UNH Wildcats Official Wait til Next Year...14/15 thread

[C-H-C]

Re: UNH Wildcats Official Wait til Next Year...14/15 thread

UNH Sweeps Merrimack, Earns Home Ice: Goal-by-Goal
Includes video highlights plus table comparing Andrew Poturalski's scoring with Century Club members of the last 20 years.

[HockeyRef]

Re: UNH Wildcats Official Wait til Next Year...14/15 thread

UNH Sweeps Merrimack, Earns Home Ice: Goal-by-Goal
Includes video highlights plus table comparing Andrew Poturalski's scoring with Century Club members of the last 20 years.

While I am thrilled at how well our Andrew P is doing this season...am blown away by those 4 year totals by players like Krog, Haydar (guys before my UNH fan time, sadly). Seriously??? Wow, what was THAT like watching all of those goals go in the net?????? I'd be beside myself. Just sayin'. 238 points in 4 years? Am I reading that table right or did I miss something in translation (which would not surprise me) Whaaatttt???

ps I am aware that there are obviously assists sprinkled in those totals but man, they don't make 'em like they used to!!!

[JB]

238 points in 4 years?

98-99 team had top 4 forwards score 56, 59, 60, 66 points spread over 2 lines. The next year Krog (66 pts) was the only one left (2 sr and 1 jr left) scored 85, Souza jr wing scored 65 and Haydar freshman on his line scored 61. Krog was the ring leader.

Team was just short falling in ot, close as we have come. I will always wonder what if Bekar (jr that left - 60 pts in 98-99) had stayed. He only played 11 NHL games over 11 pro seasons.

[e.cat]

Re: UNH Wildcats Official Wait til Next Year...14/15 thread

UNH Sweeps Merrimack, Earns Home Ice: Goal-by-Goal
Includes video highlights plus table comparing Andrew Poturalski's scoring with Century Club members of the last 20 years.

Very interesting Mike. Poturalski off to a great start compared to some outstanding UNH players. He is one of those guys that has a knack for putting it in the back of the net. Obviously, your linemates(Kelleher) are critical to your success but Poturalski delivers Love it!!

[JB]

Very interesting Mike. Poturalski off to a great start compared to some outstanding UNH players. He is one of those guys that has a knack for putting it in the back of the net. Obviously, your linemates(Kelleher) are critical to your success but Poturalski delivers Love it!!

The game seems to slow down with the puck on his stick. One goal Friday was amazing patients with the puck.

[Snively65]

Re: UNH Wildcats Official Wait til Next Year...14/15 thread

Nice summary table, Mike. But, I believe that the key to Haydar's amazing 61-point freshman year was his line mates. I am really impressed with several of the century club who had unremarkable freshman years. If Bekar had stayed for his senior year, the Cats likely would have that one piece of hardware that eludes us, and probably Bekar would have topped all but Krog and Haydar on the list for total career points. The college of "what if's."

[HockeyRef]

Very interesting Mike. Poturalski off to a great start compared to some outstanding UNH players. He is one of those guys that has a knack for putting it in the back of the net. Obviously, your linemates(Kelleher) are critical to your success but Poturalski delivers Love it!!

And the kid sees the ice so well too! He has poise and makes good decisions on his shot selection....yup e.cat he's a quintessential grade A gamer!

[HockeyRef]

Re: UNH Wildcats Official Wait til Next Year...14/15 thread

The game seems to slow down with the puck on his stick. One goal Friday was amazing patients with the puck.

That's pretty cool you notice that! There IS something that happens when he gets the puck; couldn't put my finger on it until you pointed this out ...(cue the twilight zone music). Seriously..I see it too but you just nailed it...Great days ahead for this young man..and team.

[sonar]

Re: UNH Wildcats Official Wait til Next Year...14/15 thread

"The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails."
William Arthur Ward

[Greg A]

Re: UNH Wildcats Official Wait til Next Year...14/15 thread

Nice summary table, Mike. But, I believe that the key to Haydar's amazing 61-point freshman year was his line mates. I am really impressed with several of the century club who had unremarkable freshman years. If Bekar had stayed for his senior year, the Cats likely would have that one piece of hardware that eludes us, and probably Bekar would have topped all but Krog and Haydar on the list for total career points. The college of "what if's."

