GAME DAY: #6 WOMEN'S HOCKEY PLAYS HOST TO VERMONT FOR TWO-GAME SERIES
NOTES | VIDEO | STATS | TICKETS
THE
MATCHUP
The University of New Hampshire women’s ice
hockey team, ranked sixth in both national polls, plays host to the
University of Vermont for a two-game series at the Whittemore
Center this weekend. Both games (Feb. 13 & 14) begin at two
o’clock.
Both games will be videostreamed online at unhwildcats.tv and live
stats will be available at www.unhwildcats.com.
UNH has a 21-1-0 lifetime record, including 12-0-0 at
home, against UVM, but the Catamounts were 2-1 victors in the most
recent “Battle of the ‘Cats” on Feb. 3 at
Gutterson Fieldhouse. Of UNH’s 21 victories, 14 have been by
shutout; that includes eight since Vermont joined Hockey East in
the 2006 season.
On Feb. 3, UVM scored in the opening minutes of the
game to take a 1-0 lead and in the closing minutes of the game to
break a 1-1 tie en rout to recorded a 2-1 win. Chelsea Rapin gave
the Catamounts the lead at 3:46 and the home team held that
one-goal advantage at the first intermission despite being outshot
9-6.
UNH scored the only goal of the second period
–Kristina Lavoie’s power-play tally at 14:08 –
and generated an 8-3 edge in shots in the middle stanza. The score
remained tied until Erin Wente scored with 2:28 remaining in the
game. New Hampshire pulled goaltender Lindsey Minton in favor of an
extra skater with 1:20 to play, but the UVM defense did not allow a
shot and cleared the puck with 60 seconds on the clock. The
Wildcats then iced the puck, forcing Minton back into net for the
last 50 seconds. The Catamounts’ defensive effort kept UNH at
bay the rest of the way and did not allow a shot to get through to
goalie Kristen Olychuck.
UNH finished the game with a 23-16 shot
advantage and was 1-for-5 on the power play (five shots) as well as
3-for-3 on the penalty kill (four shots allowed).
THE STATE OF NEW
HAMPSHIRE
New Hampshire is the only team with 10+ wins in Hockey East and
has secured a berth in the Hockey East Championship tournament. The
Wildcats, who play three of the last four regular-season games at
home, can finish anywhere from first through sixth in the
standings.
In all three games last week, the team that recorded
the shot advantage lost the game. That included a 5-2 loss Feb. 6
to Boston U. at the Whittemore Center despite limiting the Terriers
to nine shots (a season low by an opponent). The next day, UNH
recorded a season-low 18 shots at nationally-ranked UConn but
upended the Huskies, 4-1.
UNH’s overall special teams (power play + penalty kill) is
the best in the nation with a 60.8% success rate.
The Wildcats’ penalty kill was a perfect
3-for-3 in each of last week’s three games (vs. Vermont,
Boston U. and UConn). In the past six games, the PK is 27-for-28
(96.4%).
UNH is 14-0-3 when scoring three or more goals in a game. The
Wildcats have scored multiple power-play goals 10 times are have an
8-1-1 record in those games.
The ‘Cats have surrendered the
game’s first goal 15 times and are 8-6-1 in those games; in
comparison, UNH is 8-0-4 when taking a 1-0 lead.
In 15 league games, UNH has outscored the
opposition 21-10 in the third period. In comparison, the
‘Cats have a 13-12 scoring edge in the first period and 18-14
in the second.
UNH has five Hockey East losses this season
– the Wildcats lost a total of four league games combined in
the previous four seasons (2006-09). To put this in perspective,
however, Boston College, Boston University, UConn, Maine,
Northeastern and Vermont have lost at least four league games every
year. Providence is the only exception, as the Friars had one
league loss in ‘03 but have had 4+ conference losses every
season thereafter.
'CAT
NIPS
Freshman forward Kristina Lavoie has scored a
goal each of the last 11 games, which spans Dec. 9, 2009 to Feb. 7,
2010. Lavoie leads UNH rookies in goals (16) and points (25);
overall, the 16 goals are a team high – as are the seven
power-play goals and .200 shooting percentage – and she ranks
third in points.
Micaela Long tied her career high of three assists
Feb. 7 at nationally-ranked UConn.
Lindsey Minton stopped 24 of 25 shots to backbone UNH
to a 4-1 road win against nationally-ranked UConn on Feb. 7. With
that effort, Minton and the Wildcats also stopped UConn’s
nine-game winning streak and 11-game unbeaten streak (10-0-1).
Kelly Paton became the 14th UNH Wildcat to reach
the 150-point milestone Feb. 6 with an assist vs. Boston
University. She enters the weekend with a point in five consecutive
games after factoring in five of the team’s seven goals last
week (1g, 4a).
With her next two minutes of playing time, Kayley Herman will
climb into fourth place on UNH’s career leaderboard for
minutes played. She currently has 4388:55 and Dina Solimini
(1994-96) is at 4390:44.
UNH could have as many as seven double-digit
goal scorers this season. Kristina Lavoie (16), Kelly Paton (15)
and Micaela Long (10) have already reached that total, while
Courtney Birchard (9), Julie Allen (8), Kelly Cahill (8) and
Kristine Horn (8) are on the cusp of that threshold.
IT'S BEEN A
WHILE...
Kristina Lavoie’s current 11-game goal-scoring
streak is the longest by a Wildcat since Karyn Bye (‘93)
recorded a 14-game streak from Nov. 20, 1990 to Feb. 1, 1991 (20
goals in 14 games).
Micaela Long’s 17-game point-scoring
streak (Oct. 24–Jan. 30) was the longest in a single season
by a ‘Cat since Sam Faber also had a mark of 17 games in
2006.
