The Massachusetts hockey team hit the road this weekend and had to deal with two very different environments while taking on a couple league foes. At New Hampshire on Friday the high-flying Minutemen were faced with having to play on the sizable playing surface of the Whittemore Center that was soft and slushy due to a power outage earlier in the day. The next night they travelled to Merrimack’s Lawler Arena where they competed on one of college hockey’s smallest ice sheets against one of the best defensive teams in the country. They were able to do well enough against both of the unique challenges to come away with two hard fought ties and gain two more valuable road points for the Hockey East standings. Going back to last weekend’s game against Vermont, UMass has now gotten ties in each of their last three games, all on the road.
All posts tagged Merrimack
Recap ▲ UMass Picks Up Two Points With Ties At New Hampshire, Merrimack
Posted by rocks22 on November 22, 2015
https://fearthetriangle.com/2015/11/22/recap-%e2%96%b2-umass-picks-up-two-points-with-ties-at-new-hampshire-merrimack/
Preview ▲ UMass Hits The Road To Take On UNH, #13 Merrimack
New Hampshire Wildcats 3-4-2 (1-0-2) Hockey East 8th
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Massachusetts Minutemen 6-3-2 (2-2-2) Hockey East T-5th
The Massachusetts hockey team will hit the road this weekend to face a couple Hockey East foes they’ve already seen once this weekend. On Friday the Minutemen head to Durham to take on the team that was part of their most memorable game this season. On 10/23 the New Hampshire Wildcats visited the Mullins and were up 6-1 with a little more than a period left before UMass roared back to secure maybe the best tie in the history of the program. On Saturday the Minutemen will take on Merrimack, who they just faced and lost 4-2 to last weekend, at Lawler Rink in North Andover.
Posted by rocks22 on November 19, 2015
https://fearthetriangle.com/2015/11/19/preview-%e2%96%b2-umass-hits-the-road-to-take-on-unh-13-merrimack/
Recap ▲ UMass Falls To Merrimack At Home, Salvages A Point With Late Heroics At UVM
The Massachusetts hockey team faced two very good defensive teams in Merrimack and Vermont this past weekend and struggled to get their talented offense going early on in both games. The Minutemen did rally from multiple goal deficits in both of the contests. But while their comeback was for naught at home on Friday against the Warriors, a heart-stopping third period in Vermont allowed UMass to at least gain a tie and a valuable road point on the weekend.
Posted by rocks22 on November 16, 2015
https://fearthetriangle.com/2015/11/16/recap-%e2%96%b2-umass-falls-to-merrimack-at-home-salvages-a-point-with-late-heroics-at-uvm/
Preview ▲ Minutemen Host #14 Merrimack Friday, Travel To Vermont Sunday
Merrimack College Warriors 5-1-2 (1-1-2) Hockey East T-5th
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Massachusetts Minutemen 6-2-1 (2-1-1) Hockey East 4th
The Massachusetts Minutemen will look to build off last weekend’s sweep of league foe UConn when they take on another couple Hockey East opponents. Friday night they’ll host the surprising #14 Merrimack Warriors and then will take a day off before heading up to Burlington to take on the Vermont Catamounts for a Sunday afternoon affair. A strong performance against a couple talented teams could result in UMass breaking into the national rankings.
The early season performance of the Minutemen have been a surprise around the league, but Merrimack’s early record has likely raised more eyebrows. The Warriors were picked to finish 11th in the league, just ahead of the Minutemen. They began their season with a home sweep versus Clarkson and St Lawrence. Both of the North Country teams are improved this year and are currently ranked. They followed that up with two ties in a home and home versus nearby rival and top ten ranked Lowell. The next weekend they would beat Boston University but fall to UNH before sweeping an Atlantic Hockey road trip against Bentley and Canisius last weekend.
As the usually do, Merrimack is succeeding with a very good defense. They are allowing a national low 23 shots on goal per game. Only 1.75 of those shots are finding the back of the net, 7th best in the country. Even a man down they’re doing well with a .929 penalty kill, 5th best in the country. Key in that defensive play is sophomore goaltender Colin Delia, who has a .924 save percentage on the season and a 1.73 goals against average.
