Optimism is the word around UNH hockey

This much we know for certain about the University of New Hampshire hockey season, which commences Saturday night with a home game against Wisconsin: If the Wildcats manage to qualify for the NCAA tournament for an eighth straight season, they will play a Northeast Regional game at Verizon Wireless Arena in Manchester on Saturday, March 28.

Now, about those 168 days between the start of the season and the start of the playoffs.

Gone to graduation are UNH's top two scorers, two of its top defensemen and Kevin Regan, who owns just about every career goaltending record at the school.

Coach Dick Umile, entering his 19th season, and his guys are confident they can plug those holes.

"I like our team," Umile said. "I think we've got great senior leadership again from the senior class. We've got three senior defensemen. We've got senior forwards in Greg Collins and Jerry Pollastrone and Thomas Fortney and hopefully Alan Thompson, who's definitely going to play if he stays healthy."

And they've got Brian Foster, a junior from Pembroke who's waited through two seasons for his chance to be the No. 1 guy in goal.

"I think he's going to be a real good one," Umile said. "He's excited. No disrespect to Kevin Regan, but I think Brian's real happy Kevin left."

Last year, UNH was picked in the preseason Hockey Easy coaches' poll to finish in a first-place tie with Boston College. Instead, the Wildcats ran away with the regular-season title.

BC stumbled at the end of the regular season and barely hung on to fourth place and home ice for the league playoffs. And then the Eagles got hot and rolled to the Hockey East title and straight on through to the national championship.

This season, Boston College is picked first in the league, BU second and UNH third.

So do the Wildcats have what it takes to win a third straight regular-season championship, a first Hockey East tournament title since 2003, grab another berth in the NCAAs and make a run at that elusive national title?

The offense

Yeah, they lost forwards Matt Fornataro and his 118 career points and Mike Radja and his 117.

But they have much back, too, led by James van Riemsdyk, the No. 2 draft pick of the Philadelphia Flyers and one of three returning players in Hockey East who averaged more than a point a game last season.

He had 11 goals and 23 assists in 31 games, and the folks around him think he's ready to deliver more.

"He has something to prove," Pollastrone said. "You can just tell it in his eyes: He wants to prove he's a big-time player. He's such a great player, he expects more from himself. You can see it in practice. He's gotten stronger, he's gotten faster. You can just tell."

Van Riemsdyk is the leader of what could be a breakout sophomore group.

"You look at last year's freshman class. and I think that's where we're going to pick up the goal production," Umile said.

Phil DeSimone, Danny Dries, Paul Thompson and Mike Sislo are others in that mix.

"Phil DeSimone has a lot more confidence this year," said senior co-captain Greg Collins. "I think he's going to be real good. He's lost some weight. He scored a lot of goals in captains' practices."

A third-round pick of the Washington Capitals in 2007, DeSimone had three goals and 10 assists last season. He had 26 goals and 27 assists for 73 points in 60 games in his last year of junior hockey in the United States Hockey League.

The defense

Senior Joe Charlebois, named the Old Time Hockey best defensive defenseman in Hockey East last season, leads the blueliners. He was a league-best plus-25 in plus/minus statistics last season, and fellow senior Jamie Fritsch was at plus-17. Kevin Kapstad is the other senior.

Last year, they helped the Wildcats to a 2.00 goals-against average in Hockey East games, which was best in the league.

Freshman Blake Kessel, the brother of Boston Bruin forward Phil, was lined up as one of the top six defensemen in last Saturday's exhibition game win.

What's more, Greg Collins, a defensive-minded forward, and Charlebois are the captains.

"I think Greg and I bring a defensive game, a defensive mentality to practice and games," Charlebois said. "We're excited about this year."

The goalie

Foster, who is backed up by freshman Matt DiGirolamo, pitched shutouts in his first two career starts, against UMass-Lowell and St. Lawrence, as a freshman. He appeared in seven games as a freshman and six last year, and now it's his time.

"I'm really looking forward to it," Foster said. "It's all about consistency now. Every week, every game."

A change in goal, turnover up front and at the blueline -- it doesn't change the approach in the Wildcat locker room.

"We want to win three titles," Foster said. "The regular season, the Hockey East tournament and the national championship. That's definitely the goal."

The mission

This group of seniors has been part of a 71-34-12 record with a couple of league championships over the last three years and has qualified for the national tournament each year.

But the Wildcats have not won an NCAA playoff game in that stretch.

"Hopefully we can make it there, because I think we do have something to prove in the NCAA tournament," Charlebois said. "Not to ourselves, but to our fans and the rest of the college hockey world: that we can do something in the postseason."

About College Hockey Tickets

Let's face it, college hockey is an addiction! What's better than knowing you've got tickets to the college hockey game of your FAVORITE team?

Message Boards, Painted Face, Fan Signs made of Poster Board (or pizza boxes if you're a student)... Any of this sound familiar? If so, you love college hockey!

