Future chances

Hockey
Jon Pelland

The press conferences for UMass and UNH ended about 30 minutes ago and BC is already leading BU. Brock Bradford scored from the far circle. But I'm confident John Curry will rebound and shutdown the Eagles for the remainder of the season. It still amazes me that he isn't drafted - that will definitely change come summer.

Back to UMass and UNH, here are the opening statements from both Toot and Dick Umile.

Umile:
Obviously it was a tremendous college hockey game. As coaches, we just kind of stay out of the way and let the players play and both teams played extremely well, both goalies made some huge saves. It was a great game back and forth. You had two teams really battling. We’re just excited to be playing in the championship game and congratulations to UMass. Donny has done a terrific job with his team. I think everybody was aware of that and we knew we could possibly have a great college hockey game.

Cahoon:
The intensity and quality of the play, I think both teams went toe-to-toe and had lots of scoring chances – lots of opportunities to break it open. Congratulate UNH for the big goal in the big moment. I’m really proud of my guys for the way they competed and the way they executed. Hopefully we get a chance to continue to playing in the future.

Although the loss tonight darkened the Minutemen's NCAA Tournament picture, they are still in it according to up-to-the-minute PairWise Rankings on USCHO.com. Adding in the recommended .003 bonus for "quality road wins," UMass dropped down to 14th - just ahead of Denver and Dartmouth. Entering tonight, the Minutemen were 11th, but that's without the bonus.

BC just went up 2-0 on a Benn Ferriero score - he's really good. Come on Curry.

For those of you who don't know, the PairWise Ranking tries to mimic the Selection Committee's system to determing what teams make into the NCAA Tournament. It's usually very accurate, with the top 16 teams moving on to the tourney.

Dartmouth and Clarkson are tied at four in the third. If the Big Green loses that obviously bodes well for UMass. Michigan Tech (currently 17th in PairWise) lost to Wisconsin last night.

What continues to boggle my mind is that Maine remains 11th, despite the fact it is sitting at home right now, probably tuned into NESN. I can't believe even computers continue to overrate the Black Bears.

The Daily Hampshire Gazette's own Matt Vautour just told me he plugged in all the bad losses and still came out with UMass at No. 16 in the PairWise. I guess we'll just have to listen to Toot and let the hockey gods play it out.

First period is over, still 2-0 BC.