What magic the first round and overall seeding of the NCAA tournament has created with yet another re-match in the quarterfinals that sees UNE again visiting the No. 1 seeded Utica team with a berth in the Frozen Four at stake. Last year the Nor’easters blew into town and came away with a stunning upset victory. The same advancing to the Frozen Four is on the line on Saturday and both teams have last year to think about in preparation for the return engagement this weekend.
“Our guys are chomping at the bit for this game,” said Utica head coach Gary Heenan. “We are 0-for-UNE as a team and these guys handed us our last loss on home ice. There is a lot to play for and a lot of local expectations which we need to manage in our preparation, but there is no question our team is focused and feels ready to play our brand of hockey on Saturday night.”
“No doubt, they will be ready for us on Saturday,” said UNE head coach Kevin Swallow. “They are unbeaten on home ice this season, but I think all the pressure is on them to win. We are lucky to be in the tournament and definitely not the favorite against Utica despite last year’s result. I expect we will be very loose because we have nothing to lose and everything to win if we can upset them again.”
The almost eerie repeat of the first round and quarterfinal matchups for UNE with Plymouth State and now Utica in the quarterfinals has both coaches thinking a déjà vu scenario with one thinking why not a repeat and the other seeking his team’s redemption as the current No.1 ranked team in the nation.
“We have hung our hat as an offensive team in the regular season,” stated Swallow. “Come playoff or tournament time, team defense is how you win. The teams that play the best team defense usually find ways to score enough and advance. I thought we did that well last week and will look to repeat that again against Utica on Saturday.”
“We have been very guarded about getting ahead of ourselves this year,” noted Heenan. “ I think we looked past UNE last year and it obviously bit us. We have changed everything with the two-week layoff as compared to last year. We doubled the players’ days off and got back to our regular game preparation schedule this week for Saturday. Hopefully the players and the coaches can tune out the local pressure and just focus on the game inside the glass.”
Big games usually mean big game performances and both teams have an abundance of players who could step up as Saturday’s hero.
“We have a great group and a very deep group with this roster,” said Heenan. “All year long we have seen contributions from different players in different games and I don’t expect it will be different this weekend. Our depth is one of our strengths along with our experience with guys like Justin [Allen], Dante [Zapata], Brandon [Osmundson] and Jason [Dobay] to name just a few. I won’t be surprised with who steps up, as I think everybody is ready for this opponent in our rink.”
“We are going to ride a lot of our veteran players,” said Swallow. “Defensively we rely on Alex [Sheehy] a lot and in many different situations. He has been so steady for us and was the catalyst for the game-winning goal in transition last week against Plymouth State. It is going to take everyone’s best, and I know we are ready to go out and play our game on Saturday.”
The Utica Memorial Auditorium plays host to Round 2 of the UNE vs. Utica NCAA quarterfinal matchup on Saturday, March 18 at 7 PM.
