Mike M. writes: >There were an amazing 12,212 fans on hand (not including the many passes to >friends/family and VIPs that had most seats filled), and that's pretty good >considering UNH was the closest of the four teams playing tonight. Both >sides' fans were equally vocal and excited at the game's start although UNH >fans became a little quieter as their team fell behind by two and three goals >in the second. It wasn't just that the Wildcats were down two and three goals. It was that Maine completely shut down UNH's offense and didn't even give us any good chances to cheer for. The Black Bears did a fantastic Montreal Canadiens imitation, stifling any thoughts of a comeback that UNH might have had. It was by far the best defensive effort I've seen this year. I suspect only Lake Superior could match it. >The first period was all exciting, up-and-down action and >when Scott Morrow beat a defenseman to flip the puck by Mike Dunham at 4:01, >giving UNH a 1-0 lead, I thought the Garden would surely collapse as the UNH >fans went absolutely bonkers. You forgot to mention that The Fish made an appearance :-) > Any opponent faces the challenge of: >1) shutting down all four lines. The top three, at least, are all capable of > scoring at any time and if you match lines to go after one or even two, the > third will kill you. The top line lately has been the second line of Scott > Pellerin-Salfi-Ingraham, with the first line of Brian Downey-Montgomery- > Patrice Tardif being probably more powerful but also more closely watched, > which has allowed the Salfi line to break free. Not to mention that the > third line features Jean-Yves Roy (32-24--56!) along with Martin Robitaille > and Randy Olson. Good luck. I think the best coaching move Walsh made this year was taking Roy off the Downey-Montgomery line. By adding Roy to Robitaille's line (a very fine player who doesn't get much credit), Walsh created a third line with serious offensive potential. I agree, it's virtually impossible to shut all of these guys down. Against Providence, I felt that if UNH kept Klym-Chebator-Dexter (the Cats best defensive line) against Boback's line, they would do fine. But what do you do against Maine? >2) beating the Maine special teams. Maine has a tenacious shorthanded fore- > check the likes of which I don't think I have ever seen, and it isn't unusual > for teams to have trouble just getting the puck out of their zone. And > with players like the above-mentioned on the power play - sometimes with five > forwards at once - it's no surprise Maine's PP is humming along at 26-27%. I noticed that Walsh started off the second period (with about 30 seconds left on a UNH penalty) with five forwards. It looked like he wanted to put the game away right then and there. It didn't work, but Salfi did the damage later in the period. I think that the best way to beat Maine is to stay five-on-five as long as possible. Even four-on-four and three-on-three situations help Maine, because they have some incredibly good skating forwards. It is positively scary watching Jean-Yves Roy with that much ice to work with. Still, the tournament was a big success for UNH. Everyone I've talked to thinks that UNH has wrapped up an NC$$ bid, and some even think we could pick up the number two seed and a bye. I suspect SLU might sneak ahead of the Wildcats (even though UNH has a 6-1 victory against the Saints). But any NC$$ bid is fantastic for UNH. See you in Providence! Chris Go Blue!!