Just a short recap since I have an early morning wake up call for the finalish tailgate at McGuirk. It’s tough to know what to say about this one. Maine controlled play enough in the the first couple periods that UMass is probably lucky they didn’t drop their first game at home this season. At the same time when you consider that the Minutemen had 7 power play opportunities, many at the hands of the either incredibly stupid or flat out punk Joey Diamond, it makes you think that UMass really should’ve won this game by a couple goals. So when you take those two things together maybe UMass really did deserve the tie.

It was certainly good to see the team come back from a two goal deficit. And with the way they played in the third and overtime, they really gave their all at the end for the win. Twice in the game the puck rolled behind Black Bear goaltender Dan Sullivan and just wide of the net. Sullivan played well overall and came up big when needed to stymie the Minutemen, including a stellar glove save in overtime.

In the UMass crease Jeff Teglia had another really solid game but unfortunately comes away still looking for that first win of his career. It’s tough to hang either of the goals on him as the first was on an excellent roof shot during the power play and the second somehow went through numerous people in front and found the back of the net. Teglia said he never saw the shot or the puck which I’m not surprised since from my angle I couldn’t even see Teglia through all the white, maroon, and blue. It’s still good to see Tegs playing well despite extended time on the bench. That may not be the case going forward as it was revealed that Kevin Boyle is currently injured and may be out for a bit. Who plays tomorrow in Lowell I have no idea.

It should be an interesting one at Tsongas. The River Hawks got spanked by UNH tonight, but that game was in Durham and Lowell did not have their top goaltender playing in Doug Carr. I assume that means UMass will definitely see him tomorrow. For UMass it’s less important to focus on who is in goal than to correct the problems from tonight. The passing was poor. The power play looked like last year’s with the team unable to successfully cycle down low. There were a few positives. The defense played well and as a team UMass blocked 20 shots. The penalty kill let in a goal in three chances but came up huge in killing off an Eric Filiou five minute major to being the third in what really became a momentum changer. They’ll need to build off those things and get the offense back on track in order to beat the new look River Hawks tomorrow.

Fear The Triangle Player of the Game – Steven Guzzo
Guzzo was able to knock home the game tying goal in a scrum in front of the net right on the heels of that big penalty kill. But he was putting together a good game well before that. In a short amount of time he’s turned into a goto player for the UMass offense.