New Hampshire 6, Maine 3 Friday November 15, 1996 at Whittemore Center (Durham, NH) Maine 2 - 0 - 1 -- 3 (4-3-1, 0-2-1 last in Hockey East) UNH 0 - 5 - 1 -- 6 (6-2-0, 5-0-0 first in Hockey East) DURHAM, N.H. -- Tom Nolan scored two second period goals, as the Wildcats of New Hamphshire rode a five-goal second period outburst to blow out the University of Maine 6-3 Friday night. PREGAME: Maine was severely handicapped in this game missing three starters: Jason Vitorino (knee), Scott Parmentier (back), and Jason Mansoff (elbow). All three are significant losses, especially Mansoff which means Maine would have to play two former-forwards at defense since Maine is very weak at the blue line. FIRST PERIOD: This was one of the strangest games I've witnessed since I've started following Maine hockey. The first period would start teriffic for Maine, and certainly not the way Dick Umile drew it up for the Wildcats. Three seconds into his first shift, Tom Nolan was whistled for tripping and Maine would go on the power play. UNH's penalty kill has put up incredible numbers this year. They have killed off 93 percent of all penalties in Hockey East play, and 91 percent in all their games total. Shawn Wansborough would take a bite out of that. Bobby Stewart dropped the puck to Wansborough who went top shelf for his second goal of the year at 2:09 into the game, and Maine led 1-0. The first period started with both teams playing very physical, especially UNH. Neither of these two teams are known for their hitting, but Maine needed to be able to play the body in order to succeed. In the first period they were effective in this department. Alfie Michaud was also oustanding. Though he was only credited with six saves, they were all quality shots. Maine defensemen and forwards were coming back into their zone and getting in front of many UNH shots. Leo Wlasow was very effective in this department. UNH was also keeping the majority of the play in the Maine defensive zone, despite not getting a lot of shots on goal. To Maine's credit they were primarily doing their job because UNH was not getting second shots, which is key to any successful Maine campaign. After killing off two UNH power plays, the latter being a bad elbowing penalty by Shawn Wansborough, Maine would score again. As Wansborough stepped out of the box, Matt Oliver made a great, diving play and broke in alone on LaRochelle. Wansborough attoned wristing a shot by the junior netminder to put Maine up 2-0 at the 16:28 mark of the period. Jason Price played a good period on defense. He got some time on the penalty kill and did a good job, especially when you consider that he had only one day to prepare for this weekend's contest at defense. Maine generated seven shots on goal, and even though they led 2-0 it was a cautious lead as UNH had the edge in play and how Maine came out to play the second period would entirely dictate the rest of the game. SECOND PERIOD: The second period would play out as one of the worst periods that a Maine hockey team has ever played. UNH would score five times, and completely disoriented the Black Bears. The period started well enough, as Maine began on the power play. However Reg Cardinal failed to beat LaRochelle when the UNH netminder was down, and out of position after a great pass from Cory Larose. After Jason Price broke up a 2-on-1 break for the Wildcats the play went downhill from there. Tom Nolan went around the Maine net and attempted to pass the puck in front, but Alfie Michaud didn't see the play knocked it into his own net (either with his stick or skate) at the 3:25 mark of the period to make it 2-1. From then on Maine was not able to turn it around. UNH took the goal and used it as a way to generate momentum, and Maine was unable to handle the pressure. Not long after the UNH goal, Brian White took a bad penalty for elbowing. The momentum clearly had shifted fully to UNH at this point, and now going on the power play. Not long after the penalty expired, UNH would get the equalizer. Michaud lost his stick and threw his body on the ice and stacked the pads but Eric Nickulas beat him anyways from the slot at 8:35. Former Maine goaltender Blair Marsh said that at this point Michaud seemed to be losing the confidence he exhibited in the first period, and it would only get worse from there. Michaud would have more trouble on the next UNH goal. Michaud tripped as he came across the crease, but it's not all his fault. Derek Bekar was all alone and easily beat Michaud for a 3-2 UNH lead at 12:58. The goal was a 4-on-4 goal as Reg Cardinal and Jason Shipulski were in the box. Maine had the chances to get back in this game at this point. Reg Cardinal missed another quality opportunity, and with 5:35 Maine went on the power play. This very key moment started poorly as Maine had trouble getting anyone in front of LaRochelle to make it difficult to see, but it ended even worse. As the power play expired freshman John Sadowski had a partial breakaway but was pulled down by Cory Larose. Referee Frank Cole awarded Sadowski a penalty shot. Maine disagreed passionately, most likely citing the idea that Sadowski did not have a clean breakaway and he was not shooting. Maine assistant captain Dan Shermerhorn landed himself in the box with a 10-minute misconduct pleading Maine's case. The game went on, and Sadowski converted his penalty shot at 16:37 to make it a 4-2 game. The penalty shot ended up being the game winning goal. Maine was completely shell-shocked by this point in time, and UNH would tally once more for good measure. Once again with the play 4-on-4 Maine