Insider Report: Another OT Win - University of New Hampshire Athletics

DURHAM, N.H. – Different Saturday night, different opponent. Same nice story.

The University of New Hampshire men's hockey team did it again last Saturday night in the Whittemore Center.

For the second time this season, the Wildcats knocked off the No. 8 team in the country. Same 2-1 score. Once again in overtime, once again with senior forward Jackson Pierson finishing off the opponent.

Back in late October, UNH knocked off No. 8 Providence College in OT. Last Saturday, the Wildcats took out Massachusetts, which was then No. 8 and is the reigning national champion.

The win earned coach Mike Souza's team a split of the weekend series with the Minutemen and closed out a stretch of nine straight games against Hockey East teams.

The Wildcats play a pair of nonconference games this weekend – Friday night at No. 16 Harvard and Saturday night back at the Whittemore Center against Holy Cross.

Individual and group tickets are available at www.unhwildcats.com and by calling the Whittemore Center Box office at 603-862-4000.Fans are required to wear masks inside the Whittemore Center.

Both games will be on NESN.

The Wildcats are 5-7-1 overall and 3-5-1 in the league.

Harvard is 5-2-1 overall and 4-1-1 in the ECAC.

"It doesn't get any easier," Souza said.

The Crimson rolled over Dartmouth, 9-3, in their opener. They own a 3-2 win over Cornell, No. 14 at the time. They lost to No. 17 Northeastern, 2-1 in overtime, in their only game thus far against a Hockey East school.

Harvard comes in off a 5-2 win over Brown on Tuesday night. Junior forward Nick Abruzzese had a goal and three assists and sophomore Alex Laferriere two goals and an assist.

The Crimson are 4-0 at home in the Bright Center this season and they average 4.1 goals a game while allowing 2.5.

Laferriere has seven goals and three assists and sophomore forward Sean Farrell leads in points at 5-7-12.

The Wildcats will look to build off the rewarding, resilient win over UMass.

"I'm very proud of our team," said Souza after the victory. "We faced a lot of adversity in the game tonight."

The final seconds of regulation play led to some stress.

Senior goalie Mike Robinson was impressive all night. UNH led 1-0 on a first period goal by freshman forward Liam Devlin and the goalie was closing in on his first shutout of the season when he covered a puck with 4.7 seconds showing on the clock.

The referees convened and checked out video and determined an additional 1.4 seconds would be added to the game.

UMass made the most of the extra time and got a puck past Robinson with 1.1 seconds left.

The Wildcats were unfazed.

"We were saying 'shake it off, forget about it, let's just win it in overtime,'" Pierson said.

And they did – ending the three-on-three OT session in short order.

Pierson closed it out, after a nice give and go with senior forward Eric MacAdams, just 37 seconds into OT and the Wildcats had a little revenge for a 3-0 loss at UMass on Friday night.

"You give up a goal with a second left, then find a way to pull it out in overtime," Souza said. "Just happy for our guys – happy for Jackson. He's our best player. You need your best player to make plays, and he did."

Pierson is up to five goals for the season. He has the winning goal in three of UNH's five victories, which ties him for the Hockey East lead.

Robinson had 32 saves for the win and was named Hockey East Goalie of the Week for his efforts.

"I thought Michael Robinson was outstanding," said Souza. "As I've said before, the best of Michael Robinson is pretty darn good."

Junior David Fessenden had 24 saves in the loss on Friday night at UMass. That one, too, was a 1-0 game until late. UMass made it 2-0 with just over two minutes left and then added an empty net goal.

After Harvard on Friday and Holy Cross on Saturday, the Wildcats play a home-and-home series with Boston University on Friday, Dec. 3 at Agganis Arena and Saturday, Dec. 4 at the Whittemore Center, before taking a three-week-plus break for Christmas.

THE ROAD AHEAD

Both Friday night's game at Harvard and Saturday night's at the Whittemore Center are on NESN.
Both games start at 7 p.m.
Fans can purchase group and individual game tickets at UNHWildcats.com/Tickets or by calling the UNH Wildcats box office at 603-862-4000 (Monday-Friday, 10am-5pm).
Fans must wear masks while inside the Whittemore Center.
Every home game and away Hockey East game will be livestreamed for free on College SportsLive.
UNH plays at Boston University on Friday, Dec. 3 at 7:30 p.m.
The teams meet again Saturday, Dec. 4 in Durham at 7.
The Wildcats are then off until playing Dartmouth in the first round of the Ledyard Classic in Hanover on Thursday, Dec. 30.
They play either Boston College or Mercyhurst the next day.
UNH plays at home against St. Lawrence on Friday, Jan. 7 and Clarkson, Saturday, Jan. 8.
The Wildcats get back to Hockey East play with a series against Boston College on Jan. 14 and 15.
The Friday night game is at the Whittemore Center.
Saturday's is in Conte Forum at BC.

Allen Lessels
@UNHInsider
Allen.Lessels@unh.edu

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Liam Devlin

David Fessenden

Eric MacAdams

Jackson Pierson

Mike Robinson