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.