University of Massachusets Athletics
No. 8 Minutemen To Tangle With No. 5 UNH
December 10, 2003 | Hockey
Dec. 10, 2003
Minutemen to play New Hampshire in final home game before Holiday break...
The eighth-ranked University of Massachusetts hockey team will battle its fifth ranked foe of the season as fifth-ranked New Hampshire comes calling. It will be the final home game in almost a month and final conference game before the Holiday break.
At stake for UMass...
There are several issues on the line for the Minutemen in UMass' contest with the Wildcats:
? New Hampshire is sporting an eight-game winning streak over the Minutemen. UMass is looking for its first win over the Wildcats since Toot Cahoon's first year at UMass.
? With a win, The Minutemen can enter the Holiday break no worse than third in the Hockey East standings.
? Lastly, the Minutemen can reach double-digit victories before Christmas for only the second time in school history, the other being last season.
UMass slapshots...
The Minutemen's contest with Boston University on Sunday afternoon was postponed for a date to be determined after the weekend's Nor'Easter. When the puck drops on Thursday night, it will be 12 days in between games for the Minutemen.
? The Minutemen have held 19 straight foes to 30 shots or less.
? UMass is 7-0-1 on all days except Friday.
? The Minutemen can reach double-digit victories with a win tonight, the earliest in school history. The previous quickest was last season on Dec. 12.
About New Hampshire...
New Hampshire enters tonight's game with a 10-4-1 overall mark and sit tied with UMass for third in Hockey East. The Wildcats started the season 6-1-0 and ranked No. 1 in the country, but have since gone 4-3-1 in the their last eight games and have allowed 27 goals over that span.
Steve Saviano leads a balanced attack with 21 points, and five others have at least 10 points. Goalie Mike Ayers has struggled at times this year, but is one of the nation's top netminders nonetheless.
Fit to be tied...
? Fourteen games into the season, the Minutemen have already surpassed the number of ties of last year's squad. The Minutemen have posted two 1-1 ties in the last four games. Entering the season, the Minutemen were only 4-51-3 when scoring two goals or less under Coach Cahoon. Already this year, the Minutemen are 2-3-2 when scoring two or fewer goals.
Broken streaks...
? The Minutemen saw a seven-game winning road winning streak end Nov. 28 against Nebraska-Omaha, 7-2. All seven of the wins came against Hockey East teams, and three of them were against teams ranked in the top 15 nationally. Despite the loss, the Minutemen are still riding a seven-game conference road winning streak. The loss to the Mavericks also ended an 11-game non-conference unbeaten streak. The Minutemen entered the weekend with a 10-0-1 record over their last 11 non-conference road games, and UNO was the last non-conference team to beat the Minutemen, back on Oct. 27, 2002. Nonetheless, UMass is still sporting a seven-game winning streak against ECAC foes, with Harvard on the slate coming up. On the other end, Cahoon is now 0-5-2 all-time against teams from the CCHA.
Coming out in droves...
? The Mullins Center is starting to turn into a strong home-ice advantage. The Minutemen are 16-9-1 at home since the start of last season. Over the last 13 games, the Mullins Center has posted six of the top 11 attendance figures and averaged over 4,000 fans through the turnstiles. The Nov. 14 crowd of 7,113 against Boston College was the largest ever to see a UMass hockey game in the Mullins Center. The Minutemen are averaging over 4,000 fans a game (at home and on the road) and Friday's crowd of 8,414 was the sixth-largest crowd to ever see a UMass team play.
TGI Not Friday...
? It appears that the Minutemen appear to be starting their weekends a bit too early. UMass is only 2-3-1 on Fridays this season, and are 0-2-1 in the last three Friday games. However, UMass is now 2-0-1 when following up Friday's loss with a Saturday game and are 7-0-1 on all other days. In all, the Minutemen are 3-0-1 on the second night of a two-game set.
Where is the offense...
? Over the last six games, the Minuteman offense has struggled en route to a 2-2-2 record. UMass has scored only 12 goals in that time, after opening the season with 29 goals in the first eight games. During the same time frame, the Minutemen have allowed only 17 goals, showing a vast improvement in defense from last year.
Recapping November...
? Despite the offensive struggles lately, the Minutemen ended November with a 5-2-2 record, including a 4-1-1 mark in Hockey East that propeled them near the top of the Hockey East standings. This is the latest that UMass has been near the top of the Hockey East standings in school history. Over the past two seasons, UMass is 11-5-2 during the second-to-last month, including a 7-4-1 Hockey East mark.
