Luckily I was not in Durham last night for the 7-3 massacre, but I did listen as I drove out to Amherst last night for today’s Homecoming activities.  I wrote in my preview that this was a vulnerable UNH team and I still think that’s true.  What that means about UMass since they gave up a touchdown to a Wildcats team that came into the game with one of the worst offenses in Hockey East is not good.  Obviously a lot of the problem last night was goaltending as the two freshmen goaltenders combined to give up all the goals, Steve Mastalerz making his debut gave up five of those.  According to color analyst Brock Hines, who is pretty good at telling it like it is, both of them gave up soft goals at different times.  At other times it sounded like the defense played poorly, or porously.

Bad goaltending and poor play combined to give up what was probably the key goal last night.  It appeared that the teams would go into the first intermission tied.  But after a bad turnover John Henrion was able to skate in on Mastalerz who did not cover the post and let in an easy one.  That goal coming with just six seconds left in the period was a huge.  UMass has never seemed to bounce back from those momentum killer goals going into the locker room.  And sure enough UMass came out in the second and could not get the equalizer while UNH piled on three more goals.  Game over.

It’s too bad because UMass played pretty well offensively.  They matched UNH in shots for the game, went 1 for 3 on the power play, and put up three goals in a place where they haven’t had much success.  But all for naught.  I’m absolutely dumbfounded by how this season has started.  And of course UMass has to try to rebound against such a horrible loss against the top team in the country tonight with Boston College.  My advice for UMass fans is the same advice that the sage Tom Brady had earlier in the season for Patriots fans.  Start drinking early.

Fear The Triangle Player of the Game – Conor Sheary
This was an easy one.  Sheary had a hand in all three UMass goals, totalling a score and two assists.  He’s also the only Minuteman to finish the game with a positive plus-minus rating at +1.

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Here’s the Republican recap.

The Daily Democrat reminds us that this UNH team only scored 1 goal in the first three games.

Here are the the thoughts on the game from College Hockey News.