The Warriors are averaging 3.75 goals scored per game and are led offensively by senior Ben Bahe who leads them in both goals (4) and points (10). The Warriors are only 7th among Hockey East teams in scoring, but that’s still good enough to be 21st nationally. Of course the other player to watch out for on offense is Brett Snively who is coming off a strong freshman season with 2 goals and 8 points so far in the 8 Warrior games. Merrimack does not represent much of a power play threat, converting just twice on 30 chances this season for a fourth worst 6.7% nationally.
Merrimack will be an interesting test for the Minutemen. When you look at the teams that have let in the least amount of goals nationally you have Boston College first, Yale, tied for 5th, and Merrimack 7th. UMass lost 7-0 against BC and 6-1 against Yale. So far, against pretty good competition, the Warriors have been among the best in the country when it comes to defense and UMass has struggled against the best. Will UMass continue to struggle against a team that executes as well defensively as Merrimack? We’ll see.
The other thing to keep an eye on Friday is what happens to Austin Plevy. The UMass freshman originally committed to play for Merrimack and Warrior coach Mark Dennehy. He went as far as to enroll in the school, spend the summer working out with the team, and begin fall classes before reconsidering and leaving North Andover. Plevy had a very good couple games last weekend against UConn, good enough to be named Hockey East Rookie of the Week. Does playing against his would-be team serve as motivation or as distraction? Are there hard feelings on the other side of the ice that could potentially put a target on Plevy’s back? We’ll have to see if the Warriors have a message they want to convey to Plevy in his first game against them.
Massachusetts Minutemen 6-2-1 (2-1-1) Hockey East 4th
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Vermont Catamounts 2-6-1 (1-2-1) Hockey East T-7th
On paper it looks like the Catamounts are having a pretty bad season with a 2-6-1 record. But on closer inspection, maybe Vermont isn’t quite as bad as they appear at first glance. Their 6 losses have come in the form of three weekend sweeps against very good opponents. In Mid-October they dropped two games at home to then #3 Omaha. The next weekend they hosted then #1 North Dakota and lost both. And last weekend they played #4 Lowell at home and lost both of those games. While the fans of Burlington have seen some of the best teams in the country this year at Gutterson, they haven’t seen any wins. The two Catamount wins have come on the road, first at then #8 Minnesota and at hapless Northeastern. The Cats will look for their first home win of the season this weekend, either Friday against UConn or Sunday versus Massachusetts.
Last year the Catamounts were one of the best defensive teams in the league, giving up the second least goals per game among Hockey East teams with 2.22. They returned junior Mike Santaguida who saved .923 of shots last year and was third in goals against average. Maybe it’s the level of competition he’s faced or maybe it’s something else but so far this season Santaguida has not been able to repeat last year’s performance. He comes into the weekend with a .907 save percentage, 41st in the country (just ahead of Nic Renyard). Vermont does boast an experienced defensive corps that includes the likes of Alexx Privitera, Rob Hamilton, and Yvan Pattyn.
Without a doubt Vermont’s biggest problem this season is that they’re just not scoring goals. The Catamounts are scoring just 2.00 goals per game, 10th worst among DI teams nationally. They do have some skilled offensive players to be aware of however. Junior Mario Puskarich is averaging a point per game with 4 goals and 5 assists in 9 games. The Privitera brothers both have six points apiece so far this season. UMass commit turned BU commit turned Vermont freshman Liam Coughlin has four assists on the season thus far.
This is a tough Vermont team to read. Their record is bad and their stats are skewed in the wrong direction. But they’ve played some really tough competition. Does this team have some fundamental flaws or have are they a product of who they’ve had to play? My guess is the answer is somewhere in between. Yes, the Catamounts have had an incredibly tough schedule having to play three top five teams across 6 games. Yet, all of those games against top ranked teams were at home. You would think a decent team would at least win one or two at home? But they haven’t. Is this a tough Vermont team? I’m not sure. But they’ll be hungry to prove themselves this weekend when they get a couple of unranked teams to the Gut.
