Two weeks into the season, and with only one game between conference foes in the books, Hockey East is already living up to its reputation as one of the deepest conferences in college hockey.
Case in point, New Hampshire’s 6-4 victory over Boston University — the No. 1 team in the league’s preseason coaches’ poll and the preseason national USCHO.com Division I men’s poll — before a crowd of 6,007 at UNH’s home rink Friday night.
“Our league’s tough,” said UNH coach Mike Souza after the Wildcats’ first win over a No. 1-ranked opponent since beating Cornell in the 2003 Frozen Four. “There’s no easy nights — there’s going to be no easy nights for us (or) BU and that’s just the way it is. Some days you wake up and you say, ‘Oh man, this team next week?’ And there’s no running from it. But that’s why I think we have the best conference in college hockey. We kind of beat each other up pretty throughout the year.”
One night after UNH’s upset of BU, unheralded Massachusetts — picked eighth in both the Hockey East preseason coaches’ and media polls — scored six goals in the third period for a wild 6-3 win over Michigan (B1G), which went into the weekend ranked sixth among USCHO.com voters and had handed the Minutemen a 7-2 thumping the night before.
“Luckily we’re not in (the) polls so we don’t worry about it,” UMass coach Greg Carvel said. “I like that. I felt like coaching (Saturday) morning was a psychological thing. It was about the messaging that the guys heard. That was important. My messaging post-game (after Friday’s loss) was very positive. ‘Guys, I see a lot of good stuff. I know the score’s ugly, but I see a lot of positives. Please believe me and believe in yourselves,’ was basically the message.”
The wins by the Wildcats and the Minutemen were part of a weekend that also saw three other teams in the USCHO.com top 10 — Michigan State (B1G), Michigan Tech (CCHA) and St. Cloud (NCHC) — fall to unranked opponents.
One key to UNH’s victory was not to allow the visitors to get into their heads — neither BU’s No. 1 ranking or the fact that the Terriers took a 3-2 lead with a pair of goals less than two minutes apart late in the first period.
“We want to go in with the mindset (that) we’re a good team this year,” said UNH’s Morgan Winters, who scored twice in his first game back from double shoulder surgery that kept him out of the second half of last season. “They did go up, but everything on the bench was positive, everybody was standing up, keeping each other accountable. It worked out.”
For his efforts, Winters earned Hockey East player of the week honors for the first time in the sophomore forward’s career.
Avoiding a negative psychological spiral also helped UMass, especially less than 24 hours after a lopsided defeat.
“I don’t think we were really down at all,” said Minuteman junior Scott Morrow, one of three defensemen to score on Saturday night. “I think we were confident that the things we did right (Friday) night would lead to things, the bounces, going our way (Saturday). We were definitely not in panic mode.”
Souza said while he doesn’t want his team to become complacent or overconfident, he believes the Wildcats have what it takes to weather a brutal schedule that continues next week with two home games against No. 4 (and defending NCAA champion) Quinnipiac.
“It’s one game — I don’t want to get ahead of ourselves here,” Souza said. “This group has a very interesting dynamic, very interesting vibe. (It) gets harder now. Every week gets harder.”
