Well, at least they refuse to lose at the rate everyone predicted. ;)
 
Can't write a lot about these games since I'm so busy, but wanted to jot down a
few quips at least.
 
First of all, the Lowell freshman were silent. It was Lowells' seniors who really
came through this weekend. Especially, Ryan Sandholm with 9 points and HockeyEast
Player of the Week honors.
 
UNH embarrased Lowell on Friday. The were completely dominating, especially on
the power-play and I left in awe of the UNH power. Lowell did make it 4-2 but
found it 8-2 not before long. They scored a couple of late goals and played
really strong for the last ten minutes. Lowell started actually connecting on a
few passes and actually giving UNH a somewhat hard time as the entered the Lowell
zone.
 
The game was extremely chippy, regardless of whoever was referee. These players
were really taking runs at eachother. Lowell's Nicholishen was slammed hard and
although he stood right back up ... it was clear he had little idea of where he
was. Two Lowell players had to catch him from falling and help him off the ice.
He recovered nicely.
 
UNH's Nickalus was involved in a tangle and thrown out which prompted him to
swear obsenities ... one after another ... as he left the ice. A Lowell fan
started calling him a "scumbag" in an obsessed, frantic manner (which left us all
a little amused and somewhat embarrassed.) A UNH coach saw this fan leaning over
the runway wall yelling at Nickalus and the coach threw a fit. The fan had
returned to his seat by the time the cops arrived and the police had a real hard
time being sure they had the right man once the coach had pointed him out. You
see, the man looked terribly meek and innocent. It was quite hilarious watching
the cops expression as they realized they indeed had the right man. They must
have asked the coach three times "Are you sure its THIS guy?". This coach was
incredibly irate and I feel he terribly over-reacted. Quite a hot-head!
 
Lowell came back in a big way on Saturday. Right from the start (well, actually
after UNH scored :17 into the game), Lowell played inspired, tight, clean and
effective hockey. All night long they thwarted UNH's attack soon after they would
enter the Lowell zone. There were very few defensive lapses. UNH scored most of
their goals on pretty rushes and if they didn't score, they got very few second
chances. Lowell on the other hand actually demonstrated some great offensive
pressure and scored several goals from this.
 
The game was clean for the most part but the officials got some horrendous
treatment for some of their calls. The third period was 5-3 Lowell for more than
half of it until UNH scored one to pull within a goal. Lowell didn't choke though
and carried a lot of the play from 10:00 to about 16:00 (including a PP-goal
around 15:30 making it 6-4). UNH got whistled again for a blatant interference
call on a Lowell "crash-the-net" play with about 4:00 to play. While they were
trying to kill the penalty, a UNH player on his knees reached out to grab a loose
puck and fling it behind him. He was just trying to get it out of the slot but he
flung it up into the crowd. Delay-of-game was called and the crowd was furious.
What did they expect? You can't grab the puck and fling it out of the
rink...especially when its right in front of your net in the midst of the
opponent's pressure. Anyhow, UNH played shorthanded quite a bit (sometimes
5-on-3) until they returned to even strength. Lowell freshman Greg Koehler put
one in the empty net at 18:16 to make it 7-4 before UNH's freshman Sadowski
scored the final tally at 19:02 on a real nice rush. UNH's freshman tallied
several points throughout the weekend, especially Mike Souza who earned
HockeyEast Rookie of the Week honors with five points.
 
The same coach who flipped out after during the Friday game pulled the same thing
after the game while the teams were shaking hands. He chased the officals around
the ice, berating each of them very loudly and much to the pleasure of the UNH
crowd.
 
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