UNH Wildcats TD Garden and Beyond 2015

[Greg A]

Re: UNH Wildcats TD Garden and Beyond 2015

Well, we came within 9 minutes...PC just badly outplayed us in the 3rd. I thought the inexperience that we said would catch up with us all year finally did. It was just shocking to see it happen after 40 games. Nothing you can say except congratulations to the Friars. I just hope Matt O'Connor does not let this define him. He is a great kid. He sat for 50 minutes after the game and answered question after question that was fired at him. The definition of class.

I guess because I'm "older" (let's leave it at that) that I have some perspective on life. The first thing I thought of was, "This is payback for the way we stole one in 2009." There IS symmetry in life..if you believe in that kind of stuff. But I'm happy that a Hockey East team won. Disappointed, but looking forward to the future.

Actually, for those of us with long memories, Providence's win was payback for the 1978 play-in game. For those who are not aware, back then the NCAA tournament was a four team affair, two from the west (WCHA), two from the east (ECAC). The teams selected were always the two which played in the final of their respective conference tournaments. That is until 1978 when Providence beat BU 4-1 in the ECAC semis and lost to BC in the final. The NCAA, for reasons never adequately explained, decreed that BU was entitled to a do over, a game between them and the Friars to determine who would be the second eastern team in the NCAA's. BU won that game and went on to win the championship over BC in, ironically, Providence. How I wish UNH could have a few do over games over the years.

[FiveHole12]

Re: UNH Wildcats TD Garden and Beyond 2015

ps..fanatic...I like the ring to that. Somehow, beats 'cheerleader'

Fanatics don't have pom poms, cheerleaders do. If the shoe fits...

[chickod]

Re: UNH Wildcats TD Garden and Beyond 2015

Actually, for those of us with long memories, Providence's win was payback for the 1978 play-in game. For those who are not aware, back then the NCAA tournament was a four team affair, two from the west (WCHA), two from the east (ECAC). The teams selected were always the two which played in the final of their respective conference tournaments. That is until 1978 when Providence beat BU 4-1 in the ECAC semis and lost to BC in the final. The NCAA, for reasons never adequately explained, decreed that BU was entitled to a do over, a game between them and the Friars to determine who would be the second eastern team in the NCAA's. BU won that game and went on to win the championship over BC in, ironically, Providence. How I wish UNH could have a few do over games over the years.

I was at that game.

[Greg A]

Re: UNH Wildcats TD Garden and Beyond 2015

WHY NOT US?? That's my mantra going forward for UNH. Four of the last five champions are first time winners, two of them fourth seeds in the tournament, both of whom (Yale and PC) were the last teams in. My contention is that there is not a lot that separates these teams anymore. UNH barely finished 8th, yet took 2 of 3 on the road against the eventual national champ. To get there, you do need a good goalie (as evidenced last night on both sides of the puck), a couple of decent defensive pairings, two solid lines, and good special teams. UNH had most of that at the end of this season. And while I do believe that they will get off to a slow start again next year, mostly due to a pedestrian senior class, I think that they will get better as the year goes along and at a faster rate than they did this year. IMO, there are no great teams anymore, just ones that jell at the right time of the year, the end.

[Greg A]

Re: UNH Wildcats TD Garden and Beyond 2015

I was at that game.

Do you have a rational defense as to why it was played?

[Scott]

Re: UNH Wildcats TD Garden and Beyond 2015

WHY NOT US?? That's my mantra going forward for UNH. Four of the last five champions are first time winners, two of them fourth seeds in the tournament, both of whom (Yale and PC) were the last teams in. My contention is that there is not a lot that separates these teams anymore. UNH barely finished 8th, yet took 2 of 3 on the road against the eventual national champ. To get there, you do need a good goalie (as evidenced last night on both sides of the puck), a couple of decent defensive pairings, two solid lines, and good special teams. UNH had most of that at the end of this season. And while I do believe that they will get off to a slow start again next year, mostly due to a pedestrian senior class, I think that they will get better as the year goes along and at a faster rate than they did this year. IMO, there are no great teams anymore, just ones that jell at the right time of the year, the end.

Hear, hear.

[HockeyRef]

Re: UNH Wildcats TD Garden and Beyond 2015

WHY NOT US?? That's my mantra going forward for UNH. Four of the last five champions are first time winners, two of them fourth seeds in the tournament, both of whom (Yale and PC) were the last teams in. My contention is that there is not a lot that separates these teams anymore. UNH barely finished 8th, yet took 2 of 3 on the road against the eventual national champ. To get there, you do need a good goalie (as evidenced last night on both sides of the puck), a couple of decent defensive pairings, two solid lines, and good special teams. UNH had most of that at the end of this season. And while I do believe that they will get off to a slow start again next year, mostly due to a pedestrian senior class, I think that they will get better as the year goes along and at a faster rate than they did this year. IMO, there are no great teams anymore, just ones that jell at the right time of the year, the end.

