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University of New Hampshire Athletics
Freshman defenseman Colton Huard has four goals and eight assists for the Wildcats.
Photo by: China Wong
1/20/2022 5:38:00 PM | Men's Ice Hockey, UNH Insider
'Cats Take 4-Game Win Streak to UConn
DURHAM, N.H. – The University of New Hampshire men's hockey team, enjoying a 1-0 lead over No. 20 Boston College late in the first period last Saturday night, went to work on the power play.
This time, the extra man paid off.
Colton Huard passed the puck to junior defenseman Kalle Eriksson who relayed it to senior forward Jackson Pierson who directed it back toward Huard. The freshman defenseman promptly unleashed a one-timer to deposit the puck into the net.
"There's nothing like scoring a goal on that," said head coach Mike Souza. "It was a timely goal. I thought our puck movement on that one was real smooth and crisp and we did what we wanted to do."
Huard's been on fire the last few games and his goal – he has one in each of UNH's last three games – helped lift the Wildcats to a 5-2 win over Boston College on Saturday and a sweep of the weekend series. He has four goals and eight assists and is tied for second on the team in points with senior forward Filip Engaras behind Pierson (10-6-16).
Huard and the Wildcats will try to keep it going – both on the power play and in the win column – when they play a pair of games against Connecticut in Hartford this weekend. The teams meet at 7 p.m. in the XL Center on Friday and again at 4 p.m. Saturday.
UNH has won its last four games and is on its longest winning streak in two years.
The Wildcats have outscored their opponents 20-6 in this stretch, a nice and welcome change for a team that struggled to score goals in the first half of the season.
"I think our confidence level is pretty high," Huard said after his goal Friday night helped UNH to a 3-2 win over the Eagles. "We know that we can score goals now. We weren't scoring a whole lot of goals. Now there are a lot of guys who have gotten the monkey off their backs."
Huard, 6-foot-3 and 200 pounds, missed the first six games of the year after getting injured in preseason practice and quickly become a contributor on the backline. He has pulled down Hockey East awards each of the last two weeks: First as Defender of the Week and then as Rookie of the Week.
He's played his way onto the top power play unit, a group Souza hopes will heat up down the stretch of league play. The Wildcats have been effective killing penalties during the season, but have not had the same success when it comes to scoring on their own power plays.
UNH is second (at an 88.6 success rate) in the league to only Northeastern (91.2) in penalty kill, but is last in the league in power play (11.9 percent).
Huard's goal Saturday was the team's eighth with the man advantage all season and third in the last 11 games. Only twice during the season has UNH scored power play goals in consecutive games.
"We'll try to build off the goal we scored on it the other night," Souza said. "We want to simplify things. Our motto right now is 'function, not flashy' on the power play. We love mobile, puck-moving defensemen. Colton happens to be 6-3 and able to do that. Kalle is not 6-3, but he sees the ice as well as anyone on the team and they're both on it right now."
The Wildcats will be looking for goals of any sort to keep pace with UConn, which averages three goals a game.
"I think they're as talented a team as there is in the league," Souza said. "Their forward group certainly is. They can beat you offensively in a lot of different ways and they play hard."
Grad student goalie Mike Robinson has been in net during the win streak and has improved his save percentage to .916 and dropped his goals against average to 2.16.
The Huskies are 9-9-0 overall and 6-5-0 in Hockey East and are one of the teams directly in front of the Wildcats as they attempt to make a move in the league standings.
UNH is 11-10-1 overall and 5-7-1 in Hockey East. The Wildcats are in ninth place in the league, three points behind UConn and Merrimack, who are tied for seventh place. Providence, Boston University and Boston College are just one point in front of that, tied for fourth place. A win in regulation time is worth three points.
The Wildcats get three shots at UConn over their next four games.
UNH has next weekend off and is back in action with a road game at Merrimack on Friday, Feb. 4.
The Wildcats play UConn in their next home game Saturday, Feb. 5 sat 7:30 p.m. for Heroes Night, presented by Eastern Propane & Oil. There will be a youth cape giveaway that night.