Beer The Triangle
If you’re heading up to Burlington I highly recommend hitting a few places. Zero Gravity Brewing that’s part of American Flatbread is a great place to go for food an beer. Zero Gravity makes some really good german-style beers. Farmhouse Tap & Grille is pricey, but has a lot of good beers you can’t get elsewhere, including a selection of Hill Farmstead usually. And of course no trip is complete without stopping in Waterbury for a Heady Topper, preferably at the old Alchemist brewpub, now the Prohibition Pig. There’s no better road trip for beer in Hockey East.
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The game in Burlington on Sunday has changed from a 1pm start time to a 2pm start time due to Catamount soccer’s participation in the America East tournament.
Weekend preview from UMass Athletics.
The Collegian advocates for bigger student crowds for hockey going forward.
Ahead of his first home game as a Bruin tonight, Masslive/The Republican has a whole host of stories on Western Mass native Frank Vatrano. There’s this piece on Vatrano’s undrafted status being a source of motivation. There’s a really interesting story of Vatrano’s callup and his father sitting at the Canadian border desperately trying to get across to watch his son’s debut in Montreal. And there’s this story on Vatrano’s connection with local institutions creating a big rooting interesting for East Longmeadow’s own.
Posted by rocks22 on November 12, 2015
https://fearthetriangle.com/2015/11/12/preview-%e2%96%b2-minutemen-host-14-merrimack-friday-travel-to-vermont-sunday/
Saturday Recap
Massachusetts had very little to play for yesterday. They had already been eliminated from Hockey East playoff contention with Maine’s win and the heartbreaking overtime loss at Merrimack the night before. And the challenges kept piling up for them before and during yesterday’s game. They were already without star Mike Pereira who suffered a concussion last weekend. Friday night senior Eddie Olcyzk hurt his shoulder and sadly wasn’t able to dress for his final game of his career. Once the game started they suddenly found themselves short a defenseman when Mike Busillo received a game misconduct early on. And in the second period leading scorer Branden Gracel left the game with an injury. With all that against them and very little to play for, you could’ve expected the team to mail it in and just allow the season to end. But they didn’t. With nothing to play for but pride and sending the seniors out on a high note UMass not only showed up last night but dominated in a 3-0 win over Merrimack.
UMass was able to get on the board early in the first when senior co-captain Rocco Carzo made a great backhand pass across the slot from underneath the goal line that found it mark on Adam Phillips’ stick for the goal. Just a few seconds later UMass would face their first test of adversity as Busillo picked up a contact to the head penalty for an open ice hit and the Minutemen were now without one of their defenseman. Helping to offset that blueline loss for the rest of the game though was the fact that, due to so many other injuries, Anthony Raiola was dressed and playing as a forward. He was able to slide back to defense as needed and help contribute to an excellent game by the defense as a whole. Busillo’s major and an Oleg Yevenko penalty shortly after meant that the Warriors ended up with over six minutes straight of power play time, including some five on three advantage. But the penalty kill was huge all night, not allowing a goal despite over 14 minutes of power play time for Merrimack.
At the end of the first Conor Sheary would jump on a redirected puck in front of the net and put it in the resulting open net. In the second period Colin Shea got on the scoresheet with a shot from the point that deflected off a Merrimack stick into the near top corner of the net past Sam Marotta. Later in that period Gracel would go down injured after being slammed into the boards by a Merrimack player. Somehow there was no call on the play. Coach Micheletto, like everyone else in the building, was pretty astounded at the no call and tried to get the officials to come over to talk to him by waiting to send out his next line. As a result, referees Chris Federico and Justin Greene assessed UMass with a delay of game penalty while still refusing to acknowledge Mick on the UMass bench. I thought it was a good move by Mick. The refs needed to address how Busillo was in the dressing room for an open ice hit while an obvious boarding that injured UMass’ best scorer went uncalled. Gracel would try to play a couple more shifts that period but by the third period he was not on the bench.
With the officials not doing their job, the Minutemen felt they needed to take matters into their own hands and the third period ended up very chippy. Conor Allen picked up three penalties in the period alone. Luckily the game got physical but didn’t get out of control. Even while picking up penalties and crushing Warriors the Minutemen still controlled play and outshot Merrimack 14-10 in the final period. On the other end Steve Mastalerz remained perfect on the night and stopped all 24 shots he faced for his second career shutout.
