Interesting article from the Boston Globe that speaks to
the importance of this weekends series against BU.


COLLEGE HOCKEY NOTEBOOK

Wildcat strike may be on tap


By Jim McCabe, Globe Staff, 2/28/2002

he shortest month bids farewell today, and with it goes
the brief, but genuine concern New Hampshire coach Dick
Umile may have had about his team. With games against
Boston College Saturday (in Durham, N.H.) and Sunday (at
Conte Forum), Umile's Wildcats will end an impressive
regular season, and there's no doubt he's feeling better
about postseason play than he may have been two weeks
ago.



That's because his goaltending situation, precarious
only four weeks ago, is making him smile.

On Feb. 1, Michael Ayers got hurt in a 6-3 loss at
Maine. The tendon in his left wrist, his catching hand,
was painful enough, but doubly so because Matt Carney
was already sidelined with a concussion suffered Jan. 13
against Providence. Having your top two goaltenders hurt
is no way to go into the stretch drive, and it forced
Umile to make a call to a UNH club team for an emergency
goalie, Dan Carney(no relation).

Ah, but the wounds have healed nicely for the Wildcats,
who are ranked third in both national polls. First, Matt
Carney - a senior from Bridgewater - returned to the
lineup just after Ayers got hurt. Then Ayers - a
sophomore from Hingham - bounced back several weeks
quicker than anticipated. A double dose of good news for
the team that has been Hockey East's best all season.

Matt Carney got his first career shutout in a 3-0 win at
UMass-Lowell last Friday night, which was followed by
Ayers's first career shutout in a 6-0 blanking of the
University of Massachusetts Tuesday. The shutouts lifted
UNH to 23-6-3 overall, 15-4-3 in Hockey East. With 33
points, the Wildcats are 1 ahead of Boston University
(23-7-2, 15-5-2), 3 ahead of Maine (19-9-6, 13-5-4), and
clearly in control of their own fate. They could clinch
the regular-season title with a pair of wins over the
Eagles, which would set up a first-round playoff draw
with Merrimack (10-20-2, 5-15-2).

Of course, the Eagles have had their own fill of
injuries, but are finally back to full strength, a big
reason they have gone 5-1 since losing in the first
round of the Beanpot to BU.

Should UNH stumble against BC (18-14-2, 10-11-1), the
weekend series at Walter Brown Arena will take on even
greater significance. Maine plays BU tomorrow and
Saturday, with first place still a possibility for both
clubs, though there's also the fight for second.

Few players have faced pressure as great as Ayers and
Matt Carney, who are following in the footsteps of
goaltender Ty Conklin, a Hobey Baker finalist the
previous two seasons. But they've been superb, ranking
first (Ayers, 1.86) and third (Carney, 2.10) in goals-
against average in the conference and after a little
bump in the road - UNH was 1-2-1 in the aftermath of
Ayers's injury - the Wildcats appear to be well defended
for postseason play.

Rivalry renewed

A crucial game for Harvard and the opposition is Yale?
Sounds fitting, and that'll be the scenario tomorrow
night when the Crimson visit New Haven. Harvard, 10-7-3
in the ECAC (11-12-4 overall), has 23 points and is tied
for second with Clarkson and Dartmouth (both 9-6-5)
entering the final weekend of the regular season. Coach
Mark Mazzoleni's club, however, has a slight edge in
scheduling, with games against Yale (7-11-2, tied for
10th) and Princeton (8-10-2, eighth), while Clarkson and
Dartmouth face off Saturday night. (Clarkson has Vermont
tomorrow night; Dartmouth is at St. Lawrence.) If it
comes down to the top tiebreaker, Clarkson (1-0-1) has
the edge over Harvard, but the Crimson have the edge (1-
0-1) over the Big Green ... Only four Crimson - forwards
Tim Pettit, Tom Cavanagh , and Dennis Packard, and
defenseman Ryan Lannon - have appeared in all 27
games ... Junior forward Dominic Moore(9-16-25) leads
Harvard and, with 92 career points, is closing in on
membership to the 100-point club. The last Harvard
player to break through? Moore's brother Steve, last
year's senior captain ... Saturday's 4-0 win over Union
was the first collegiate shutout for Harvard freshman
goaltender Dov Grumet-Morris... Mazzoleni is probably
scratching his head about this one: The Crimson have
been outscored in the first (24-16) and second (30-23)
periods, but have outscored the opposition in the third
(38-27).

He's making a name

Darren Haydar(26 goals, 37 assists) is third in the
nation with 63 points and while he continues to be the
guy most teams have to watch when they play UNH, Colin
Hemingway is making foes think twice about their
defensive schemes. Hemingway, a junior from British
Columbia, is second in the nation with 28 goals - eight
in the last five games - and he has 52 points ... From
the strange-but-true dept.: When BC put up its biggest
goal output of the season (a 7-2 win over Northeastern
last Friday), it did so with its lowest shot output
(19) ... A.J. Walker, a junior forward from Minnesota,
is close to being fully recovered from a sprained knee
and could return to the BC lineup against UNH ... The
Eagles also have been riding some good goaltending play.
Junior Tim Kelleher was 3-0 in February, while freshman
Matti Kaltiainen has given up just five goals in four
home starts ... As for the lone sore spot with Boston
University, defenseman Pat Aufiero is still out with a
severe laceration just above his ankle, though his cast
was due to come off this week. There is hope he can
return within two weeks ... Sophomore Sean Fields became
the first BU goaltender to win 20 games in a season
since Scott Cashman(1989-90) when he helped the Terriers
beat Providence, 4-2, last Saturday. Fields is 20-5-2
and his .778 winning percentage is fifth-best in the
country ... The Terriers, by the way, went 8-0 in
February, their first perfect month of hockey since
December of 1995, when they went 7-0.

This story ran on page E6 of the Boston Globe on
2/28/2002.
© Copyright 2002 Globe Newspaper Company.