allowed another break as Tom Nolan snuck behind the defense and beat Michaud for a 5-2 lead after two periods of play. The second period was characterized by crucial lapses by the Black Bears. In the first period Maine gave the puck away several times but Michaud held them in and the defense got back into the play to take away second chances. In the second, Maine gave the puck away more and UNH capitalized this time. Michaud's quick found confidence in the first, broke just as quick in the second and UNH just came at Maine in waves. UNH didn't pummell Maine with shots, but they got several odd-man rushes and made them count. THIRD PERIOD: Maine had a power play to begin the third, and a quick goal might stop the bleeding and put Maine on the right track. That would not happen as only seconds into the third, Jeff Libby took Derek Bekar down and evened the play off at 4-on-4. Michaud gained a little confidence at the beginning of this period as he made a couple good saves, but the odd-man rushes continued and UNH netted one more goal. On the rush, Eric Boguniecki scored at 3:53 of the third to extend the UNH lead to 6-2. Maine couldn't control the rebound on the original save, and Boguniecki put it home for the goal. UNH would continue to outskate Maine for most of the beginning part of this period, and did generate a few more odd-man rushes. UNH had almost had a couple more goals as a tip by Nickulas just went wide, and Boguniecki hit the post. Maine was clearly frustrated, and Wansborough would get assessed Maine's second 10-minute misconduct. Once again Maine would get the chance to stop the bleeding. Rob Gagnon buried Reg Cardinal in the corner and was given the gate for a 5-minute hitting from behind major and a game misconduct. On the ensuing five minute power play, Maine generated no quality chances and UNH easily killed it off. The latter stages of the period featured several matching penalties, and Maine got their final goal when Steve Kariya and Matt Oliver just went to the net. Oliver was key to the goal as he just went to the net, but Kariya got the goal, his team leading sixth, with just 12 seconds to go. Oliver had two assists in the game. UNH club goaltender Nate Armstrong, on the roster after Eric Soltys left the team, played the final 12 seconds. POSTGAME -- UNH: Dick Umile has to be happy with his team's performance tonight. Many people criticize the Wildcats for folding after going down by a few goals. It was ironic that it was Maine who folded when the going got tough, and it was UNH who stepped up and got the job done. This is also sweet justice for UNH. UNH played poorly during stretches last year, finished sixth, and got swept out of the Hockey East playoffs handily by the Black Bears. Tonight, they were clearly the better team. Greg Cronin has been talking about UNH this year, and Maine fans can now see why. UNH still has some of the best forwards in Hockey East, and while they might not have 4 scary lines, they do have two lines that can score on anyone and everyone in Hockey East. They are fast and they can finish. What makes it worse for opponents is that UNH's defense is improved from last year. And if Hockey East fans needed more to worry about, highly touted goaltender Sean Matile becomes eligible next week. UNH is a top quality team, and they are going to challenge for the Hockey East title. New Hampshire is now 6-2-0, and off to their best start in Hockey East at 5-0-0, tied for first with Boston University who beat Northeastern 5-2 tonight. POSTGAME -- MAINE: Maine had times last year (6-2 loss to BC, 7-3 loss to NU) where they got blown out, but tonight's case was entirely different from those. Maine played a good first period, and had the lead and the opportunity to increase that. It was not like Maine showed up and UNH beat them into the ground from the start. Because of that it's pretty hard to blame the loss on the fact that Maine was missing three starters. Certainly it was a factor, especially the loss of Jason Mansoff. Maine's defense was weak at best in the second and third period and Mansoff is a good defenseman, he would have helped. The key isn't necessarily who was on the ice, but what they did while they were there. UNH had odd-man rush, after odd-man rush. Maine's defense simply did not do the job, and the forwards didn't come back and play defense very well from the second period on. Michaud didn't have a good night, but no goaltender is going to fare well against the quality chances UNH was getting. Where did the physical play go? Maine played the body well in the first period, and did a pretty good job at bottling up UNH. That was not the case in the second period, UNH seemed to be able to wheel at will. The third period was more of the same. Finally, disipline was a huge problem tonight. To take two 10-minute misconducts, and several ill-advised penalties is something that is going to annoy Greg Cronin immensely. Cronin, and Maine in general, preaches good disipline and it wasn't there tonight. Maine took 46 penalty minutes tonight. Maine needs to focus on what they did right in the first period and work from there. This is a young team, and the injury bug has hit, but they are still capable of playing at a higher level than they showed tonight. The penalty kill was good tonight killing all six UNH power plays. Maine is now 4-3-1, 0-2-1 in Hockey East. Maine currently resides in last-place. The last time a Maine team has lost two straight road games was sometime back in the late 1980's, so Saturday's rematch will be a key game for Maine. --- Deron Treadwell ([log in to unmask])