photo by Karen Winger

Well the game at Niagara had all the markings of a trap game.  You had the tough trip to the Western end of New York for just one game, an odd start time, Niagara honoring their first NCAA team, and a frustrated Purple Eagle squad returning home after holding their own on a brutal road schedule with nothing to show for it.  I was ready for a letdown but luckily it never came.  The Minutemen came out strong and posted a 4-2 win to improve to 6-1-0 on the year.

In the preview I wrote on Friday I said that special teams would be key this weekend.  Well little did I know that we would see only two penalties called on Sunday.  This was good however as it was good to see UMass able to score goals five on five after relying on their power play for much of the season so far.  Toot kept with the Marcou/Wellman/Hobbs line that we saw at the end of Friday’s game and it paid off with those three accounting for six points yesterday.  With UMass down 1-0 after the first Mike Marcou tied the game up in the second with another setup from his brother and Casey Wellman.  Just fifty seconds later Will Ortiz fired a shot from long that caught NU goaltender Adam Avramenko sleeping to give the Minutemen the 2-1 lead while Avramenko got the gate.  NU would tie it up again with a goal by Ryan Olidis but UMass would dominate in the 3rd and seal the victory with a goal each from James Marcou and Wellman.  Dan Meyers made 25 saves in his season debut and appeared to be solid given the remarks of John Hennessy and Brock Hines on the broadcast.  Mike Lecomte and Kevin Czepiel both were injured late but I’m not sure if they came back at all afterward.  I don’t remember hearing their names called.  One bit of good news from the pregame is that Chase Langeraap, Rocco Carzo, and T.J. Syner are all expected to return sometime this month.

Fear The Triangle Player of the Game – Casey Wellman
Casey continues his strong play as he had the game-winner as well as a couple assists.

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Here’s the recap from USCHO that talks about some nice changes UMass was able to generate on the PK.

Toot says the team still has to get better in the Collegian weekend recap.

Here’s how things looked from the Niagara point of view.

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Well after being disappointed with giving up a late lead on Friday to tie UVM Lowell came out Sunday and stomped UNH 6-3 to move into first place in Hockey East.  BU lost twice this weekend, Friday to Northeastern but more surprisingly to Maine on Sunday.  That puts the Terriers at 2-5-0 on the season.  Maybe that will be enough to get them out of the Top 10 in the polls today…

Elsewhere Miami proved themselves as a legitimate top ranked team with a sweep of Michigan in Ann Arbor, outscoring the Wolverines 8-2 in the two games.  I’m guessing Yale will lose their first place vote after losing to RPI and tying Union over the weekend.  Second ranked Denver was able to split with Alaska-Anchorage up north but dropped the second game by the surprising score of 7-3.  Look for Cornell to move up in the poll as they beat up on fellow Ivies Dartmouth and Harvard by scores of 5-1 and 6-3.

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Congrats to John Parker and his Team USA teammates as they defeated Canada West to win the Junior A Challenge up in Prince Edward Island.  Parker had a goal and an assist in the five games.  Rocco Carzo and Darren Rowe were on Team USA which took gold last year as well.

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Lastly I want to send out a big thank you to Karen Winger for providing me with some of her excellent UMass hockey pictures for use on this site.  Be sure to check out her photography website if you haven’t already with some great sports and non-sports shots on there.