Overall, UNH is down to its final 11 games of the regular season. All are league games and four of them are at the Whittemore Center.
Individual and group tickets for home games are available at www.unhwildcats.com and by calling the Whittemore Center Box Office at 603-862-4000.
Under the school's COVID-19 regulations, all spectators, regardless of vaccination status, must wear masks at all indoor athletic events.
THE ROAD AHEAD
· UNH plays at UConn in the XL Center in Hartford on Friday at 7 and Saturday at 4 p.m.
· Friday's game is on College SportsLive.
· Saturday's is on NESN+.
· All UNH games are also available on the Wildcat Sports Radio Network.
· The team is off next weekend.
· The Wildcats play at Merrimack on Friday, Feb. 4 and are back at the Whittemore Center on Saturday, Feb. 5 to play UConn at 7:30 p.m.
· The UConn game marks Heroes Night, presented by Eastern Propane & Oil.
· There will be a youth cape giveaway that night,
· 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.
· The Wildcats have 11 games remaining. All are Hockey East contests.
· After the UConn game on Feb. 5, UNH plays at Vermont on Friday, Feb. 11.
· The Wildcats play UMass Lowell at home on Sunday, Feb. 13 at 2 p.m.
· They play a pair at Maine Feb. 18 and 19.
· UNH faces Merrimack at home on Saturday, Feb. 26.
· The Wildcats close out the regular season with a series against UMass Lowell: home on Friday, March 4 and on the road Saturday, March 5.
THE HUSKIES
· Mike Cavanaugh is in his ninth season as head coach at UConn.
· Senior forward Jachym Kondelik (6-11-17) and sophomore forward Ryan Tverberg (9-8-17) lead the Huskies in scoring.
· Grad student goalie Darion Hanson has a 2.58 goals against average and .913 save percentage.
· UConn beat Boston College, 5-4, on Jan. 8, but has lost its last two games to AIC, 3-1, and Boston University, 2-1 in overtime.
· Souza was an assistant and then associate head coach under Cavanaugh for three seasons before returning to UNH, his alma mater, as an assistant to Dick Umile in 2015.
Allen Lessels
@UNHInsider
Allen.Lessels@unh.edu
This time, the extra man paid off.
Colton Huard passed the puck to junior defenseman Kalle Eriksson who relayed it to senior forward Jackson Pierson who directed it back toward Huard. The freshman defenseman promptly unleashed a one-timer to deposit the puck into the net.
"There's nothing like scoring a goal on that," said head coach Mike Souza. "It was a timely goal. I thought our puck movement on that one was real smooth and crisp and we did what we wanted to do."
Huard's been on fire the last few games and his goal – he has one in each of UNH's last three games – helped lift the Wildcats to a 5-2 win over Boston College on Saturday and a sweep of the weekend series. He has four goals and eight assists and is tied for second on the team in points with senior forward Filip Engaras behind Pierson (10-6-16).
Huard and the Wildcats will try to keep it going – both on the power play and in the win column – when they play a pair of games against Connecticut in Hartford this weekend. The teams meet at 7 p.m. in the XL Center on Friday and again at 4 p.m. Saturday.
UNH has won its last four games and is on its longest winning streak in two years.
The Wildcats have outscored their opponents 20-6 in this stretch, a nice and welcome change for a team that struggled to score goals in the first half of the season.
"I think our confidence level is pretty high," Huard said after his goal Friday night helped UNH to a 3-2 win over the Eagles. "We know that we can score goals now. We weren't scoring a whole lot of goals. Now there are a lot of guys who have gotten the monkey off their backs."
Huard, 6-foot-3 and 200 pounds, missed the first six games of the year after getting injured in preseason practice and quickly become a contributor on the backline. He has pulled down Hockey East awards each of the last two weeks: First as Defender of the Week and then as Rookie of the Week.
He's played his way onto the top power play unit, a group Souza hopes will heat up down the stretch of league play. The Wildcats have been effective killing penalties during the season, but have not had the same success when it comes to scoring on their own power plays.
