Re: UNH Wildcats 2019/2020 Ready to Rock and Roll!!
Well I was there as well. It was a Sunday night and, because of that, my wife and then 8 year old daughter didn’t go because of school and work the next day. I was high up in the bleachers behind the visitors bench with my friend John W. and my recollection, with the aid of a few viewings of the (now) dvd over the years, is that Murray skated out of the zone, hit Bogey with a nifty pass along the left boards that sprung him loose. He turned the dman, got in close and scored. As he scored there was a guy behind the net, under the scoreboard, jumping up and down madly, who turned out to be Boguniecki’s father. That game was the turning point for UNH back then.
Thanks for sharing that little bit of history, Greg. Now that you mention it, I can remember the guy behind the net going wild, and then eventually (probably on here at some point well afterwards) learning it was Bogey's dad. The video of that goal was widely available for several years, until it wasn't.
I've been lucky enough to be there in person for some of the biggest goals in the program's history (Gould in '79, Bogey in '94, Haydar in '99, and Teplitsky in '03) come to mind immediately) but I'm envious of those of you who saw the C-H-C magic live and in person, Mowers in Albany in '98 and of course the NoDak game in ManchVegas, which at least to this point is probably the last "big one" before the slumping program went down for the count nationally.
Btw, as far as Cedorchuk goes, I have never heard anyone refer to him as The Count. However, my daughter’s elementary school principal played hockey at BC with Cedor and, in fact, they were roommates for two years. When this scholarship fiasco came up I talked to the principal about it. He told me it didn’t surprise him at all since Cedor was always playing all the angles. He told me that when they were roommates, there was one point where he was dating three different girls at the same time, all of whom thought they were the one. That caught up to him as well. What I remember is that when Cedor was trying to save his job, at one point he called up the father of his starting goalie (forget his name but he was Canadian) and asked the guy, who was a big time doctor in Alberta, to pony up his kid’s tuition, room and board so he could use the scholarship for some other player. Lot of chutzpah there, don’t you think?
Speaking of "Count" Cedorchuk … that was a tag put on him here on USCHO, in the Wild West days, because of his issues tallying up the scholarship numbers towards the end of his time at BC. Followed of course by his successor - Mike Milbury - getting a look under the hood of what he was inheriting, sniffing out other more reliable offers, and saying "thanks but no thanks" to BC after a whopping two (2) months on the job. For those of us who cherish all things CHCC, we refer to this period of time, and maybe the next 2-3 years that followed, as "the good ol' days". Unfortunately, that York guy eventually turned things around, and ruined it for the rest of us. But it was fun while it lasted.
Greg, I had to laugh at your recollection of Cedorchuk's handling of his love life. The guy was a piece of work … IIRC, he was a Townie (not sure how Parker didn't snag him for BU), and that might explain his "fast and loose" approach to things on and off the ice? I've been sitting on a great Cedorchuk story (not exactly in high demand these days) for about 20 years, but I can't disclose it here without breaching a sworn confidence. I hate being that "I know something, but can't say" guy, but my word is my word.
Following on Ref's thoughts about the Alfond experience … that really used to mean something back when Walshy was running a perennial national contending program, with Standbrook finding those obscure gems everywhere, and their program played with an edge (doubled/tripled at home). It was still tough after Walshy as long as Standbrook was there to prop up Whitehead, but I can't say that I've ever thought "uh-oh, we gotta go to Orono" since those guys left. Granted, we've suffered through a drought over the last few years of the Umile Era where UNH struggled to match up to UMaine. But all in all, UMaine has arguably been in the crapper just as long as UNH, if not slightly longer, and I've never thought Red Gendron was going to be their savoir, and if it turns out that MS7 can turn the UNH program around, we'll be a step up on them at least until they find their next guy in charge.
((( … cue for UMaine sweeping UNH next weekend by lopsided scores … )))
Truth be told, the world of UNH Hockey will be in a better place when UMaine turns things around too.
Finally … it may be premature to say this, but Bazin's UML program is starting to remind me a little of the final Umile Era trend, sliding away gradually from the top tier, still competitive, but not like they were just a few short seasons ago. Not like Normie is going anywhere soon, but it's something I've been noticing and filing down for further comment at a later date. I guess like today, now that it's out there. Thoughts?
At least we went from 12 votes the week before to 42 this week. No comment on Carvel... Guess we gotta keep on pluggin'. GO 'CATS!!
