New Hampshire's two wins this weekend gets them into a fourth-place tie in
Hockey East with Providence at 9-8-2.  The two teams will definitely play
each other in the first round of the playoffs, the only question is where?
 
Friday night Providence visited Snively Arena and the two teams played a
fantastic game.  UNH had to win this game to have any chance of getting
home ice, and they came out flying.  Friars' goalie Brad Mullahy was up to
the task though, and kept Providence in the game.  UNH scored the only
goal of the period on the power play when defenseman Kevin Dean jumped
into the slot and fired home the rebound of a Savo Mitrovic shot.  The
Wildcats went ahead 2-0 on another PPG, this time by defenseman David
MacIntyre, whose slapshot deflected off a Providence defenseman into the
net.  Providence came back with a Mario Aube slapshot from the right
circle to end the 2nd period at 2-1.  Friars' star Rob Gaudreau tied the
score early in the 3rd, and Lyle Wildgoose scored shorthanded off an Aube
feed to give Providence the lead with less than 10 minutes to go.  UNH
tied it up at 14:46 when Mitrovic converted a nifty Bob Chebator feed from
the slot.  Then, at 19:50, the Wildcats won the game.  UNH worked a
Providence-zone faceoff back to MacIntyre at the left point.  Mullahy got
a piece of MacIntyre's slapshot, enough to deflect it wide of the far
side.  Unfortunately for Providence, Mitrovic was anchored off the far
post and put it away for the winning goal.  Snively was a madhouse.  Both
teams played a great game, and the playoff matchup should be great as
well, no matter where it's played.  The obvious "number one star" was
Mitrovic, who tallied 2 goals and 2 assists.  Had Providence pulled it
out, Mullahy undoubtedly would have been the star with his 42 saves.  This
win was UNH's 20th of the season -- they haven't won 20 since 1984.
 
Providence (19-7-2)	0  1  2 -- 3
New Hampshire (20-9-2)  1  1  2 -- 4
 
UNH	Kevin Dean (Savo Mitrovic, Domenic Amodeo), 4:40 (ppg).
UNH	David MacIntyre (Amodeo, Mitrovic), 10:04 (ppg).
Prov.	Mario Aube (Bob Cowan, Gary Socha), 12:41.
Prov.	Rob Gaudreau (Mike Boback, Shaun Kane), 1:11.
Prov.	Lyle Wildgoose (Aube), 10:42 (shg).
UNH	Mitrovic (Bob Chebator, Frank Messina), 14:46.
UNH	Mitrovic (MacIntyre, Messina), 19:50.
 
Saves:  Prov., Brad Mullahy 42; UNH, Jeff Levy 29.
 
Saturday night UNH travelled to Lowell and won 5-4 in overtime.  I don't
have much info (not even a box score from the Globe), but Kevin Thomson
scored his 2nd of the night with about 40 seconds left in OT to win it.