It would be easy to look at last night’s loss to #4 UNH and give the team a pat on the back for improving their play from the night before.  It’d be easy to say just hanging with the Wildcats for a couple periods is an accomplishment.  I’m not going to do that.  The fact is UMass really needed two points out of this weekend.  They got none.  The fact is UMass played UNH, a team they almost beat on the road earlier, evenly for over two plus periods before fading at the end.

I am glad that the team improved their effort and hopefully they can do even better next weekend, but unfortunately this weekend will go down as a lost opportunity.  Some bright spots from last include an improved defensive intensity.  Included with that was a kill of all three UNH power plays.  With Mike Marcou out injured Anthony Raiola got some time at defense and Toot complimented his play afterward.

It’s worth noting that neither Darren Rowe or Marc Concannon played in the game.  Rowe’s turnover and poor defense directly led to one of the Northeastern goals in the night before while Concannon took a bad penalty that led to Northeastern’s 5 on 3.  I think this is good.  It makes the players accountable for their mistakes and hopefully will lead to a change in their play.  You take undisciplined penalties, you’re going to sit.  You don’t work hard enough on defense, you’re going to sit.  UMass has enough players on the roster who are wanting to play, like Raiola and Pat Kiley did last night.

We’ll see where UMass goes from here.  The lack of any points this weekend means taking four points from Lowell next weekend is key.  Certainly possible since the River Hawks are struggling so much, but sweeping anyone in Hockey East is never an easy task.

Fear The Triangle Player of the Game – Adam Phillips
I try not to give the POTG to whoever scores goals or gets the most points.  In this case Phillips did score the lone goal and also had the second most shots for the Minutemen.  But I also thought he played pretty good defense on the night too and had a couple key poke checks when they mattered.  Phillips is still learning how to play as a defenseman and last night showed good progress in doing so.

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Dick Baker has his recap of the game.  He also mentions the team needs a left hand shooter.

Here’s how it looked from the UNH point of view.