I'm going to have to respectively disagree with you Snively on Haydar. If he was just a product of his line he wouldn't have wound up UNH's third leading scorer all time. My recollection of that year is that Umile started the season with Krog centering Souza and, I think, Ficek. He tried a couple of other wingers instead of Ficek but by the eighth or ninth game he realized that Haydar was the perfect complement to Krog. I'm not sure if it was their first game together but I do remember a break out night at BU when Haydar had two goals. There are some who nitpicked Haydar's career at UNH for some reason but the guy knew how to put the puck in the net and he knew how to put other guys in a position to do the same. Agree on the Bekar point, as do most who followed the team back then.

Also want to point out to Ref that, yes, the numbers guys like Krog, Haydar, and others put up back then were mindboggling, but they were somewhat a product of the way the game was played. College hockey was always a wide open sport, witness UNH's 10-9 PT win vs. Cornell in the 1977 ECAC finals and the 2001 BU-Northern Michigan NCAA final which I believe was 9-8 in OT. You hardly ever see teams combine for more than 9 or 10 goals in a game anymore unless there is a complete meltdown of team defense and the goalie. I was taken aback when NU put up a 10 spot on UConn a couple of weeks ago. Reminded me of the regular pummelings that UNH gave Merrimack back in the day. As to the answer to why, I think it is the advances in coaching and the tools available to assist in coaching. Video breakdown of games was not available until about 10-15 years ago and, since then, it is not surprising that scoring has dropped. The days of 100 point seasons (Kariya) or 300 point careers (Montgomery) are a thing of the past. I believe that Ralph Cox can rest easy knowing that his single season and career numbers are safe.

[Darius]

Re: UNH Wildcats Official Wait til Next Year...14/15 thread

98-99 team had top 4 forwards score 56, 59, 60, 66 points spread over 2 lines. The next year Krog (66 pts) was the only one left (2 sr and 1 jr left) scored 85, Souza jr wing scored 65 and Haydar freshman on his line scored 61. Krog was the ring leader.

Team was just short falling in ot, close as we have come. I will always wonder what if Bekar (jr that left - 60 pts in 98-99) had stayed. He only played 11 NHL games over 11 pro seasons.

Bekar left after '98, agreed if he stayed for '98 - '99. My lasting Bekar image is of him effortlessly flying up and down the ice.

That '98 - '99 team didn't give up a whole lot of goals either, SO solid defensively.

Filipowicz/O'Brien
Bragnalo/Lind
White/Enders

Conklin
Matile

[Darius]

Re: UNH Wildcats Official Wait til Next Year...14/15 thread

The game seems to slow down with the puck on his stick. One goal Friday was amazing patients with the puck.

Great point. Foegele is starting to see the game at Neo in the Matrix speed as well. Next up: Eiserman?

[JB]

Bekar left after '98, agreed if he stayed for '98 - '99. My lasting Bekar image is of him effortlessly flying up and down the ice.

Yup I was off a year in my post. I think of that year as 98 and the ot game as 99 and I start there and end up off a year.

[JB]

Great point. Foegele is starting to see the game at Neo in the Matrix speed as well. Next up: Eiserman?

I am not sure if it will slow down for Eiserman. It is a game style thing, I am not sure if he is a play maker where the game seems to slow, he is more of a space maker / contact player.

Foegele is definately adjusting to the NCAA pace of play.

[Greg A]

Re: UNH Wildcats Official Wait til Next Year...14/15 thread

I am not sure if it will slow down for Eiserman. It is a game style thing, I am not sure if he is a play maker where the game seems to slow, he is more of a space maker / contact player.

Foegele is definately adjusting to the NCAA pace of play.

I thought his best goal was the second on Saturday night, in the second period. He came down the left wing, did a bit of a hesitation around the dman, gave himself some space, and scored. Of course, this was against Merrimack, which gave us probably the worst performance by a Hockey East team (even more than UNH's 8-2 spanking by Lowell early on) all year. How can a team beat Minnesota in their own building in December, then two months later put up a stinker like that?