MANCHESTER, N.H. \u2013 Though the reason for taking time off last weekend might not have sat too well with New Hampshire, the third seed in this weekend\u2019s NCAA regional in Manchester, N.H., the Wildcats team is looking at the rest as nothing but a positive.<\/p>\n
UNH, of course, was missing from last weekend\u2019s Hockey East Championship tournament at the TD Banknorth Garden after being upset by Boston College the weekend prior in the league quarterfinals.<\/p>\n
\u201cLast weekend was great to have that time off to rest and recuperate and recover from some sickness,\u201d said Wildcats forward Sean Collins. \u201cThis week in practice has been a good pace. Guy in practice have been going hard and I think it will translate this weekend.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe weekend off can be looked at as a good thing and that\u2019s the way we\u2019re looking at it,\u201d said senior defenseman Kevin Kapstad. \u201cI thought we did a really good job preparing this week for North Dakota. Now we just want to compete and move on from there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Home Not-so-sweet Home<\/strong><\/p>\n The Verizon Center has not exactly been a pleasant place for UNH to play, particularly in the NCAA tournament. UNH has lost both of its NCAA games in Manchester, falling to fourth-seed Miami, 2-1, in 2007 and second-seeded Michigan, 4-1, in 2004.<\/p>\n To prepare for this weekend, the team split practice time between local arenas in Dover and Exeter, N.H., as its home rink has been overtaken by a flower show. It\u2019s likely whether or not the Whittemore Center was occupied that head coach Dick Umile would have moved practices to a different rink to simulate the smaller ice surface at the Verizon Center. The Manchester rink will is 200-by-85 feet as opposed to the Olympic-sized 200-by-100 ice sheet that the Wildcats play on at the Whittemore Center.<\/p>\n The maintenance crew at the Verizon Wireless Arena, home of the AHL\u2019s Manchester Monarchs, had to work overtime to prep the building. The crew needed to repaint all the lines to conform to college standards. The neutral zone in the NHL and AHL is smaller than a college rink.<\/p>\n Chance of Heart for Bourque<\/strong><\/p>\n According to the U.S. Hockey Report, Ray Bourque\u2019s son Ryan has decided to forgo his commitment to UNH and instead play junior hockey for the Quebec Ramparts, a team in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League. Patrick Roy, an old teammate of Ray\u2019s on the Colorado Avalanche, coaches the Ramparts. UNH coach Dick Umile had little to say when asked to comment on the situation during Friday\u2019s presser at the NCAA Northeast Regionals in Manchester, NH.<\/p>\n \u201cMy reaction to that is North Dakota right now,\u201d said Umile. \u201cWe\u2019ll talk about that later on, I\u2019m more concerned about the team that we\u2019re going to be coaching tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n Scouting North Dakota<\/strong><\/p>\n The twelfth ranked Wildcats (19-12-5) are making their ninth straight NCAA post season appearance and the seventh ranked Fighting Sioux (24-14-4) are close behind with seven consecutive appearances themselves. The Wildcats are confident that using their minds and bodies are essential in Saturday\u2019s game.<\/p>\n \u201cMy opinion about North Dakota is that they\u2019re just real good,\u201d said UNH coach Dick Umile. \u201cThey do a lot of things well; they\u2019re big, they\u2019re skilled, they\u2019re a strong team. They come after you, they forecheck you. They\u2019re physical and obviously they\u2019ve got some skilled players. So they can not only play that game, they have great transition.\u201d<\/p>\n Umile Added, \u201cWe\u2019ll have to play well, there\u2019s no question. It\u2019s all about competing and being ready to compete and playing smart. You don\u2019t want to go into a game like this and make bad plays or unnecessary penalties because you\u2019re just asking for trouble. So we\u2019re looking to compete, play physical ourselves, and play smart.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s really exciting we get to play a power house team and bring them into our own building,\u201d said senior Kevin Kapstad. \u201cThey\u2019re just like any top notch team that goes up and down the ice and plays real physical. Obviously they have great tradition and are always in the NCAA tournament, but we\u2019re not too focused on how they play, if we play our game I think we\u2019ll be fine.\u201d<\/p>\n Melissa Parrelli contributed to this report.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" MANCHESTER, N.H. \u2013 Though the reason for taking time off last weekend might not have sat too well with New Hampshire, the third seed in this weekend\u2019s NCAA regional in Manchester, N.H., the Wildcats team is looking at the rest as nothing but a positive. UNH, of course, was missing from last weekend\u2019s Hockey East […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":140328,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1425],"tags":[1441],"coauthors":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n