A little late, but since I have not seen any notes on UNH's weekend games, I thought I
might add some.
NEW ARENA
        This was my first trip to see a game at the new arena.  It was tremendously
bright, comfortable, had a bunch of new consession stands, and had pregame light show
and on-ice entertainment. Boy I miss the old Snively, where people came to see the
game, where people were scrunched together on the wooden bleachers, and there was a
sense of comradarie.  The wooden thud from stomping feet, and the close proximity of
the fans to the ice and the fans on the other side seemed to involve the fans more.  I
felt it was a shame that the game has to take to much of an "entertainment factor."
        That said, the rink was very nice for what it is -- much like BC and Providence
(it actually reminded me of a game I saw last year in the O-rena in Orlando, FL). As a
number of the recruits have said, its one of the nicest "barns" in college.  I ran
into former coach Charlie Holt, who said he liked the rink, so if its good enough for
that traditionalist, that counts for something.
 
UNH's Play
        I saw the second game of the series, a 9-4 UNH victory.  It was hard to get a
good read on the game, because of the many penalties. UNH's forwards were truly
flying, a fact which took a lot of the pressure off the new defense.  The D then only
had to make quick outlet passes to the forwards, who then skated it into the NU end.
There were few individual rushes, though, and most of the offense came from passing
combos.
        As I said, the D (which is the question mark) was called upon to do little puck
handling. Tim Murray was the exception for UNH's defense, and he handled the puck much
better than I have seen him in the past.  I was truly impressed. The rest of the
defense did not really try to do too much with the puck, so Bragnalo and O'Brien had
few touches in the transition game. Filipowicz made good passes, but is not a rusher.
On D, some of the frosh seemed to have some trouble handling NU's forwards one-on-one.
 
        In the NU zone, the forward lines had a great understanding of where the others
were going to be, and so they passed the puck deep in the zone well, working their way
to the front of the net for quick shots. NU's defense seemed to be in a man-to-man,
and just was not up to speed.  Coach Umile has broken up the Mowers, Boguniecki
Nickulas line to spread the scoring, which seemed to work.  Krog is off to a great
season, although he is not at all noticable, just opportunistic.  The frosh line of
Souza, Sadowski and Shipulski also looked good, and got more than just the token
fourth line duty most of Umile's freshman lines get.  For a walk-on, the reports on
Shipulski are good.  I also thought Brian Larochelle made some nice saves.
 
NU's Play
        Although he got chased from the game, Marc Robitaille is a keeper.  He made a
number of good save, and made a number of point-blank saves.  NU's new forwards,
Barclay, Holeczy and particularly Newsom were good and opportunistic.  Some of the
older, bigger guys just didn't seem at home on the bigger ice (particularly Brad
Mahoney).  I guess with some help on D, NU will be OK in a few years. After years when
UNH has on the losing end of big scores, I felt some sympathy for the NU guys.  (In
response to the post about the "we want more" chant after goals, it is a staple after
all goals, and it would have been curious to cease it after "enough" goals had been
scored).
 
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