Dang straight Greg, dang straight...Why Not Us...and Why Not Now! I believe the team really got that message this season...hard work, no excuses...eyes on the prize!! Go 'Cats!!!

[HockeyRef]

Re: UNH Wildcats TD Garden and Beyond 2015

Fanatics don't have pom poms, cheerleaders do. If the shoe fits...

Hey! Give me some credit...I know what a blue line is now. That has to account for something...ha!

ps...and I wouldn't trade my pom pom (only have one) for a PINK HAT...any day.

[Snively65]

If you've read this board (and I suspect you have) there are so many deserving teams, and fans, who feel the same way (UNH teams and fans, that is). PC proved once again that anyone with the right chemistry, the right actions, and a few lucky bounces, can win it all. It isn't going to be necessarily about how many Hobey Baker winners are on your team, or NHL draft picks. So much more than that. Here's hoping...on any given day...

ps..fanatic...I like the ring to that. Somehow, beats 'cheerleader'

Speaking of which, have there been other Hobey winners between Krog and Eichel whose teams have lost in the TG?

[C-H-C]

Re: UNH Wildcats TD Garden and Beyond 2015

WHY NOT US?? That's my mantra going forward for UNH. Four of the last five champions are first time winners, two of them fourth seeds in the tournament, both of whom (Yale and PC) were the last teams in. My contention is that there is not a lot that separates these teams anymore. UNH barely finished 8th, yet took 2 of 3 on the road against the eventual national champ. To get there, you do need a good goalie (as evidenced last night on both sides of the puck), a couple of decent defensive pairings, two solid lines, and good special teams. UNH had most of that at the end of this season. And while I do believe that they will get off to a slow start again next year, mostly due to a pedestrian senior class, I think that they will get better as the year goes along and at a faster rate than they did this year. IMO, there are no great teams anymore, just ones that jell at the right time of the year, the end.

I think two short years ago was one of those "Why Not Us" times for UNH. In the opening round of the NCAA Northeast Regional, UNH decisively beat Denver 5-2. Unfortunately, their #1 scorer Kevin Goumas (10G, 32A) and #2 scorer Grayson Downing (15G, 16A) went down in the Denver game and couldn't play the next day against Lowell. How often has a team lost it's #1 and #3 scorers on the eve of a game for a trip to the Frozen Four? Maybe about as often as a top goalie drops a puck and has it squirt between his legs for the game-tying goal? If UNH had made it to the 2013 Frozen Four, it would have joined Yale, Quinnipiac, and St. Cloud. Their chances of winning it all could have been just as good as the others.

[HockeyRef]

Re: UNH Wildcats TD Garden and Beyond 2015

I think two short years ago was one of those "Why Not Us" times for UNH. In the opening round of the NCAA Northeast Regional, UNH decisively beat Denver 5-2. Unfortunately, their #1 scorer Kevin Goumas (10G, 32A) and #2 scorer Grayson Downing (15G, 16A) went down in the Denver game and couldn't play the next day against Lowell. How often has a team lost it's #1 and #3 scorers on the eve of a game for a trip to the Frozen Four? Maybe about as often as a top goalie drops a puck and has it squirt between his legs for the game-tying goal? If UNH had made it to the 2013 Frozen Four, it would have joined Yale, Quinnipiac, and St. Cloud. Their chances of winning it all could have been just as good as the others.

So remember that game (and the hit on KG) as that Regional was only the second time I had EVER I had seen them play, with of course, ZERO knowledge of the past, little insight into the game etc. What I did bring out of that was how much different the team played in the Final that day as opposed to the night before, with the loss of those two players. How deafening the roar of the UML crowd on the second goal, and how disappointed the team was skating off.

UML has had our "number" ever since. Maybe this season...any given day. Interesting to ponder what might have happened for UNH that year; considering they were the #1 team in the Nation the first half, finishing 10th when the tourney started. (Lost to PC in the HE qtrs. too).

[Snively65]

Re: UNH Wildcats TD Garden and Beyond 2015

I actually liked the way the NCAAs began in 2010 better than 2012, as I thought that after we upset Cornell, and RIT upset DU in Albany, a return to the F4 for the Cats was imminent.

[chickod]

Re: UNH Wildcats TD Garden and Beyond 2015

Do you have a rational defense as to why it was played?

