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Yale and New Hampshire at Denver and CC 11/23 & 11/24

duper

duper

Well-known member
It's only Sunday, but I for one know pretty much nada about Yale or UNH.

I hope Denver takes this weekend very seriously. As someone mentioned in All Things Denver, there are very heavy potential implications for Pairwise later in the season. DU has a great record, but they've only played in-conference, and mostly at home. The guys have scored a pretty unreal number of goals (45 in 10 games) but I'm not sure if the defense has looked as solid as I had expected. Goaltending has been very good, (2.2 goals per game).

I feel pretty good about this weekend. I see no reason why we can't take four points, just sort of on principle, but again, I know very little about Yale or New Hampshire. I would be very curious to hear from people who have watched them play this season.
 
Re: Yale and New Hampshire at Denver and CC 11/23 & 11/24

UNH is off to their best start since 1993-94. Junior goaltender Casey DeSmith just won his fourth straight game, which included three shut outs in a row and the longest stretch of minutes without giving up a goal (204+ minutes) in UNH history. Sophomore Trevor Van Riemsdyk leads Hockey East defensemen in points. UNH does not have a sharp shooter forward, but is getting goals from all four lines, including from freshmen. UNH has a 90+ % penalty kill so far this season. I would not be surprised to see the Cats come back home with all four points from their trip to Colorado. What a difference a year makes; although the Cats were ok last November, they tanked in December and never really recovered, although they did play well against BU in the Hockey East quarters before missing the NCAAs for the first time in over a decade.
 
Re: Yale and New Hampshire at Denver and CC 11/23 & 11/24

Snively65 said:
UNH is off to their best start since 1993-94. Junior goaltender Casey DeSmith just won his fourth straight game, which included three shut outs in a row and the longest stretch of minutes without giving up a goal (204+ minutes) in UNH history. Sophomore Trevor Van Riemsdyk leads Hockey East defensemen in points. UNH does not have a sharp shooter forward, but is getting goals from all four lines, including from freshmen. UNH has a 90+ % penalty kill so far this season. I would not be surprised to see the Cats come back home with all four points from their trip to Colorado. What a difference a year makes; although the Cats were ok last November, they tanked in December and never really recovered, although they did play well against BU in the Hockey East quarters before missing the NCAAs for the first time in over a decade.
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Nice post, but DeSmith is only a sophomore.
 
Re: Yale and New Hampshire at Denver and CC 11/23 & 11/24

UNH has a realty good goalie and a lot of skating depth; they are definately for real.
 
Re: Yale and New Hampshire at Denver and CC 11/23 & 11/24

Yale is a Jekyll and Hyde team this year with many young players. I think the main advantage the western teams will have is Yale's lack of games played together as a cohesive squad. They have been playing much better since Coach Allain has stuck with Jeff Malcolm in net. The one bad loss to Dartmouth was due to a horrible defensive and goaltending effort in which Malcolm was not in net to start. So the buzzword on Yale right now is inconsistent. They have two great recent victories against ranked teams in which they absolutely smoked Harvard in their barn and handled Saint Lawrence by a score of 4-1. Players to watch for Yale are Captain Andrew Miller who is one of the best puck handlers in the game and who has recently found his scoring touch, also very good are Langanierre, Agostino, Root, and Bourbonais. Freshmen Stu Wilson and Rob O'Gara have played very well for new players. The hallmark of Yale in the past 5 years has been team quickness and speed with alot of offense, combined with a good forecheck. They have been clicking in this manner lately, but the long layoff may show the team with signs of rust. I would be leery of Yale as they are a team that on "any given day" can dominate or not.
 
Re: Yale and New Hampshire at Denver and CC 11/23 & 11/24

I'm really looking forward to this weekend. I have tickets to the New Hampshire game, and I might just run out an pick some up for the Yale game as well.
 
Re: Yale and New Hampshire at Denver and CC 11/23 & 11/24

Yale, on any given night, can beat anyone. The potential is there to score in bunches. The potential is there for Malcolm to pitch a shutout. But, the team has a lot of young players and, being an Ivy, they have not played many games yet this season. A win against either team this week would be a big step forward and put Yale back on the national stage.