Rebounding nicely...
? The UMass penalty-kill unit had a rough night on Nov. 28 against UNO allowing four power-play goals (on eight tries) for the first time since Colorado College accomplished the feat on Oct. 27, 2001. However, the team responded by holding the Mavericks to 0-for-5 on the power play with only three shots on Saturday night.
Rock-solid defense...
? The UMass defense has been rock-solid this year, en route to a 9-3-2 record, the best start for a UMass team since joining Hockey East in 1994-95. The Minutemen are allowing only 21.6 shots per game, 2.5 goals per game and haven't allowed a foe to record over 30 shots all season. The Minutemen have posted their first shutout since the 2001-02 season and have held opponents scoreless in 21 of the 44 periods (including overtime). UMass has allowed only three opponents to score four or more goals in a game.
Multi-point madness...
? The UMass offensive balance is starting to show through as 11 different players have posted 22 multi-point games so far this season. The leaders are Thomas P?ck with six and Chris Capraro with five. There have been six players with seven multi-goal games and six players with 11 multi-assist games.
Hockey East leaderboard...
? The Minutemen are well-represented on the Hockey East leaderboards. Thomas P?ck ranks fourth in scoring in all games played and Chris Capraro is tied for 12th. Gabe Winer ranks fifth in goals against average in all games played. As a team in Hockey East games, the Minutemen are third in team defense and third on the penalty kill.
Terrific Thomas...
? UMass' senior defenseman Thomas P?ck has set the tone for a resurgent UMass hockey team. Since his switch from forward to defenseman last season, the Minutemen are 27-17-3, and his scoring has erupted. He has moved into at tie for 14th on the school's all-time scoring list (with Hall of Famer Russ Kidd), thanks to his 19 points this season. He now has 80 career points (37 g, 43 a) and ranks seventh on the school's Division I scoring list. He was named UMass' first preseason All-America in school history when he was named a second-team selection by insidecollegehockey.com. He is currently the nation's leader among defenseman in points per game at 1.36 ggp, and is 13th among all players. P?ck has scored at least two points in six of the 14 games so far this season and has tallied points in all but two contests this season. He recently surpassed Brad Norton as the school's all-time leading scoring defenseman. He played in his 100th career game on Nov. 7 against Merrimack and celebrated by becoming the 10th player in UMass Division I history to tally at least two goals in two straight games. He was named Hockey East Defensive Player of the Week following his four-point weekend against the Warriors, and was named Hockey East Player of the Month for November after scoring 11 points (6 g, 5 a) in leading the Minutemen to a 5-2-2 mark during the month.
Magnificent Mauldin...
? Junior forward Greg Mauldin has led the Minutemen in scoring the last two seasons and is expecting another big season in 2003-04. He already ranks 16th on the school's all-time scoring list and is eighth on the school's Division I scoring list with 76 points. He was named an honorable mention All-Hockey East performer last season after ranking seventh in the league in scoring. Mauldin started last year slow, scoring just six points in the first 10 games, but finished 2002-03 by scoring 35 points in the last 27 games. He was the first Minuteman since 1996-97 to score 40 points in a season and was UMass' first-ever finalist for the Walter Brown Award. He scored his first multi-point game of the season with two assists against Providence, and had scored at least two points in three straight games, ending against Nebraska-Omaha in the first game of the series. The two points against Merrimack on Nov. 8 marked his 22nd career multi-point game. Both of his points against Merrimack on Nov. 8 came on goals, his first multi-goal game of the season. He and teammate, Thomas P?ck, give the Minutemen bona fide Hobey Baker candidates.
Solid sophomores...
? After P?ck and Mauldin, a trio of sophomores have also picked up the scoring reigns for the Minutemen. Forward Chris Capraro is second on the team with 14 points (3 g, 11 a) and has two game-winning goals on the season. Stephen Werner (3 g, 6 a) and Marvin Degon (1 g, 8 a) are ranked fourth on the squad in scoring. Werner is UMass' first-ever honoree on the U.S. Junior National Team, and will play in the World Championships in Finland on Dec. 26 to Jan. 4. Degon ranks 22nd among the nation's defensemen, averaging 0.64 points a game. His eight assists are tied for ninth among the country's blueliners.
