University of New Hampshire Athletics
Sophomore forward Andrew Poturalski leads the country in scoring.
Photo by: Paige O'Donnell
For Men's Hockey, December's All About Maine
12/3/2015 6:56:00 PM | Men's Ice Hockey, UNH Insider
It's Maine Month for the UNH men's hockey team.
Yes, the longtime and oft-time bitter Hockey East foes are ramping up their rivalry in December.
Four of UNH's five games this month are against Maine, starting with a home-and-home series this weekend. Maine's schedule is even a bit more border-centric: All four of its games in December are against New Hampshire.
UNH's lone non-Maine game in the month is a game at the Whittemore Center on Friday, Dec. 11 at 7:30.
The Wildcat-Black Bear four-pack begins on Friday night at 7:30 at Alfond Arena in Orono. After the game, both team will get on the bus – they're taking separate buses, to be sure - and head down Interstate-95.
They play again on Saturday night at 7 at the Whittemore Center.
Limited tickets remain for Saturday's game and may be purchased by CLICKING HERE or calling the Whittemore Center Box Office at 603-862-4000. The UNH marketing office is also offering a Frozen Flex Pack of tickets for six games, including vouchers for food, that may be purchased by CLICKING HERE.
"It's UNH-Maine," said UNH coach Dick Umile. "It's respect, but it's a major rivalry game, just because of all the things that have happened over the years. When we go up there with their fans it's the same old chants. . . . Hopefully we'll have a good house here. The BC game was a tremendous atmosphere. The student section and the 'Cat Pack have been absolutely terrific. I think they're all catching on with the video board so it's gotten even more exciting."
UNH and Maine have both had had their early season struggles and are looking to get a boost heading into a holiday break. They meet again in another back-to-back series late in the month.
The teams play Tuesday, Dec. 29 at the Cross Insurance Arena in Portland and meet again Wednesday, Dec. 30 at 7:30 p.m. in the Verizon Wireless Arena in Manchester. Tickets for the Manchester game are also available and may be purchased by CLICKING HERE.
This week's games count in the Hockey East standings. The two games later in the month are non-league contests.
UNH and Maine also played four regular season games last season. When Hockey East added Notre Dame and Connecticut and switched to a format where league teams played each other only twice during the regular season, UNH and Maine decided to play the extra non-conference games.
The tentative plan for the next two-year cycle is that UNH and Maine will play one extra game next year in Portland and for the 2017-18 season play a non-league game in Manchester, Umile said.
For now, the team are gearing up to see a lot of each other in the next few weeks.
Umile's associate head coaches Mike Souza (from 1996-2000) and Glenn Stewart (1990-94) played for the Wildcats and have their share of UNH-Maine memories.
Each of them played against a Maine team that won the NCAA championship.
Paul Kariya led Maine to the title in 1993 and Souza played on the 1999 team that lost in overtime to Maine in the national title game in Anaheim.
"Oh geez, he was legit," Stewart said of Kariya. "It's been a fierce rivalry over the years. It was always tough going up there. In my four years we didn't win a game up there and we had some pretty good teams. We did get them here. I remember the lines of people outside Snively went all the way down the street. It was always pretty exciting and we did pretty well against them."
Umile points to the Jason Krog days and a couple of home wins against Maine in 1999 that marked the birth of Whiteout the Whitt celebrations.
Several weeks later Maine got some revenge in Anaheim.
"They won a national championship against us," Souza said. "That's always difficult. When you go up there and look at that banner that hangs there and to know that you didn't do enough to get it done . . . It's frustrating. At the same time, that's a long ways in the past. But it will always be with all of us."
Souza went back to Alfond Arena for the first time in years last season as an assistant coach at Connecticut.
"It's great to be back in that rivalry," Souza said. "To have the opportunity to go back up there with UNH is exciting. I know the kids are really excited about it, as I'm sure their guys are, too."
Beyond the rivalry, the focus this weekend is on collecting points in the Hockey East standings.
"We need to put some wins together, whoever they're against," Stewart said. "It might as well be against them."
After going winless at 0-8-3 in their first 11 games, the Black Bears have won four straight home games. They were shut out in five of their first eight losses and scored a single goal in the other three.
They have scored 15 goals in the four wins, two against Vermont and two against Princeton.
Maine is 4-8-3 overall and 2-4-0 in Hockey East.
The Wildcats are 4-6-3 overall and 1-1-3 in the league. Led by the top two scorers in the country in sophomore Andrew Poturalski and junior Tyler Kelleher, they are averaging 3.62 goals per game. But they are also giving up 3.92 a contest.
Poturalski has 11 goals and 14 assists for 25 points and Kelleher is at 6-17-23. Their linemate, senior Dan Correale, is at 8-2-10. Junior defenseman Matias Cleland has two goals and nine assists.
