the men's ice hockey program," said UMaine athletic director Karlton Creech of the contract extension. "We believe he is on the right path to success and we are committed to continuing to grow under his leadership."
Umile, meanwhile, is nearing the end of his successful tenure. Former player Mike Souza was hired away from UConn to be the coach-in-waiting, and most accounts have him replacing his mentor after two more seasons.
As is the case whenever UNH has a bad year, or fails to win a big game in the NCAAs, the fans find their voice.
“Dick Umile is a great guy and the fans appreciate his 25 years of coaching UNH men’s hockey,” said Shawn Joyce of Rye, a UNH alum and season-ticket holder, in a letter to the Herald earlier this month. “However, many of us do not understand why UNH is waiting three years to make a leadership change.”
Is it a talent issue? Could be. Of the UNH guys making the biggest pro impacts — the van Riemsdyk brothers, Daniel Winnik of the Capitals, Brett Pesce of the Hurricanes, Mike Sislo and Paul Thompson in the AHL — only Pesce wore a UNH sweater in either of the last two seasons.
At least on this side of the river, the Wildcats need to change perception in a hurry.
After what he’s accomplished at UNH, it’s hard to picture Umile going out on anything but his own terms. But if the administration is planning on two more years, plus another, say, four for Souza — a typical contract for a new coach — it better see some building blocks that this year’s record doesn’t show.
Or else a lot more NCAA tournaments are going to be going on without the Wildcats.
Mike Zhe is a Herald staff writer. He can be reached at
mzhe@seacoastonline.com. Follow him on Twitter at @MikeZhe603.
Sorry if it made you crazy. Not the first or the last time my posts will have that effect but I'll do my best to fact check next time I just name drop rather than heck, just shoot my mouth off. I mean, it could happen!!! 