And that’s how the UMass season ended. Even knowing there would be no game and with an easy excuse of injuries available, the team went out and had one of their better games of the season. I have to say I was really proud of the heart they showed to go out and win in that fashion. With the win over UNH last fall and capturing the Ledyard Classic, I’d have say last night was one of the best games of the year.
After the game it was time to celebrate the careers of Rocco Carzo, Kevin Czepiel, Darren Rowe, and Eddie Olczyk. The senior ceremony was different this year, coming after the game rather than before. I wish the entire crowd had stayed for it, but a good number of the 4,500 did. Those who stayed got to see a montage of the players’ highlights as well as pictures of them as kids. They also got to see just how much being a UMass hockey player means to these guys. Eddie Olczyk, who dressed in full gear for the ceremony despite being injured, displayed tremendous emotion when he was honored. It was a good reminder of the dedication and love these guys have for the game and for UMass. And it was an uplifting way to end the season.
Fear The Triangle Player of the Game – Steve Mastalerz
Yesterday was a total team win. Everyone contributed, from the guys who scored the goals to the hard hits that came later to stand up for Gracel. But a shutout seems worthy of the POTG honors and it capped off a stretch of games where Mastalerz looked very good in net.
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Dick Baker has the game story for the Republican.
Mike McMahon has his takeaways from College Hockey News.
Late news today is that Boston University’s Jack Parker will announce his retirement. I’m sure I don’t have to take the time to list his overwhelming accomplishments during his coaching career on Comm Ave. Best wishes to him in his retirement. The guy is a legend.
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So that’s it. Season’s over, unfortunately a little sooner than we all wanted. I’m not done yet though. I still have a little more writing in me before I pull the plug on this place. Tomorrow I’ll unveil my awards for the season. Later in the week I’ll post my season recap as well as my thoughts on the state of the program.
Posted by rocks22 on March 10, 2013
https://fearthetriangle.com/2013/03/10/saturday-recap-23/
Merrimack Preview
Merrimack College Warriors 14-14-6 (12-10-3) Hockey East 6th
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Massachusetts Minutemen 11-18-3 (8-15-2) Hockey East 9th
Massachusetts enters the final weekend of the regular season and if they want to keep playing beyond they’ll need to get at least a point and then get some help. UMass can get away with just a tie of Merrimack but they’d then need New Hampshire to sweep Maine up in Durham. While UNH is clearly the better team I wouldn’t rule out something flukey happening in this weekend’s chapter of that storied rivalry. Whatever transpires, UMass must get at least one more point than Maine in this weekend’s games. That would leave the two teams tied and the Minutemen would move on to the playoffs by virtue of having more conference wins.
It’s not going to be easy to get any points however from this Warrior team. The teams met last month in North Andover in an oddly close, but dominant win by the Warriors. UMass could not generate any offense during the game, only testing goaltender Sam Marotta 18 times. But, they were able to keep the game close and were tied at two apiece going into the third before ultimately falling 4-2. Kevin Boyle played fantastic, making 37 saves including 17 in the first period alone. It didn’t matter though and the game was the most recent of a long line of losses at Lawler where UMass hasn’t won since spring of 2008.
The Warriors are not as hot a team as they were when they last faced UMass though. In fact they’re winless in their last five, losing their last four. Since scoring four against the Minutemen they haven’t managed to score more than two goals against anyone else and were shutout last Friday by Lowell. The recent slump has coincided with leading scorer Mike Collins going cold. Collins has more than twice as many goals as anyone else on the team with 15 but hasn’t found the back of the net since the game against the Minutemen. The team is 12-6-3 when he registers a point and 2-8-3 when he doesn’t.