Yes. The winner of the ECAC tournament got the only "automatic" bid. The second team to represent the East (remember, they went right to the Final Four, as it was called then) was ALWAYS selected by a committee. It's just that they almost always selected the team that lost the championship game. In this particular scenario, BU was far and away the best team in the country and everyone knew it. They played a stinker and lost in the semifinals. The committee felt that they wanted to send the two teams with the best chance of winning (remember, the East/West thing was insanely fierce at that time - I'm sure you remember the year before when UHN lost on a shot off the face-off, I believe). They couldn't just say, "Sorry, Providence, you made the finals but we're not letting you go. So they set up this "playoff" (which, according to the ticket, was officially called an "NCAA Qualifier Game") at Schneider Arena. I have to say that there weren't a lot of PC fans there and BU won rather easily. You can argue all day about whether it was "fair," but it WAS within the rules. The committee could have just selected BU outright and there would have been outrage in Providence. But NOBODY could argue that PC was better than BU. And as long as that "window" was open, the committee exercised the option. Obviously, as a BU fan, I agreed with the decision. Also, they proved that they were the best and got the committee off the hook by coming through, beating Wisconsin and then BC (in Providence, ironically enough). That was the Wisconsin team with Mike Eaves..they brought 4000 fans to the Providence Civic Center and their full band, all wearing the red cowboy hats with the white "W" on the front. That BU team had Craig, O'Callahan, Silk and Bethel. It was one of the best teams in BU history. One could say, "Yeah, but they didn't win when they had to." Well, not really. If there were a Pairwise then, they would have been a #1 seed. Sort of like this year, where they were the only team that didn't HAVE to win the Hockey East tournament to get to the NCAAs. It brings up the whole concept of the "conference tournament." Which is another discussion for another time. But look at it this way...it's like the B1G conference getting 201 teams into the NCAA basketball tournament when the Patriot league gets one (and if the regular season winner doesn't win their conference tournament, too bad). So not selecting BU that year was basically saying, "Why do we even play the season? Let's just have the tournament - two semi-finals. Why even have the final? The two teams that win the semi-finals go to the NCAAs. You may think this is cynical, but I don't at all. BU proved over the body of work of the long season that they were far and away the best team, and they were given the opportunity to prove it. And they did.

[Chuck Murray]

Re: UNH Wildcats TD Garden and Beyond 2015

Yes. The winner of the ECAC tournament got the only "automatic" bid. The second team to represent the East (remember, they went right to the Final Four, as it was called then) was ALWAYS selected by a committee. It's just that they almost always selected the team that lost the championship game. In this particular scenario, BU was far and away the best team in the country and everyone knew it. They played a stinker and lost in the semifinals. The committee felt that they wanted to send the two teams with the best chance of winning (remember, the East/West thing was insanely fierce at that time - I'm sure you remember the year before when UHN lost on a shot off the face-off, I believe). They couldn't just say, "Sorry, Providence, you made the finals but we're not letting you go. So they set up this "playoff" (which, according to the ticket, was officially called an "NCAA Qualifier Game") at Schneider Arena. I have to say that there weren't a lot of PC fans there and BU won rather easily. You can argue all day about whether it was "fair," but it WAS within the rules. The committee could have just selected BU outright and there would have been outrage in Providence. But NOBODY could argue that PC was better than BU. And as long as that "window" was open, the committee exercised the option. Obviously, as a BU fan, I agreed with the decision. Also, they proved that they were the best and got the committee off the hook by coming through, beating Wisconsin and then BC (in Providence, ironically enough). That was the Wisconsin team with Mike Eaves..they brought 4000 fans to the Providence Civic Center and their full band, all wearing the red cowboy hats with the white "W" on the front. That BU team had Craig, O'Callahan, Silk and Bethel. It was one of the best teams in BU history. One could say, "Yeah, but they didn't win when they had to." Well, not really. If there were a Pairwise then, they would have been a #1 seed. Sort of like this year, where they were the only team that didn't HAVE to win the Hockey East tournament to get to the NCAAs. It brings up the whole concept of the "conference tournament." Which is another discussion for another time. But look at it this way...it's like the B1G conference getting 201 teams into the NCAA basketball tournament when the Patriot league gets one (and if the regular season winner doesn't win their conference tournament, too bad). So not selecting BU that year was basically saying, "Why do we even play the season? Let's just have the tournament - two semi-finals. Why even have the final? The two teams that win the semi-finals go to the NCAAs. You may think this is cynical, but I don't at all. BU proved over the body of work of the long season that they were far and away the best team, and they were given the opportunity to prove it. And they did.

I'm 100% with you on this one, chickod. Remember watching BU beat BC on TV in the Finals. Good times.

