University of New Hampshire Athletics
Photo by: Paige O'Donnell
Hockey Rides An Upswing Into Merrimack
10/30/2015 5:53:00 PM | Men's Ice Hockey, UNH Insider
The roller coaster ride of a road trip started with such promise. Through some twists and turns, it ended the same way.
The UNH men's hockey team squared off against undefeated UMass in Amherst last Friday night and roared to a 6-1 lead.
All was good with the Wildcats. Senior forward Dan Correale had a hat trick by the time the game was just about half over for a 5-1 lead and freshman forward Chris Miller made it 6-1 with his first career goal.
UMass scored late in the second period to cut the lead to 6-2 and coach Dick Umile was displeased during the break between periods.
"I wasn't too happy because we gave up the goal at the end of the period and we made a couple of crazy plays," Umile said. "We were not focused – it's 6-1 and we think we're going to blow them out of here."
UMass rallied for four goals in the third period, two on power plays, and the game ended in a 6-6 tie, each team earning a Hockey East point in its first league game of the year.
Maybe the worst part of the night was yet to come. The Wildcats got on the bus and instead of going home headed a couple of hours farther west to play Union, the 2014 NCAA champion and also undefeated, on Saturday night.
"The bus ride was miserable," Umile said. "Miserable. I'm sitting there watching the video. They're miserable. We gave a point away. And that was a league point. Those are huge. There's nothing worse than when you lose. These guys work their butts off every day, all day, and that happens and it's, 'what are we doing?' We're going farther away from home and we're going to a tough place to play."
How would the Wildcats react to such a crushing tie?
"Definitely the end of Friday night was not the result we wanted and it was a pretty sour taste in the locker room after the game," sophomore forward Andrew Poturalski said. "We knew we had to regroup. To sulk about it Saturday would do nothing good for us."
Umile pushed that message Saturday morning.
"We have breakfast at 10 and we make any changes," he said. "We made a few changes. I made a change in net. I made a change in one of the forward positions. It's, 'Hey guys, it's all about today now. Let's just focus on today. We'll feel a lot better about ourselves if we come out here and play well.'"
And they did.
Sophomore goaltender Adam Clark got his start of the season and made 34 saves, Tyler Kelleher had a goal and a couple of assists and Correale and Poturalski each had a goal and an assist and UNH battled back from a 2-1 deficit after one period to a 5-2 to win hand Union its first loss.
What could have been a brutal trip after a rough Friday night turned into a very nice weekend after all.
Now UNH will try to build on it on Saturday night at Merrimack (7 p.m.) in its one game this weekend.
The Wildcats are in the middle of a long stretch of road games.
They play at Michigan State on Nov. 6 and 7 and then are at Merrimack again on Nov. 14 before returning home to face Massachusetts on Friday, Nov. 20 and Boston College the next night.
UNH is 2-2-1 overall and 0-0-1 in Hockey East. Merrimack is 2-0-2 and 0-0-2 and ranked No. 19 in the country.
The Warriors, behind sophomore goalie Collin Delia, have given up one goal in each of their games. Delia has a 0.97 goals against average and .953 save percentage.
Merrimack was 2-0-2 going into a Friday night home game against Boston University.
The Warriors beat Clarkson, 7-1, and St. Lawrence, 3-1, in its opening series of the season. UNH lost to St. Lawrence, 3-2 in overtime, and Clarkson, 4-3, that same weekend.
Merrimack played No. 7 UMass Lowell to a pair of 1-1 ties last weekend.
As happy as Umile has been with the team's offense – it ranks second in Hockey East to UMass with 4.60 goals a game – he is looking for improvement from the defense. UNH is 11th in the league at 3.60 goals allowed per game.
Kelleher leads the Wildcats in scoring with three goals and eight assists for 11 points, which puts him second in the country in points per game at 2.20. Poturalski is close behind with three goals and seven assists for 10 points.
They and the rest of the Wildcats will see what they can do on Merrimack's tighter ice surface Saturday.
"Hopefully we can learn from the UMass game not let it happen ever again," Kelleher said. "I think we've proved a lot about our offense and our whole team. We can definitely score goals. Now we're going to have to learn how to defend our lead."
Umile thinks the Wildcats showed themselves something.
"I think they realized what we're capable of doing," he said. "The way we played against Union - it's a small building, just like we're going into this weekend - that's how we have to play."
Added Correale: "It was a good character win for us."
XXX
Umile announced Friday that sophomore forward Warren Foegele has left the hockey program. Foegele signed with Kingston of the Ontario Hockey League.