Marotta got the win against the Minutemen and seemed to have grabbed hold of the starter job back in January. But Rasmus Tirronen got the most recent start in a loss to Lowell. Honestly, the losing streak hasn’t been the fault of Marotta and I’d assume he’ll play both games this weekend. Other than a poor game against BU where he got pulled after surrendering three goals in a period, he has only allowed two goals in each of the other games during this winless streak
In addition to who is on the ice this weekend, another huge factor may end up being who is not. Merrimack will be without the services of key defenseman Kyle Bigos, who will be missing his own senior night tomorrow because of the number of game misconducts he has picked up this season. Unfortunately I would rather he be gone for the game at the Mullins as I think the Warriors can more easily adjust for his absence on the smaller Lawler ice. The other player whose participation is in question is Mike Pereira, who left the UNH game early after absorbing a hard hit. It is unknown if he’ll dress this weekend and UMass may have to make due without their most productive player in recent weeks.
It all comes down to this. Two games. I could talk about what strategies UMass could use to defeat Merrimack. Opine about the adjustments needed from recent play. But it really comes down to motivation. Will the team be motivated to get the necessary points to extend their season? Can they extend the program’s playoff streak to 11 years? Will they allow the four seniors the chance to put the UMass jersey on at least a couple more times after Saturday? We’ll see.
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Speaking of the seniors, the annual ceremony honoring them is changing a bit this year. It will take place AFTER the game, not before. This is similar to how it’s done up in Maine. So please make sure to stick around until then and take the chance to thank them for their dedication and commitment to UMass.
Beer The Triangle
One of the many recent snowstorms forced the rescheduling of the last game at Merrimack and postponed my trip to The Tap in Haverhill. That will be corrected tomorrow and I’m desperately hoping they still have Snowbound on draft. Saturday will be the last pregame at the Hangar on the season. However I have to find a way to get across the street to Amherst Brewing Company as well as they have a keg of 2011 Dogfish Head Olde School Barleywine on. One of my favorite barleywines.
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Preview from the Republican says it’s all about the process. Daily Collegian preview says it’s about poise. But both talk about Rocco Carzo’s eating habits.
He doesn’t have anything up currently, but Mike McMahon is sure to have some good information and perspective on the Mack Report.
Posted by rocks22 on March 7, 2013
https://fearthetriangle.com/2013/03/07/merrimack-preview-5/
Merrimack Recap
Personally I thought the effort was there for the Massachusetts Minutemen in their game against Merrimack yesterday. But the execution was, frankly, very poor and as a result UMass lost 4-2. The loss is their 7th straight at Lawler Arena. The team didn’t look good offensively, generating a season low 18 shots on the night, or defensively as a number of key mistakes led to easy Warrior goals. The only aspects of the game that UMass excelled in were goaltending and the penalty kill.
The most glaring issue yesterday was the lack of offense. UMass managed just three shots on net in the first period. Some of that was due to the fact that they were on the penalty kill for over seven minutes, no thanks to a terrible major and game misconduct called on Conor Allen. But in the second when UMass had three power plays to Merrimack’s one they still only accumulated five shots, just one in six minutes of having the extra man. Desperation in the third forced them to be more aggressive and put 10 shots on net, but goaltender Sam Marotta would save them all. In the end only Branden Gracel (4), Kevin Czepiel (3), and Steven Guzzo (2) had more than one shot on net.
Defensively, a number of key mistakes did in UMass on the night. Losing Allen to a bad contact to the head call in the first period did not help. That left just five defenseman for the team for much of the game, one of which being Peter DeAngelo who was playing just his second game on the blueline. DeAngelo made some mistakes, but luckily they did not lead to any goals. However, you have to wonder if Mike Busillo should’ve been out there and dressed. Busillo has a team leading +7 rating currently and the team’s record is 9-6-1 when he plays and 1-7-1 when he doesn’t. Perhaps coach Micheletto is unaware of those stats, which would be disappointing. Or perhaps he doesn’t care and will fill out his lineup as he sees fit. If that’s the case, I don’t think he’s putting the players on the ice who give the team the best chance to win. And the stats support that.
Busillo likely would’ve been a defensive upgrade from DeAngelo, who has not played terrible at the position but is still noticeably learning how to play the new role, or Darren Rowe, who had a game he’d like to forget. Rowe was on the ice for all four of Merrimack’s goals, three of which came directly as a result of his being out of position or a misplay of his. It’s known that Rowe is not the strongest defenseman on the squad, but when he’s contributing offensively and playing adequate defense he’s able to negate that potential defensive liability. Yesterday was one of the games when that wasn’t the case.