Miller is the best passer I've seen at the college level, and he's quite the sniper when he does shoot.
 
Re: Yale and New Hampshire at Denver and CC 11/23 & 11/24

razorben said:
Miller is the best passer I've seen at the college level, and he's quite the sniper when he does shoot.
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Then you'll have to take the trip to Yale at BC on Jan. 4th. Johnny Gaudreau is an excellent passer, goal scorer, and is by far the absolute best at undressing opposing defensemen in the 16 years I have been following D-1 hockey (and I've seen the college careers of Gionta and Gerbe, who were both pretty good at it). ;) He and Miller will be fun to watch.

DU and CC fans will be in for a treat to see both Yale and UNH. Both teams play an upscale type game with good speed and passing. Both teams are a lot of fun to watch.
 
Re: Yale and New Hampshire at Denver and CC 11/23 & 11/24

FiveHole12 said:
Then you'll have to take the trip to Yale at BC on Jan. 4th. Johnny Gaudreau is an excellent passer, goal scorer, and is by far the absolute best at undressing opposing defensemen in the 16 years I have been following D-1 hockey (and I've seen the college careers of Gionta and Gerbe, who were both pretty good at it). ;) He and Miller will be fun to watch.

DU and CC fans will be in for a treat to see both Yale and UNH. Both teams play an upscale type game with good speed and passing. Both teams are a lot of fun to watch.
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Miller will never be the goal scorer that Gaudreau is, nor will Gaudreau ever reach the 120 assist mark that Miller is on track for his career. (Only because Gaudreau will probably go pro after this season ;) ) Two totally different type players, Miller more finesse, Gaudreau more flash. I wish I could go to the game, but have family commitments.
 
Re: Yale and New Hampshire at Denver and CC 11/23 & 11/24

FiveHole12 said:
DU and CC fans will be in for a treat to see both Yale and UNH. Both teams play an upscale type game with good speed and passing. Both teams are a lot of fun to watch.
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It's late here and I need to crash, but I'll give a brief missive for others to cogitate on for this upcoming clash.

I think it's fair to say the our DU team has surprised us this year. We lost a TON of forward scoring due to graduation and departures from last season. Of those who are now gone include Jason Zucker (Minnesota NHL), Drew Shore (Florida NHL) and Beau Bennett (Pittsburgh NHL). Zucker, in particular, played last year for the NHL Minny at the end of the regular season. Most of us DU fans thought that this year, we would have a BIG problem putting the puck in the net.

However, DU has been a goal scoring machine. I think most of us fans thought that we'd be stalwart in net (currently 2.2 goals per game which reflects an anomaly of giving up 5 goals to Colorado College last Friday) to an unexpected output of 4.5 goals scored per game. DU boasts a solid and very quick defensive corps, that also moves the puck skillfully. In fact, our #1 power play usually features 3 defensemen and two forwards.

After watching this team for many years, it also seems to me that we are much bigger in size overall than in the past. But, it also seems that we haven't lost our patented quickness.

The downfall, it seems to me, is on occasion we take ill-advised penalties, but that seems to have been remedied, even though we just played our arch rival where discipline in that area is paramount.

Truthfully, and given that I've followed this team seriously for 30 years, I can't thing of a team that I've been more impressed with at this point in the season. I will leave it to other DU fans to give you names to watch for the games. I know it's early in the season, but the styles of play of these out-of-our-conference teams are quite different, for us. But, I know that DU will be up for this challenge, as evidenced after our crushing defeat of our rival Colorado College where our coach George Gwozdecky was already switching his gears to focus on the challenge ahead for these games.