Foegele had one assist in five games this year and finishes with five goals and 12 assists for 17 points in 39 games with UNH.
Allen Lessels
@UNHInsider
Allen.Lessels@unh.edu
The UNH men's hockey team squared off against undefeated UMass in Amherst last Friday night and roared to a 6-1 lead.
All was good with the Wildcats. Senior forward Dan Correale had a hat trick by the time the game was just about half over for a 5-1 lead and freshman forward Chris Miller made it 6-1 with his first career goal.
UMass scored late in the second period to cut the lead to 6-2 and coach Dick Umile was displeased during the break between periods.
"I wasn't too happy because we gave up the goal at the end of the period and we made a couple of crazy plays," Umile said. "We were not focused – it's 6-1 and we think we're going to blow them out of here."
UMass rallied for four goals in the third period, two on power plays, and the game ended in a 6-6 tie, each team earning a Hockey East point in its first league game of the year.
Maybe the worst part of the night was yet to come. The Wildcats got on the bus and instead of going home headed a couple of hours farther west to play Union, the 2014 NCAA champion and also undefeated, on Saturday night.
"The bus ride was miserable," Umile said. "Miserable. I'm sitting there watching the video. They're miserable. We gave a point away. And that was a league point. Those are huge. There's nothing worse than when you lose. These guys work their butts off every day, all day, and that happens and it's, 'what are we doing?' We're going farther away from home and we're going to a tough place to play."
How would the Wildcats react to such a crushing tie?
"Definitely the end of Friday night was not the result we wanted and it was a pretty sour taste in the locker room after the game," sophomore forward Andrew Poturalski said. "We knew we had to regroup. To sulk about it Saturday would do nothing good for us."
Umile pushed that message Saturday morning.
"We have breakfast at 10 and we make any changes," he said. "We made a few changes. I made a change in net. I made a change in one of the forward positions. It's, 'Hey guys, it's all about today now. Let's just focus on today. We'll feel a lot better about ourselves if we come out here and play well.'"
And they did.
Sophomore goaltender Adam Clark got his start of the season and made 34 saves, Tyler Kelleher had a goal and a couple of assists and Correale and Poturalski each had a goal and an assist and UNH battled back from a 2-1 deficit after one period to a 5-2 to win hand Union its first loss.
What could have been a brutal trip after a rough Friday night turned into a very nice weekend after all.
Now UNH will try to build on it on Saturday night at Merrimack (7 p.m.) in its one game this weekend.
The Wildcats are in the middle of a long stretch of road games.
They play at Michigan State on Nov. 6 and 7 and then are at Merrimack again on Nov. 14 before returning home to face Massachusetts on Friday, Nov. 20 and Boston College the next night.
UNH is 2-2-1 overall and 0-0-1 in Hockey East. Merrimack is 2-0-2 and 0-0-2 and ranked No. 19 in the country.
The Warriors, behind sophomore goalie Collin Delia, have given up one goal in each of their games. Delia has a 0.97 goals against average and .953 save percentage.
Merrimack was 2-0-2 going into a Friday night home game against Boston University.
The Warriors beat Clarkson, 7-1, and St. Lawrence, 3-1, in its opening series of the season. UNH lost to St. Lawrence, 3-2 in overtime, and Clarkson, 4-3, that same weekend.
Merrimack played No. 7 UMass Lowell to a pair of 1-1 ties last weekend.
As happy as Umile has been with the team's offense – it ranks second in Hockey East to UMass with 4.60 goals a game – he is looking for improvement from the defense. UNH is 11th in the league at 3.60 goals allowed per game.
Kelleher leads the Wildcats in scoring with three goals and eight assists for 11 points, which puts him second in the country in points per game at 2.20. Poturalski is close behind with three goals and seven assists for 10 points.
They and the rest of the Wildcats will see what they can do on Merrimack's tighter ice surface Saturday.
"Hopefully we can learn from the UMass game not let it happen ever again," Kelleher said. "I think we've proved a lot about our offense and our whole team. We can definitely score goals. Now we're going to have to learn how to defend our lead."
Umile thinks the Wildcats showed themselves something.
"I think they realized what we're capable of doing," he said. "The way we played against Union - it's a small building, just like we're going into this weekend - that's how we have to play."
Added Correale: "It was a good character win for us."
XXX
Umile announced Friday that sophomore forward Warren Foegele has left the hockey program. Foegele signed with Kingston of the Ontario Hockey League.
Foegele had one assist in five games this year and finishes with five goals and 12 assists for 17 points in 39 games with UNH.
Allen Lessels
@UNHInsider
Allen.Lessels@unh.edu
Players Mentioned
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