Allen Lessels
@UNHInsider
Allen.Lessels@unh.edu
Yes, the longtime and oft-time bitter Hockey East foes are ramping up their rivalry in December.
Four of UNH's five games this month are against Maine, starting with a home-and-home series this weekend. Maine's schedule is even a bit more border-centric: All four of its games in December are against New Hampshire.
UNH's lone non-Maine game in the month is a game at the Whittemore Center on Friday, Dec. 11 at 7:30.
The Wildcat-Black Bear four-pack begins on Friday night at 7:30 at Alfond Arena in Orono. After the game, both team will get on the bus – they're taking separate buses, to be sure - and head down Interstate-95.
They play again on Saturday night at 7 at the Whittemore Center.
Limited tickets remain for Saturday's game and may be purchased by CLICKING HERE or calling the Whittemore Center Box Office at 603-862-4000. The UNH marketing office is also offering a Frozen Flex Pack of tickets for six games, including vouchers for food, that may be purchased by CLICKING HERE.
"It's UNH-Maine," said UNH coach Dick Umile. "It's respect, but it's a major rivalry game, just because of all the things that have happened over the years. When we go up there with their fans it's the same old chants. . . . Hopefully we'll have a good house here. The BC game was a tremendous atmosphere. The student section and the 'Cat Pack have been absolutely terrific. I think they're all catching on with the video board so it's gotten even more exciting."
UNH and Maine have both had had their early season struggles and are looking to get a boost heading into a holiday break. They meet again in another back-to-back series late in the month.
The teams play Tuesday, Dec. 29 at the Cross Insurance Arena in Portland and meet again Wednesday, Dec. 30 at 7:30 p.m. in the Verizon Wireless Arena in Manchester. Tickets for the Manchester game are also available and may be purchased by CLICKING HERE.
This week's games count in the Hockey East standings. The two games later in the month are non-league contests.
UNH and Maine also played four regular season games last season. When Hockey East added Notre Dame and Connecticut and switched to a format where league teams played each other only twice during the regular season, UNH and Maine decided to play the extra non-conference games.
The tentative plan for the next two-year cycle is that UNH and Maine will play one extra game next year in Portland and for the 2017-18 season play a non-league game in Manchester, Umile said.
For now, the team are gearing up to see a lot of each other in the next few weeks.
Umile's associate head coaches Mike Souza (from 1996-2000) and Glenn Stewart (1990-94) played for the Wildcats and have their share of UNH-Maine memories.
Each of them played against a Maine team that won the NCAA championship.
Paul Kariya led Maine to the title in 1993 and Souza played on the 1999 team that lost in overtime to Maine in the national title game in Anaheim.
"Oh geez, he was legit," Stewart said of Kariya. "It's been a fierce rivalry over the years. It was always tough going up there. In my four years we didn't win a game up there and we had some pretty good teams. We did get them here. I remember the lines of people outside Snively went all the way down the street. It was always pretty exciting and we did pretty well against them."
Umile points to the Jason Krog days and a couple of home wins against Maine in 1999 that marked the birth of Whiteout the Whitt celebrations.
Several weeks later Maine got some revenge in Anaheim.
"They won a national championship against us," Souza said. "That's always difficult. When you go up there and look at that banner that hangs there and to know that you didn't do enough to get it done . . . It's frustrating. At the same time, that's a long ways in the past. But it will always be with all of us."
Souza went back to Alfond Arena for the first time in years last season as an assistant coach at Connecticut.
"It's great to be back in that rivalry," Souza said. "To have the opportunity to go back up there with UNH is exciting. I know the kids are really excited about it, as I'm sure their guys are, too."
Beyond the rivalry, the focus this weekend is on collecting points in the Hockey East standings.
"We need to put some wins together, whoever they're against," Stewart said. "It might as well be against them."
After going winless at 0-8-3 in their first 11 games, the Black Bears have won four straight home games. They were shut out in five of their first eight losses and scored a single goal in the other three.
They have scored 15 goals in the four wins, two against Vermont and two against Princeton.
Maine is 4-8-3 overall and 2-4-0 in Hockey East.
The Wildcats are 4-6-3 overall and 1-1-3 in the league. Led by the top two scorers in the country in sophomore Andrew Poturalski and junior Tyler Kelleher, they are averaging 3.62 goals per game. But they are also giving up 3.92 a contest.
Poturalski has 11 goals and 14 assists for 25 points and Kelleher is at 6-17-23. Their linemate, senior Dan Correale, is at 8-2-10. Junior defenseman Matias Cleland has two goals and nine assists.
Allen Lessels
@UNHInsider
Allen.Lessels@unh.edu
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