Insider Report: Sprint to Finish Starts Friday at Whitt vs. NU

DURHAM, N.H. – Bring on the Final Five.

Back around Thanksgiving, University of New Hampshire men's hockey coach Mike Souza and his staff talked about how they had broken the regular season down into segments.

The Wildcats gave themselves a nice little boost with a string of results between Thanksgiving and Christmas. They kept things going through January and up to Valentine's Day and now it's time for the stretch run.

UNH had this weekend off while its Hockey East colleagues played and shuffled the league standings a bit.

Mike Souza's team has just five games remaining in the regular season against just two teams – Northeastern and UMass Lowell – that happen to be two of the top teams in the league and the country.

The Wildcats open the sprint to the finish with home games at the Whittemore Center against Northeastern on Friday and Saturday at 7 p.m. each night.

"It's going to be fun," Souza said. "It's what it's all about in a playoff race. We're trying to get ourselves into the playoffs and we're playing two really tough opponents down the stretch and need to play our best hockey of the year coming up. We're excited to play three of the games here in the Whitt, but it's going to be a tough challenge."

Information on individual and group tickets for the Northeastern games, each of which features giveaways and promotions, is available by CLICKING HERE and by calling 603-862-4000.

UNH plays a home-and-home series against UMass Lowell the following weekend – home on Friday, March 1 and at the Tsongas Arena on Saturday, March 2 – before closing out the regular season at Northeastern on Friday, March 8.

The Wildcats have set themselves up solidly for the home stretch.

For the first time this year, only the top eight of the league's 11 teams will qualify for the Hockey East playoffs.

UNH 11-10-8 overall and at 7-7-5 in Hockey East is sitting eighth in the league. The Wildcats have a seven-point lead in the standings on both Connecticut and Vermont, who are tied for ninth place. Each of those teams have only four games – and eight potential points – remaining in the regular season and thus have very small margins for error.

Looking ahead in the standings, UNH is a point behind Boston University and Maine, who are tied for sixth place, and two points behind Boston College in fifth.

If the season ended without any changes, the Wildcats would be matched up in a best-of-three opening series at the University of Massachusetts in the first round of the Hockey East playoffs.

The goal over the next three weeks is to move up in the standings and continue to fight for a top four spot and home series in the first round.

"There's really no other strategy other than to try and play our best hockey each and every game," Souza said. "It's not about home ice or anything else. It's just playing well, playing up to our standard and when the season concludes, we'll go where they tell us to go. It's sort of the way we approach each and every day, with a one-day-at-a-time mentality. We don't want to look too far ahead and the guys have done a great job with that all year."

Northeastern and UMass Lowell hold down two of the top four spots in the Hockey East standings at the moment and also are among the league's leaders when it comes to jockeying for the 16 spots available in the NCAA tournament.

Northeastern is 19-9-1 overall and at 11-7-1 is in fourth place in the league, four points in front of UNH.

UMass Lowell is tied with Providence for second place in the league, just a point in front of Northeastern.

In the PairWise rankings that mimic the system used by the NCAA to select its at-large teams for the tournament, Massachusetts is tied for the No. 1 spot, Northeastern is at No. 11, Providence, No. 12 and UMass Lowell No. 14.

Northeastern comes first for Souza and his team.

"They're a real good team," Souza said. 'They're dangerous in a lot of areas. Their power play is real good. They have a very high-end defenseman in Jeremy Davies. They have a real good goaltender in Cayden Primeau. We have to prepare well and we have to play our best."

HOME AGAIN

UNH is 8-4-2 at the Whittemore Center this year.
The team's next three games are at the Whitt.
The Wildcats play Northeastern at home on Friday and Saturday. Both games are at 7 p.m.
Friday's game against Northeastern is '80s Night at the Whitt.
As part of Fan Appreciation Friday, the fifth set of player trading cards will be given to the first 1,000 fans.
Saturday night is Star Wars Night.
The first 500 fans will receive blue light sabers and Star Wars Troopers will be in attendance for photos.
Hot dogs will be $1 at concession stands both nights.
Friday's game is on NESNPlus and Saturday's is on NESN.
UNH's last home games were White out the Whitt games against Maine on Feb. 1 and 2.
The Wildcats won 3-2 in overtime in front of 6,152 on Friday.
They lost 5-3 in front of a sellout crowd of 6,501 on Saturday night.
The final regular season home game is Friday, March 1 vs. UMass Lowell at 7 p.m.
The remaining road games are at UMass Lowell on Saturday, March 2 and at Northeastern on Friday, March 8.
Individual and group tickets for UNH home games are available by calling 603-862-4000 or at www.unhwildcats.com.
UNH is hosting the 2019 NCAA Men's Hockey Northeast Regional at the SNHU Arena in Manchester, N.H., on Friday and Saturday, March 29-30.

WILDCAT NOTES

Junior defenseman Jeremy Davies leads Northeastern in scoring with five goals and 20 assists for 25 points.
Sophomore goalie Cayden Primeau is second in the league in save percentage at .926.
He's sixth in goals against at 2.26.
UNH forward Angus Crookshank is tied for fifth among Hockey East freshmen in scoring with nine goals and 13 assists for 22 points.
Forward Jackson Pierson is ninth among freshmen at 7-11-18.
Junior forward Liam Blackburn leads the Wildcats in scoring with 10 goals and 14 assists for 24 points.
Sophomore goalie Mike Robinson is tied for fourth in the league in both save percentage (.923) and goals against average (2.25).
He has four shutouts for the season, all in his last 13 starts.
He has three shutouts in his last eight starts.
The Wildcats are second in the league on the power play (20.4 percent). They are fourth in penalty kill (84.7).
Senior forward Ara Nazarian leads the Wildcats with a career-high 12 goals.
Sophomore defenseman Benton Maass is seventh in the league in blocked shots with 48.

OFFICIAL UNH GEAR:

Check out UNHShop.com for the latest in official UNH Wildcats' merchandise.

Allen Lessels
@UNHInsider
Allen.Lessels@unh.edu

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