Getting tickets to see your favorite team might not be as easy as painting your school's logo on your chest while looking in the mirror, however, a sure fire way of getting college hockey tickets is through a registered ticket broker that carries college hockey tickets.

You might think to yourself, these "ticket brokers" are just online scalpers... That's not the case. Ticket brokers online are part of what is called the secondary ticket market. This secondary ticket market is a pool of brokers across the country that have tickets for events and put them all into a ticket board. Then any website can sell another broker's tickets.

In addition, ticket brokers give you the option of sitting where you want for the big game. If you've ever ordered tickets over the phone, through the box office or from a scalper in the parking lot, you don't have much of an option where you sit. However, a ticket website allows you to browse between dozens and hundreds of tickets available for a single event. This ensures that you can choose your seats!

The prices may be slightly higher for tickets through a ticket website (supply and demand) compared to the face value but weigh the options:

1. You can choose where you want to sit
2. You will not get in trouble for doing business with a scalper
3. You have your tickets in hand before the game
4. Your tickets are guaranteed authentic tickets
5. If the game is postponed, canceled or is not played, you get a full refund
6. Your transaction is processed through a safe and secure server so your identity is guaranteed safe
7. You can always call customer service for help with an order
8. You can often order tickets before they are on sale to the public
9. Tickets will be shipped 2nd day or overnight to any location (even hotels for away games)
10. If you missed your chance at the box office, you've always got a back up with an online ticket broker

If those 10 reasons aren't enough to make you think twice about ordering college hockey tickets online, then you're a tough cookie to sell. But the difference between you and someone else is that if you refuse to buy tickets online, you may be listening to the game on internet radio while someone else is sitting in your front row seats enjoying a great game between conference rivals battling for a playoff spot!

College hockey tickets are your key to the game and you'd better make sure you've got your college hockey tickets. There's nothing like being at the game!

A Return?

Huh? Wha?

This is the End...

Well, sadly, real-life is a real pain.

To put it simply, I just do not have the time to devote to a college hockey blog anymore. Despite my undying love for this sport, and despite my attempts to make this blog flourish, illness, school, and other things have hindered my impact here greatly.

I really was planning so much for this blog. I wanted to have daily updates, near-daily rundowns of other blogs, analysis -- the whole nine. I looked to other great blogs, like WCH, as my quazi-blueprint, and aspired to reach the elite levels of the college hockey blogosphere, and perhaps a bit higher.

Sadly, I have learned that, well, I’m extremely human. I just don’t have the iron will that is needed to be a content-generating machine. And ultimately, what this blog has become, score and poll updates, was not what I had in mind as primary content.

I will keep the blog "up" essentially for two reasons -- one, in an attempt to not fall to the same fate that the Hockey East Blog did when they shut their doors, and, two, perhaps people might find the link list to the right marginally useful in the future. However, for now at least, it’s extremely unlikely that new content will be created.

Most importantly, however, thanks to my readers and other bloggers who supported this blog -- without those people, this blog would have not reached any level of success.

Melancholically,
A. A.

Final Scores (Nov. 15).

Thursday, November 15th
CCHA:
● Miami U. 4, Michigan State 2.
Justin Mercier (MIA) - 2 goals.

USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine Men's College Hockey Poll (Nov. 12)

Courtesy of: USCHO.com

		Team	Points	(First Place Votes)	Last Poll	Record
1		University of Michigan	491	(21)	2	9-1-0
2		Miami (Ohio) University	479	(12)	1	9-1-0
3		Michigan State University	430	(1)	3	8-1-0
4		University of Denver	398		5	6-2-0
5		University of North Dakota	377		4	5-3-1
6		University of New Hampshire	367		7	5-1-1
7		Colorado College	285		9	5-3-0
8		Clarkson University	218		8	7-3-0
9		Boston College	215		6	3-2-4
10		University of Wisconsin	210		10	5-3-0
11		University of Notre Dame	198		12	7-4-0
12		University of Minnesota	154		14	6-4-0
13		St. Cloud State University	105		NR	6-2-2
14		University of Massachusetts	37		NR	4-2-3
15		University of Minnesota-Duluth	31		15	4-3-1
Others receiving votes: Harvard University 25, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute 21, University of Maine 15, Bowling Green State University 7, Michigan Tech University 6, Niagara University 5, U.S. Air Force Academy 2, St. Lawrence University 1.

A Weekend-Ending Schmoz.

Strange things were a happenin’ on Saturday at the Kohl Center. Well, actually, with the semi-bad blood between these two squads, perhaps it was slightly expected...

Regardless, from my understanding, the Fighting Sioux of North Dakota and the Wisconsin Badgers played a hockey game on Saturday, things were getting chippy throughout portions of the game (apparently beginning after a North Dakota goal), and, by the time the smoke settled, North Dakota won 3-1, a multiple-minute melee occurred (along with reportedly many miniature melees), and over 120 penalty minutes were spooned-out by likely-exhausted WCHA officials.

Here’s USCHO’s report on the game. Below, some YouTubery from the encounter.