I can't let the events of the weekend go by without sharing some thoughts ... anyway, I just read through the following item recapping O'Connor's post-game comments, and would love to get some thoughts from our other posters:

https://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/2...gUN/story.html

I'm going to give the interviewer who asked O'Connor about the incredibly misplayed Thursday night goal a lot of credit for speaking to the so-called "elephant in the room". I can't comment on O'Connor's entire season, but I do remember him giving up a softie against our beloved UNH early in the HE Semis to give the 'Cats a 1-0 ;lead. Maybe isolated, that's no big deal, as everyone has a bad moment now and then ... but then in the FF semis, the 2nd NoDak goal was at least the equal of the mess he created in the Finals.

I've seen O'Connor credited for standing up to the questioning, which was admittedly a tough thing for anyone to do given what he'd just gone through. But I'm somewhat uncomfortable with some of his comments, including "I think I deserved to play a little bit better in the third in that game" ... or “I felt great on all shots, getting my spots, great rebound control and it was just a really weird and indecisive moment that cost us the national championship, I guess you could say.’’ And when asked if he had a flashback to the third period of Thursday night’s semis, when he allowed a shorthanded goal after misplaying a puck off the boards ... “Definitely not,’’ O’Connor said. “I thought it was completely different. That one, it hit the boards, bounced off over my stick and was a definitely a different situation completely."

I'll just say this ... not all players can handle the pressure of playing in the biggest games under the brightest of spotlights. Some players rise to the occasion - and clearly, once a glorious opportunity presented itself and there was "blood in the water", PC stormed through and took advantage. Bravo to them. Others do not OR cannot rise to the occasion. None of us see what's going on inside a kid's head, but sometimes you can deduce how someone might be shrinking under the admittedly-intense pressure of a game like last night (or even Thursday night's semi) when you see what are a series of awful plays when a game hangs in the balance.

I do feel badly for O'Connor, as going through something like his two critical gaffes in the FF will likely (sadly) define his career. This was the exposure of a classic "Achilles' heel" for the college hockey world (and beyond) to see. It will be interesting to see if he returns to BU next season (I believe he's a junior?) or turns pro. You have to think his pro outlook took a beating this past weekend.

I feel badly for Coach Quinn, who had to have seen these things happening from time to time, and would probably be lying if he said he hadn't taken notice earlier. But you dance with the goalie who's gotten you through this far - even with the warts - and you hope like heck what did happen last night just doesn't happen. Coach Quinn will likely get another chance ... O'Connor, I'm not so sure.

I feel badly for the rest of the BU kids. They played well enough to be ahead late in the game, and watching their goalie turn a routine play into the ugliest goal I've probably ever seen (or at least in the 48 hours since the semis) will suck the life out of even the best and/or most experienced team, guaranteed (and BU was only the best talent-wise last night). There are goals that just should not and cannot happen, and BU narrowly dodged a bullet in the semis, only to see it happen to them again at the most critical point of the season. Your reaction as a player is then probably to overcompensate by playing beyond your usual system or abilities, just so you don't let the game get decided by your "weakest link", who's just been exposed. And in doing so, you mess up instead, lose inside contain on a routine faceoff ... and then before you know it, you're collecting your NCAA Finalists medals.

The D-1 title was decided by a human being who in a very human moment, let the circumstances of the game overwhelm him. It was painful to watch, and to be honest it is admittedly awkward to write this, as the overriding emotion is empathy or sympathy, and likewise for the BU kids to want to close ranks and share the blame, and say how "it wasn't the winning goal" in the end (and of course statistically it wasn't). But the elephant in the room states the obvious ... and it was the 3rd PC goal that was the deciding goal, as it had the impact of "blood in the water" on both teams. The bedrock trust the BU players needed to believe in their goalie was lost with PC's 3rd goal, as O'Connor's teammates had seen it before 48 hours earlier, and had no reason to think it couldn't/wouldn't happen again.

One can only imagine the implications had this happened to a Coach Umile-led team in the postseason ...

[Snively65]

Speaking of which, have there been other Hobey winners between Krog and Eichel whose teams have lost in the TG?

Snively65, the answer, of course, is yes. Blake Geoffrion won the Hobey when Wisco lost to BC in 2010, and Mike Mottau won the Hobey when BC lost to Nodak in 2000.

The nearest that I can come to an answer to your question at the end of your recent post, Chuck, would be the two goals by Pete Metcalf in the St Paul semi, as both of those goals that were pretty much identical about two minutes apart early in the second seemed stoppable, as Ayers was not screened on either one. From that point on, despite only being down 3-2, UNH seemed out of synch, and then completely unraveled in the third.