DURHAM, N.H. – These are exciting, challenging times for the University of New Hampshire men’s hockey team.
At this time next week, Mike Souza’s group will be celebrating Thanksgiving in Northern Ireland, putting the final touches on its preparation for a couple of games in the Friendship Four tournament set for Belfast.
First though, the Wildcats have their work cut out for them at the Whittemore Center where they take on the University of Michigan – perhaps the most storied and tradition-rich program in all of college hockey – in a pair of games Friday and Saturday nights.
“Any time you bring one of the iconic programs in the country into the Whittemore Center, it’s special for our players,” Souza said. “It’s two huge games for us. Two huge games for Michigan. It should be exciting. The building should be alive.”
The games begin at 7 p.m. each night. Group and individual game tickets – including a flexible, six-ticket mini-plan – are available for all home games at www.unhwildcats.com or by calling 603-862-4000. Tickets start at $9.
There’s a trading card giveaway on Friday night and a Be the Roar scarf, presented by Tuscan Brands, will be given away Saturday night. Saturday also features a November Chill celebration on the Carpenter Plaza outside the Whittemore Center with music and activities.
Souza is looking for a bounce-back weekend for his team.
The Wildcats lost a pair of close games last weekend at Maine, 3-1 on Friday night and 2-1 in overtime after giving up the lead late in regulation Saturday.
UNH has won all three of its home games thus far, including high-profile triumphs over then-No. 15 Boston College, 1-0 in overtime, on Nov. 1 and over No. 2 Massachusetts, 3-1, in its most recent home game on Nov. 10.
“We’ve been able to take care of business here at home, but it gets harder,” Souza said. “We tell the kids this all the time. You got people’s attention with some of the wins. You beat BC and you beat UMass and got people’s attention. Not to say people take you lightly beforehand, but you start earning people’s respect by the way you play.”
The Wildcats will be out to boost their offense. They scored only the two goals last weekend and have five in their last three games.
“The emphasis in practice has been in shooting the puck, hitting the net,” said junior forward Kohei Sato. “Make the goalie work, make them make the saves, instead of us not shooting and making it easy for them.”
Too often, Souza said, opportunities to shoot the puck have been passed up for an extra pass, perhaps giving a goalie a time to get set or a defenseman another chance to get a stick in the way.
“It’s hard to score now,” Souza said. “Goalies are good. Teams defend well. . . We just have to find a way to get pucks and bodies to the net and get our ‘D’ involved. We’re not going to come out here and reinvent something. It’s just a matter of having a willingness to get the puck to the net.”
The Wildcats added one forward with scoring potential to the mix last weekend, but lost another in the process.
Sophomore forward Jackson Pierson, who leads the team in scoring with two goals and 11 assists for 13 points, was injured on Friday night, will not play this weekend and will likely miss several games.
Sophomore forward Filip Engaras of Stockholm, Sweden made his collegiate debut Saturday night in Pierson’s spot in the lineup. Engaras sat out last season and the first nine games this year due to an NCAA ruling on his eligibility based on a team he played for back home.
“I thought he played well for his first game in North America, his first game in a year and a half or whatever,” Souza said. “It was pretty seamless. He’s been around here for a while. He’s been practicing. He knows the way we want to play, he knows how we forecheck and how we defend.”
Souza has praised Engaras as a two-way player, conscientious about his defense.
“He has great detail in his game,” the coach noted. “That’s what was told to us about him before we ever even watched him. If you watch him every day, you see he’s a detail guy. He has a learning curve like any young player. But that learning curve, I think, for him will be easier because of his hockey sense and his ability.”
The Wildcats are 5-4-1- overall and 3-3-0 in Hockey East.
Michigan is 3-7-2 overall and is 0-6-1 in its last seven games.
The Wolverines have won nine NCAA championships and been to the Frozen Four 25 times, most recently in 2018 when they advanced out of the Northeast Regional in Worcester and then lost in the national semifinals to Notre Dame.
Johnny Beecher, a 6-foot-3 and 209-pound forward picked in the first round of the NHL draft by the Boston Bruins last June, leads Michigan in scoring with two goals and four assists for six points. He’s been skating on a line with Jack Becker, a seventh round Bruins pick in 2015, who has three goals and a pair of assists.
Freshman defenseman Cam York, picked 14th overall in the first round by the Philadelphia Flyers in last June’s draft, has a goal and four assists.
The Wolverines, too, have struggled to score.
They’re averaging 1.92 goals per game and have nine goals in their last seven games.
“Goal scoring is funny,” Souza said. “It goes in in bunch sometimes and it stays out in bunches, too, sometimes. I can’t speak to why they’ve had trouble scoring. I just want to make sure they have trouble scoring this weekend.”
HOME AGAIN
Both games against Michigan this weekend start at 7 p.m.
Season, group and individual tickets for all UNH home games are available at www.unhwildcats.com or by calling 603-862-4000.
Group ticket options start at $9.
A flexible six-ticket mini-plan is available.
The second of the six-set trading card series will be given out to the first 1,000 fans at Friday’s game vs. Michigan, presented by Dunkin’ Donuts.
The Saturday game is presented by Tuscan Brands and there will be a UNH scarf giveaway for the first 1,000 fans.
Saturday’s game also marks November Chill at Carpenter Plaza and there will be music and activities with food for sale outside the Whittemore Center.
The Wildcats play Northeastern in Belfast, Ireland on Friday, Nov. 29 in the first round of the Friendship Four.
They play either Colgate or Princeton the next day.
After the two Michigan games, the Wildcats have one home game remaining before New Year’s.
They get back into Hockey East play with a game against Merrimack on Friday, Dec. 6 at 7 p.m.
The UNH hockey calendar will be the giveaway that night.
The Wildcat Toy Drive will also be held that night.
WILDCAT NOTES
Sato and sophomore forward Angus Crookshank scored the UNH goals at Maine.
They each have five goals to lead the team.
Junior Max Gildon is second in Hockey East among defensemen with 4 goals, 8 assists for 12 points.
UNH is averaging 2.67 goals per game.
The Wildcats are second in Hockey East in power play with 12 goals in 44 chances (27.3 percent).
Michigan has six goals in 51 power play chances (11.8 percent).
Six of UNH’s 10 games have gone to overtime.
Michigan last played in the Whittemore Center in 2013.
Both games went to OT.
The first wended in a 1-1 tie and the Wolverines won the next night, 3-2.
UNH junior goalie Mike Robinson is seventh in Hockey East in goals against at 2.09.
He’s sixth in save percentage at .919.
Michigan sophomore Strauss Mann has a 2.25 gaa and .924 save percentage.
Junior defenseman Benton Maass is tied for fifth in the league with 17 blocked shots.
UNH and Michigan last met in 2014 in Ann Arbor.
They split a two-game set, UNH winning 5-1 the first night and Michigan, 2-1, the second.
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