New Hampshire’s five-game season-opening winning streak, the program’s best in more than 20 years, was ended on Saturday night when Trevor Gooch scored at 1:03 of the overtime as Colorado College skated past the Wildcats, 2-1, at Towse Rink.
The play began in the neutral zone when Westin Michaud forced a turnover and skated up the right side. Creating a gap between the defense, Michaud feathered a perfect pass to Gooch who one-timed it over the glove of Danny Tirone (22 saves) to set off the celebration.
The low-scoring win came a night after the Tigers defense struggled, allowing six goals in a 6-3 loss. Head coach Mike Haviland was pleased with his team’s resiliency to turn things around on night two.
“It’s a huge win for us on the road,” said Haviland, whose club improves to 4-2-0. “It was a much better effort. Both teams played with more structure. Both teams played with more passion and jam.
“Last night I wasn’t happy with how our structure went, it was kind of an up and down game.”
Colorado opened the scoring when Jack Gates whacked a rebound past Tirone at 12:40 of the first. The game stood that way until the closing seconds of the middle period when freshman Max Gildon netted his fourth goal of the weekend and sixth goal of the season with 30.1 seconds remaining.
Saturday’s main storyline, though, was the penalty kill for Colorado College. New Hampshire entered the game clicking at a 33.3 percent efficiency with the man advantage. So it certainly didn’t help that the Tigers handed UNH two separate five-on-three power plays, one for 67 seconds in the first and another for 46 seconds in the second.
And while UNH certainly had its chances, notably a Patrick Grasso shot that might have dented the crossbar on the first 5-on-3 and a Gildon wrister off the post during the second, Haviland’s Tigers team held things together, maintaining its composure.
“You’re trying to get in lanes and not give them that back door play that they use,” said Haviland of the kill. “We got after them about getting into shooting games. We felt last night we didn’t get into lanes on their power play and tonight we blocked shots.”
For New Hampshire, it’s just the second time this season they’ve been held off the scoreboard on the power play, but for coach Dick Umile, he knows it wasn’t for lack of trying.
“We had our chances, we moved it well,” said Umile. “We hit a couple of posts. I told the team don’t ever accept [losing], but if we play like that, we were a good hockey team tonight.”
The Wildcats, in fact, were a better team on Saturday than on Friday, when Colorado College plastered 48 shots on net but the Wildcat offense took advantage of breakdowns and potted six goals. Saturday’s game was considerably tighter, so holding a significant shot advantage – 40-24 – tells Umile his team played the way he wants, just simply didn’t finish.
A big reason for that was goaltender Alex Leclerc (39 saves). His struggles on Friday were turned around and his ability to make key saves left Colorado College in a position to earn its fourth win in five games.
Haviland said that he liked the way his club continued to get better throughout the game. By the third period, the fact his club could play 5-on-5 allowed it to succeed.
“We felt like with all the kills we had to go through, we played a pretty good third period,” Haviland said. “I thought it was an even third period. We kind of got back to playing 5-on-5.
“Everybody was talking [before overtime], ‘Let’s not be satisfied where we’re at here. Let’s go get this win. We need this win.’ I give my guys credit. We stuck with it. We competed right to the end and we got rewarded.”
Around Hockey East
Boston University 6, Connecticut 3
Bobo Carpenter notched his first collegiate hat trick and Patrick Curry added two goals as the Terriers earned a road victory, 6-3, over the host Huskies.
The trio of goals completed a big weekend for Carpenter, who entered without a single tally on the young season. On Friday he scored both of BU’s goals in a 2-2 tie. While both of Friday’s tallies came shorthanded, all three on Saturday came on the power play.
Terriers netminder Jake Oettinger earned the win with 27 saves, including 14 in the game’s final period.
Michigan 3, Vermont 2
Jake Slater was a one-man wrecking crew for the host Wolverines as he scored the tying and winning goals in the final five minutes of the game, the winner with just 54 seconds left, in a 3-2 win over Vermont.
Max Kaufman and Drew Best tallied for the Catamounts, who dropped both games of the weekend series to drop to 2-4-0 on the season. The Catamounts open league play next Saturday when they host New Hampshire.
Maine 6, Miami 3
Maine jumped out to a 5-0 lead and then hung on late to beat Miami, 6-3, and earn a split of the weekend series.
The weekend was an offensive juggernaut for the Black Bears, erupting for 11 goals in the two games. Patrick Holway and Brady Keeper paced the Main attack, each potting a goal and two assists.
Quinnipiac 3, Northeastern 2 (OT)
Alex Whelan’s goal with 38 seconds remaining in overtime propelled Quinnipiac to a 3-2 victory and earned them a two-game sweep of Northeastern at Matthew Arena.
For the second straight night, Northeastern led by a goal through 40 minutes, this time on goals by Dylan Sikura and Grant Josefek. But like Friday, Quinnipiac tied the game early in the third en route to victory.
Chase Priskie’s second goal of the game at 1:33 of the third knotted the game at two.
UMass Lowell 5, St. Lawrence 0
Jake Kamrass scored twice while Kenny Hausinger notched a goal and two assists as the River Hawks routed St. Lawrence, 5-0. Combined with Friday’s 3-1 victory at Clarkson, UMass Lowell completed the weekend non-league sweep in the North Country to level their record to 3-3-0.
The River Hawks exploded with four goals in the second to help the offensive cause. On the back end, goaltender Christoffer Hernberg made 27 saves to earn his third straight victory and first collegiate shutout.
Clarkson 4, Providence 0
Devin Brosseau scored twice on the power play and Jake Kielly made 26 saves to pace Clarkson to a 4-0 win over visiting Providence.
A night after the Friars scored six goals in a 6-5 overtime victory at St. Lawrence, their offense was shut down, the first time Providence has been shutout since last year’s NCAA regional semifinal against Harvard.
Special teams was a factor as Clarkson scored twice in five power plays and killed off all four Providence man advantages.
Ohio State 3, Massachusetts 0
Kevin Miller, Janik Moser and Matthew Weis tallied in the first, second and third period respectively, and Sean Romeo stopped all 23 shots he faced as Ohio State blanked host Massachusetts, 3-0, to sweep the weekend series.
Tanner Laczynski registered two assists, the only player with multiple points.
St. Cloud State 3, Boston College 1
St. Cloud State jumped out to a 3-0 first period lead and skated to a 3-1 victory over visiting Boston College on Saturday.
Jack and Ryan Poehling each tallied to open the scoring and Mikey Eyssimont added a third goal in the closing minute of the first.
JD Dudke brought the Eagles within a goal just past the midway point of the third, but it was not enough. David Hrenak made 36 saves for the Huskies to earn his first collegiate victory as St. Cloud improves to 5-0-0.
Minnesota Duluth 7, Merrimack 2
The host Bulldogs broke open a 3-2 midway through the third scoring the games final four goals in a 7-2 victory over Merrimack. Avery Peterson scored two of those four goals, while Parker Mackay led the Bulldogs in points with three assists.
For the second straight night, there was plenty of late scoring but unlike Friday, it was all Bulldogs. Friday’s series opener featured five goals scored in the final eight minutes, three by Merrimack and two by Duluth, to force a 5-5 tie.
But Saturday, Duluth was ready to put away the visitors. Cole McBride notched his first collegiate goal in the loss for the Warriors.