Being a homer, of course I anticipate DU taking 4 points in our games. And I hope each visiting team takes four from the lame school down south. :)
 
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Re: Yale and New Hampshire at Denver and CC 11/23 & 11/24

I have not seen a minute of Denver hockey this year, but I have attended all of UNH's home games as well as one of their road wins. At home they are a quick, physical team committed 100% to team defense first. They block the lanes, and when a puck is loose in front of the net the closest defender simply bats it to the boards. They don't try and carry it out on their own, they are much happier clearing it to the side and waiting till the right opportunity to clear the zone. This leads to a lot of routine shots by opposing teams and few defensive mistakes leading to goals. Most of their defensive errors have come in transition and have led to a few of the goals they've given up. Many of their best scoring opportunities are brought about because of their defense as well, they either get odd man breaks because of a turnover or generate transition offense and score before opposing defenses can set up.
On the road they appear to be less physical at the start which has led to a lower scoring output on the road. 4 GPG at home and 2.5 on the road including a 0-0 shutout. When they bring the physicality on the road they play a much better game. They are relatively disciplined and with the exception of yesterday's BU game, they stay out of the box. Penalty kill is excellent and their powerplay moves the puck well and generates good opportunities, especially from the point.

All in all UNH is strong in all areas and I'm hoping that they swept SCSU who handed Denver their loss gives them a chance. My concern is how they'll handle a second game at altitude against a top team after traveling two time zones. Regardless of how it goes it is a matchup of top 5 teams, potentially top 3 teams depending on how voters rate Miami and Minnesota ties compared with UNH's wins. I wouldn't be surprised to see a low scoring (2-2) tie in this one, but I could see either team winning for a variety of reasons.
 
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Re: Yale and New Hampshire at Denver and CC 11/23 & 11/24

Coming out from Minneapolis for the weekend. It will be good to escape Gopher fans for a bit. Going to attend the DU game Saturday.

Would like to be behind UNH bench... which section is behind the visitor bench - Section 2 or Section 20?

Thanks in advance!

(Oh, and I'd love to have Snively65's confidence, but two games, at altitude, with the strength of the DU squad - I'll be happy with a split.)
 
Re: Yale and New Hampshire at Denver and CC 11/23 & 11/24

wildcatdc said:
Coming out from Minneapolis for the weekend. It will be good to escape Gopher fans for a bit. Going to attend the DU game Saturday.

Would like to be behind UNH bench... which section is behind the visitor bench - Section 2 or Section 20?

Thanks in advance!

(Oh, and I'd love to have Snively65's confidence, but two games, at altitude, with the strength of the DU squad - I'll be happy with a split.)
Click to expand...

Visitors' bench is north side of Section 20 and south side of Section 1, DU bench is north side of Section 1 and south side of Section 2.
 
Re: Yale and New Hampshire at Denver and CC 11/23 & 11/24

Any internet video for the these games (especially the UNH games)?

The UNH defensive numbers have been staggeringly good, almost fluky good.
As someone pointed out in the UNH thread (adjusted for yesterday's win at BU) In 8 Hockey East games, they've given up 7 goals, 3 of which came in one period against Northeastern, and another in overtime.
12 goals overall in 10 games (half of which came in that one period plus the 3 to SCSU in the first game)
 
Re: Yale and New Hampshire at Denver and CC 11/23 & 11/24

WildShawn said:
The UNH defensive numbers have been staggeringly good, almost fluky good.
Click to expand...

Take that a step further

-Games 1&2 against SCSU gave up 5 goals. Having watched that game there was still some adjusting going on with missed assignments.
-Game 3 was a pay back game against BU, UNH team was still smarting from the year before so they were focused. May be the best game I have seen them play. The BU goal was a 2 on 1 in the 1st minute, puck jumped on the UNH point man and BU was off the races.
-Game 4 3 goals in the 1st period against NU with some sloppy coverage, the coverage got better but not great the rest of the game.

10 periods 9 goals. (2.70 gaa think that is right)

Since that start and seeming to "figure it out" in their own end as a team

20 periods +3.08 minutes OT, 3 goals. (.446 gaa)

And it isn't just the goalie. It is a team commitment to D, they are taking away the grade A chances. The few the other team is getting DeSmith is generally stopping. I am worried about the DU game, second night at altitude, playing D takes significant energy and I wonder what that will do. This UNH team is winning on effort, they lack pure goal scoring and the Saturday night game has me concerned. Just the combination of two solid teams, the better the seoncd night and altitude be interesting to see if UNH wears down.
 
Re: Yale and New Hampshire at Denver and CC 11/23 & 11/24

A college kid named Harry. I don't care which of the 3 teams you cheer for - you have to admit..... THAT'S cool! :D
 
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