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.
▲
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.
Fear The Triangle - UMass Hockey Blog 
George
/ November 5, 2011Rocks, I made the trip. Dead on assessment by Brock about the goaltending. At times it looked promising and at other times, it looked like Bantams shooters vs Squirt goaltending But what should be pointed out is that UNH’s offensive is pretty good. Yeah, we probably made them look better, but in my eyes they possess many of the same tools as previous fast skating, swarming UNH teams have had. They really did use the 100ft wide Lake well and for that matter so did UMass. We got 3 goals partly because of luck, partly because of hard work (Sheary) and partly because again another Hockey East goalie has been partially exposed once his better defensemen have left the team (see BU and the Millan/Rollheiser mess). Plus we looked more at home offensively on the big sheet but conversely, paid for it defensively because of the same factor.
Here is the UMass short +/- list, players only:
We can’t finish, we never have been able to.
We work hard.
We are sub par defensively
We have SUB SUB par goaltending
Are you really dumbfounded in how this season has started? Certainly 3-0 was on the table early on, but the Northeastern game and the collapse at the end was a precursor for the season and has let us know that Bill Murray and his Groundhog Day is alive and well. In fairness, it’s probably to early to pass any judgement on Boyle and certainly Mastalerz. But I think enough was known about Teglia to predict that of guys that have played in the Toot era, he will fall below Dainton, Quick, Winer and Helanen. Which means he hopefully will edge out Mike Johnson and certainly Tim Warner.
That makes for a long season and a ton of beer.
LikeLike