There were only a few positives yesterday. Kevin Boyle was certainly one of them, making a season-high 37 saves on the night and keeping the game close throughout. Branden Gracel got the ultimate revenge on referees Kevin Shea and Chris Federico for the piss-poor misconduct call on Allen by scoring probably the prettiest goal of the season. I won’t try to describe it, just check out the highlights (and lowlights) at the bottom of the post. Eddie Olczyk scored his second goal of the season, a nice wrister thanks to a great feed from Zack LaRue.
Not getting any points this past weekend hurts because UMass now has Maine and Vermont breathing down their neck. In 8th place, Vermont is just one point behind and Maine is two points back. The Minutemen do have a game in hand on those two, but the prospect of missing the Hockey East playoffs is still very possible with just four weekends of hockey left.
Fear The Triangle Player of the Game – Kevin Boyle
Gracel had the play of the game but Boyle was the only reason UMass even had a chance to win this game.
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Here’s the game story from the Eagle-Tribune.
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Boyle’s 37 saves were unfortunately not enough to get him recognized as a Top Performer by Hockey East.
Lowell, this weekend’s opponent, is ranked 14th in this week’s polls.
Posted by rocks22 on February 11, 2013
https://fearthetriangle.com/2013/02/11/merrimack-recap-4/
Merrimack Preview; New Recruit Commitments
Massachusetts Minutemen 10-12-2 (7-9-1) Hockey East 7th
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#20 Merrimack Warriors 12-10-5 (10-6-2) Hockey East 3rd
It’s unfortunate that UMass must play all three games against Merrimack in the second half of the season because this is a much different team than the one on the ice at the end of 2012. Going into the season there were a lot of questions of how Merrimack would fare after graduating star goaltender Joe Cannatta. Early on in the season they didn’t do a good job answers those questions, getting swept by the Alaska teams and having to endure a couple of three game losing streaks. At the close of 2012 the team was just 6-8-4 and seemed destined for middle of the pack in Hockey East at best. But in 2013 the Warriors have gone 6-2-1 and now find themselves in 3rd place in the conference.
They’ve won recently thanks to solid defense, holding their opponents to just 1.89 goals per game in the nine games since New Years. Junior goaltender Sam Marotta has started all but one of those games and is responsible for just one of the losses. During that time he’s had shutouts over Maine and Lowell. Marotta currently leads all Hockey East goaltenders with a goals against average of 2.09 and a save percentage of .929. Of course he has some pretty solid defensemen in front of him in the form of Kyle Bigos, Jordan Heywood, and Tom McCarthy.
Offensively the star has been junior forward Mike Collins who accounts for nearly 1/5th of the team’s total goals with 14. No one else on the team has more than five. Overall the Warriors have scored 2.67 goals per game, which puts them at 7th among Hockey East teams. They have gotten some good contributions from their defense as well as Brendan Ellis has accumulated 10 assists while Heywood is tied for second on the team with five goals.
Due to the snow, UMass got a couple extra days of rest as Friday’s game against Northeastern was rescheduled to later in the month and yesterday’s game was pushed back to today. Hopefully those extra days will help give UMass the energy and focus needed to win someplace where they haven’t done so in a while. Lawler Arena has been a house of horrors for the Minutemen in recent years. They’ve lost their last six games there, including an 11-2 shellacking in 2011. Their last win in North Andover was March of 2008. Hopefully that streak ends this afternoon as with their win last night Vermont is again right behind the Minutemen in the standings.
Beer The Triangle
There aren’t a lot of good pregaming options for Merrimack, but with a quality place like The Tap you don’t need many. I’m looking forward to drinking an appropriately named Snowbound.
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For those making the trip, I got this notice in my email:
Tomorrow’s game between #20 Merrimack and UMass-Amherst will begin at 4:00pm at Lawler Arena with KidsFest to begin at 2:30pm in the Volpe Gym.
The Merrimack College staff is continuing to clear snow from campus parking lots but with the massive amounts some lots will undoubtedly lose parking spaces. We encourage you to arrive early and adhere to the direction of campus police for parking instruction in order to arrive at the game on time (doors open @ 3:00pm).