UNH is second (at an 88.6 success rate) in the league to only Northeastern (91.2) in penalty kill, but is last in the league in power play (11.9 percent).
Huard's goal Saturday was the team's eighth with the man advantage all season and third in the last 11 games. Only twice during the season has UNH scored power play goals in consecutive games.
"We'll try to build off the goal we scored on it the other night," Souza said. "We want to simplify things. Our motto right now is 'function, not flashy' on the power play. We love mobile, puck-moving defensemen. Colton happens to be 6-3 and able to do that. Kalle is not 6-3, but he sees the ice as well as anyone on the team and they're both on it right now."
The Wildcats will be looking for goals of any sort to keep pace with UConn, which averages three goals a game.
"I think they're as talented a team as there is in the league," Souza said. "Their forward group certainly is. They can beat you offensively in a lot of different ways and they play hard."
Grad student goalie Mike Robinson has been in net during the win streak and has improved his save percentage to .916 and dropped his goals against average to 2.16.
The Huskies are 9-9-0 overall and 6-5-0 in Hockey East and are one of the teams directly in front of the Wildcats as they attempt to make a move in the league standings.
UNH is 11-10-1 overall and 5-7-1 in Hockey East. The Wildcats are in ninth place in the league, three points behind UConn and Merrimack, who are tied for seventh place. Providence, Boston University and Boston College are just one point in front of that, tied for fourth place. A win in regulation time is worth three points.
The Wildcats get three shots at UConn over their next four games.
UNH has next weekend off and is back in action with a road game at Merrimack on Friday, Feb. 4.
The Wildcats play UConn in their next home game Saturday, Feb. 5 sat 7:30 p.m. for Heroes Night, presented by Eastern Propane & Oil. There will be a youth cape giveaway that night.
Overall, UNH is down to its final 11 games of the regular season. All are league games and four of them are at the Whittemore Center.
Individual and group tickets for home games are available at www.unhwildcats.com and by calling the Whittemore Center Box Office at 603-862-4000.
Under the school's COVID-19 regulations, all spectators, regardless of vaccination status, must wear masks at all indoor athletic events.
THE ROAD AHEAD
· UNH plays at UConn in the XL Center in Hartford on Friday at 7 and Saturday at 4 p.m.
· Friday's game is on College SportsLive.
· Saturday's is on NESN+.
· All UNH games are also available on the Wildcat Sports Radio Network.
· The team is off next weekend.
· The Wildcats play at Merrimack on Friday, Feb. 4 and are back at the Whittemore Center on Saturday, Feb. 5 to play UConn at 7:30 p.m.
· The UConn game marks Heroes Night, presented by Eastern Propane & Oil.
· There will be a youth cape giveaway that night,
· 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.
· The Wildcats have 11 games remaining. All are Hockey East contests.
· After the UConn game on Feb. 5, UNH plays at Vermont on Friday, Feb. 11.
· The Wildcats play UMass Lowell at home on Sunday, Feb. 13 at 2 p.m.
· They play a pair at Maine Feb. 18 and 19.
· UNH faces Merrimack at home on Saturday, Feb. 26.
· The Wildcats close out the regular season with a series against UMass Lowell: home on Friday, March 4 and on the road Saturday, March 5.
THE HUSKIES
· Mike Cavanaugh is in his ninth season as head coach at UConn.
· Senior forward Jachym Kondelik (6-11-17) and sophomore forward Ryan Tverberg (9-8-17) lead the Huskies in scoring.
· Grad student goalie Darion Hanson has a 2.58 goals against average and .913 save percentage.
· UConn beat Boston College, 5-4, on Jan. 8, but has lost its last two games to AIC, 3-1, and Boston University, 2-1 in overtime.
· Souza was an assistant and then associate head coach under Cavanaugh for three seasons before returning to UNH, his alma mater, as an assistant to Dick Umile in 2015.
Allen Lessels
@UNHInsider
Allen.Lessels@unh.edu
Players Mentioned
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/ Men's Ice HockeySunday, March 08
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Tuesday, February 24
Sunday, February 22