Long’s mark of an assist in eight
consecutive games (Dec. 8–Jan. 30) was the longest
single-season streak since 2007, when Sadie Wright-Ward also
tallied an assist in eight straight games.
DEVELOPING THE
PLAYOFF PICTURE
With two weekends remaining in the regular season, not
much has been decided in the Hockey East standings. The top five
teams – Providence, UConn, Northeastern, UNH and Boston U.
– have secured a league tournament berth and are separated by
only four points.
PC and UConn control their own destiny –
either will finish atop the Hockey East standings by winning the
remaining four games on the schedule. UNH, even by winning out,
needs help to earn a seventh consecutive regular-season title.
THIS DATE IN
HISTORY -- VALENTINE'S DAY EDITION
This will mark the second consecutive year –and
also only the second time in UNH’s 33-year history –
that New Hampshire plays on both Feb. 13th and 14th. The Wildcats
have a 7-1-0 record, including last year’s 3-2 road win
against Providence, on Feb. 13 and a 4-0-1 mark on
Valentine’s Day (4-1 victory last year vs. PC).
"OPERATION HAT
TRICK" CONTINUES
Last season, the University of New Hampshire athletic
department announced the creation of a special project called
“Operation Hat Trick,” an initiative that will give
baseball hats to injured military personnel. This year’s
Operation Hat Trick festivities will be held at the Feb. 13 game
vs. Vermont.
For every two hats sold (suggested retail price
of $19.95 each), a third will be donated to the VA Hospital’s
Recreation Therapy program. Six local retailers, including an
online provider, have committed to the project by selling the hats
through their outlets. The retailers are: UNH Bookstore, Hayden
Sports, Town & Campus, Sportdesigns.com, Friends of Men’s
Hockey, Friends of Women’s Hockey and UNH Athletics.
Operation Hat Trick was launched at the UNH
men’s hockey game vs. Providence on Nov. 22, 2008, and
women’s hockey had its special presentation Friday, Dec. 5,
2008 vs. Harvard.
Members of the hockey teams wore Operation Hat Trick hats during
introductions and then tossed each personally autographed hat into
the crowd. Three team-signed hats were raffled off with proceeds
going to the VA Hospital Recreation Therapy program. In
mid-December, members of each hockey team traveled to the VA
Hospital to meet and greet patients and to deliver the first group
of hats.
Click
here for more information about Operation Hat Trick or to view
the product.
CAPTAIN
PATON
Senior forward Kelly Paton is captain of the 2010 UNH
Wildcats. She has received five league accolades this season with
three Pure Hockey Player of the Week awards (Nov. 2; Nov. 23: Nov.
30) and two Player of the Month honors (October; November).
Paton reached double digits in both goals (10)
and assists (16) in just the 14th game of the season. She currently
has 15 goals and 27 assists to lead the team in points; she also
has a team-best plus/minus rating of +16. Paton ranks second in
goals, game-winning goals (three), assists, shots (102) and
plus/minus (+15); furthermore, she is fourth in power-play goals
(four) and fifth in shooting percentage (.147).
In 17 Hockey East league games, she has tallied
23 points on eight goals and 15 assists.
Paton opened the 2010 season with a 12-game
point-scoring streak in which she tallied seven goals and 15
assists for 22 points. That streak also included a stretch of seven
consecutive games with an assist at the start of the season.
Paton, who carries a five-game point-scoring
streak into the weekend, has a point in 23 of 27 games with 10
multiple-point efforts. She matched her career highs of three
assists and four points Dec. 12 at Dartmouth to factor in all of
the team’s goals in the 4-1 victory; that included a span of
5:37 in which she tallied three points.
WILDCATS IN THE
NATION
Junior defenseman Courtney Birchard is ranked
among the top 10 in three statistics – defensemen scoring
(6th, 0.81 points per game), game-winning goals (4th, four) and
power-play goals (8th, six).
Senior forwards Kelly Paton and Micaela Long are
ranked in the top 10 in a pair of statistics. Paton is fourth in
assists (1.00 per game) and fifth in points (1.56 per game) while
Long is second in assists (1.15 apg) and sixth in points (1.52
ppg).
Freshman forward Kristina Lavoie has ascended to
#15 in the nation in goals (0.59 gpg). She is also fourth in
power-play goals (seven) and fifth in rookie scoring (0.93
ppg).
Kristine Horn, another freshman forward, is
currently 15th in rookie scoring at 0.70 points per game.
Junior goaltender Kayley Herman checks in at
12th in GAA (1.87) and sophomore goalie Lindsey Minton is 18th
(2.02).
A LONG TIME
COMING
Senior forward Micaela Long has been a consistent
point producer in her four years as a Wildcat – she has
recorded double digits in both goals and assists every season. This
year, Long has taken that consistency to a new level – she
has recorded a point in 24 of 27 games (with point-scoring streaks
of six and a team-best 17 games) to factor in 41 of the
team’s 85 goals.
Long tallied a goal and an assist Jan. 29 at
Maine and then recorded an assist in the Jan. 30 game vs. the Black
Bears to extend her point-scoring streak to 17 games; she tallied
six goals and 21 assists in that span (1.59 ppg). She had an assist
each of the last eight games of that streak.
Long had seven multiple-point efforts during the
17-game point-scoring streak as part of 10 multiple-point games
(seven multiple-assist efforts) overall this season.
Most recently, she matched her career high of
three assists to lead UNH to a 4-1 road victory against
nationally-ranked UConn; Long tallied an assist on each of the
team’s last three assists.
Long leads the team in assists (31) and is
second in both points (41) and plus/minus (+15). In other
statistics, she is third in both goals (10) and shots (94) as well
as tied for fourth in power-play goals (4).
In 17 Hockey East league games, Long has tallied
25 points on five goals and 20 assists.