Thank you in advance for your understanding and safe travels to all who will be on the road this weekend.
There doesn’t appear to be any previews up for the game as of now, but Mike McMahon will likely have coverage soon on his blog.
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UMass picked up three commitments on Friday. Two of the newest Minutemen are brothers, Brandon and Jake Wahlin. Brandon is a 5’8”, 170lb forward currently playing for Austin in the NAHL where he leads the league in total scoring. Thus far this season he has 18 goals and 39 assists in 45 games. According to this story on his commitment he also had interest from Lowell, Nebraska-Omaha, and Bemidji State. It appears that the Minnesota native will be in Amherst this coming fall. Here are some highlights of his play in previous years:
While Brandon is due to join the team next year, his brother Jake is pegged to come to Amherst in 2015, the first commitment for that class. According to the Western College Hockey Blog Jake is rated as the second best sophomore playing Minnesota High School hockey. He currently has 15 goals and 30 assists in 26 games playing for White Bear Lake. Wahlin is considered one of the top ‘96 born players in the country. Overall these look like two great pickups for coach Micheletto, especially the younger Jake whose trajectory is looking pretty bright at this stage of his career.
If White Bear Lake sounds familiar for UMass fans, it should. Justin Braun’s hockey career started there, went through Amherst, and then of course on to the pros with the San Jose Sharks.
The other commitment came from 6’0”, 180lb defenseman Maddison Smiley. Smiley is currently teammates with UMass recruit Patrick Lee for the Brooks Bandits in the Alberta Junior Hockey League. The Bandits are an amazing 47-3-3 on the season. Smiley puts up a lot of points for a defenseman as he has 16 goals and 19 assists in 33 games this season and recently returned from injury. Like Lee he earned an invitation to the Team Canada West Camp for the World Junior Challenge. Here’s the release from the AJHL which includes some quotes from his coach. And here’s an article about him from last fall. Smiley is due in Amherst in the fall of 2014.
Posted by rocks22 on February 10, 2013
https://fearthetriangle.com/2013/02/10/merrimack-preview-new-recruit-commitments/
Weekend Games Postponed
For those who may have missed it, both of this weekend’s Massachusetts hockey games have been rescheduled due to the impending snowstorm. Tomorrow night’s game against Northeastern has been postponed until Tuesday, February 19th at 7pm. This gives those of us who travel from out of town the excuse to take the entire day off and enjoy a four day weekend. Saturday afternoon’s game at Merrimack has been pushed back to Sunday at 4pm. The game was originally scheduled to be broadcast on NESN but that will no longer be the case, thereby robbing UMass of their one chance to be shown on regional/national TV this year. Maybe next year Hockey East will be nice enough to give UMass a rare televised home game.
I hope everyone stays safe and has plenty of beer in stock in preparation of the incoming blizzard.
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In some alumni news, Kevin Moore who dressed for an ECHL game in an emergency situation last month has been signed for the league’s Evansville Icemen. There he’ll be in the familiar position of playing alongside Paul Dainton, who was assigned there recently from the Springfield Falcons.
Mike Marcou has been promoted to San Antonio of the AHL after a strong season at the ECHL that saw him make the All-Star squad.
Posted by rocks22 on February 7, 2013
https://fearthetriangle.com/2013/02/07/weekend-games-postponed/
Pereira Named Hockey East Co-Player of the Week
For his dominating performance against Boston University this past weekend Mike Pereira was named Hockey East Co-Player of the Week. Pereira had a couple goals to go with a couple assists in the 5-1 win on Friday. Pereira shared the honor with fan favorite Joey Diamond of Maine. Branden Gracel and K.J. Tiefenwerth were named Top Performers.
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Hockey East has five teams ranked this week as Saturday’s opponent, Merrimack, has broken into the USCHO top 20.
Northeastern will be coming into the Mullins Center on Friday feeling good about themselves after they beat BU earlier tonight to advance to the Beanpot Final next week.
Posted by rocks22 on February 4, 2013
https://fearthetriangle.com/2013/02/04/pereira-named-hockey-east-co-player-of-the-week/
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