College Hockey:

This Week in Hockey East: Jan. 12, 2006

Coming Up Sixes

They’re simultaneously sixth in the country and sixth in the Hockey East standings.

Go figure.

Admittedly, the Vermont Catamounts have games in hand against every other league opponent except for Maine, but even so there’s quite the dichotomy between their 8-1 nonconference record (with two tournament wins) and their 5-4-2 mark within Hockey East.

“Over the next few weekends, ourselves and Maine will catch up [to everyone else] in terms of league games played,” UVM coach Kevin Sneddon says. “We do have a few opportunities to move up the ladder.

“But it speaks volumes for our league right now. We certainly feel that we are extremely challenged every time we put on the jerseys and go out and play. There are no easy games in this league.

“Our success in non-league play has helped give us some respect in terms of the national scene, but we have a lot of work left to do in the league. We’re certainly not satisfied with where we stand.”

That said, Sneddon doesn’t feel that his team has been Jekyll in its non-league games and Hyde within Hockey East. Not at all. The Catamounts have played pretty close to what he’s looking for out of them. They’ve already played New Hampshire three times and all but one of their league losses have been by 2-1 scores.

“We’ve really only played poorly in a couple of games,” Sneddon says. “I felt like we didn’t have our energy at BU early on [in a 4-2 loss] and they played great. I didn’t think that we played very well against UMass-Amherst prior to Thanksgiving.

“Aside from that, we’ve played some pretty good hockey. Unfortunately, we’ve just kind of fallen on the short [end] of the stick. If you look at our UNH series, there were three great games against a great opponent. One goal differentiated the two teams in those three games, but they ended up winning the series, four points to two.

“We’re playing some pretty good hockey. I think we certainly have a lot of room for improvement, which is exciting for us as a coaching staff. We’re certainly far from peaking right now. We’ve got a great group to work with and they’re eager to get better every day.

“You can’t ask for much more out of a team than what I have right now. Their work ethic is extraordinary; their coachability is fantastic. We feel very fortunate to be able to work with these guys.”

Aside from the Catamounts’ nonconference record, their 6-2-1 mark on the road befits a mentally tough team.

“It really does,” Sneddon says. “You have to find a way in the league to earn points on road trips. I think we were able to gain some confidence early on, going out to Alaska, going to Niagara and going up to Maine. Those are tough places to win hockey games and I think our guys earned a lot of confidence from those trips early. We’re hoping it carries on to the second half of the year.”

Even more significant is that the Catamounts show strength in key areas. Not only are they fourth in the league in team offense (2.95 goals per game), they’re first in team defense (1.70 goals allowed per game), first in power-play percentage (22.6), second in penalty-kill percentage (90.1), and lowest in penalty minutes (12.6).

Defense, special teams and staying out of the box is the statistical hat trick coaches dream of.

“The exciting thing for us as a staff is that we feel like we have a lot more to offer on our power play,” Sneddon says. “We feel like we can really improve there. I think our penalty kill overall has been very good, although in the league it has dipped a little bit.

“But when you have a team that’s worked as hard as we do and you have good goaltending, then team defense and penalty kill are going to be on the higher end.

“The other thing I’m very pleased with is our team discipline. We are the least penalized team in the country. I think that bodes well for the stretch run when you’re not giving teams like Boston College, Providence and UNH that many looks at your penalty kill.

“We need to maintain that. We’ve come along way there over the past couple of years. My first year, I think we were one of the most penalized teams in the country. The guys understand that we want to play aggressive, but we want to stay out of taking any undisciplined penalties.

“All those categories are very important. We want to maintain and improve upon all of them.”

On A Roll

If one were to ask what Hockey East team is 5-2-0 in its last seven league games, most observers would take a few guesses before they nailed the correct identity.

Try UMass. The Minutemen have gotten on a roll after a rough start and last weekend picked up four important points in a sweep of Merrimack.

“Unquestionably, the kids did what they needed to do and that was play fairly well both nights,” UMass coach Don “Toot” Cahoon says. “Our first night I thought Merrimack played extremely well other than getting off to a slow start. Quite frankly, the middle part of that game they outplayed us and outchanced us. Gabe Winer rose to the occasion and we got through it. We knew that the game was a much closer game than the score.

“The big part of the weekend for us was Saturday at Merrimack where we did in fact play pretty well. We were happy with the effort and just as happy with the execution. We hadn’t done that too often this year at all, play better on the second night of the weekend. It was a good weekend for us.”

One of the keys was that a power play which had previously struggled came alive with three tallies each night. Defenseman Marvin Degon led the charge with four of the six, earning himself Hockey East Player of the Week honors.

“It’s been an area of concern for two years,” Cahoon says. “Our power play has been somewhat anemic. We’ve got a lot of kids in the program that have worked really hard at trying to make it better.

“[This weekend] we got pucks to the net. That’s something we’ve struggled with since [Thomas] Pck and [Greg] Mauldin [left]. They could really deliver the puck to the net and Marvin Degon has learned to do just that.”

As for the 5-2 mark in recent league games, that mark becomes even more impressive when you realize it’s a 5-0 mark except for games against league-leader Boston College.

“We’re like a lot of other teams,” Cahoon says. “We’re not mature enough yet to be an upper-echelon team, but when we play our best hockey we’re in most every game with BC being the exception.

“It’s incumbent upon us just to play our best hockey and if we play our best hockey I like our chances. I’m sure Blaise [MacDonald at Massachusetts-Lowell, UMass's next opponent] feels the same way. If the teams executes and competes as a team, they can play with anybody. That’s the beauty of our league.”

That said, the tide can turn quickly. The margin for error is so small that a 5-2 record can turn quickly into ashes.

“There’s very, very little room for error,” Cahoon says. “The margin is very small. If our power play becomes anemic, then our goal production is affected in [a big] way.

“Generally speaking, there aren’t a lot of five-on-five goals every night because the coaching, team defense and conditioning of these kids is such that there’s just not great opportunities. And then the goaltending is so good.

“So special teams become a real factor. If you become really porous on the defensive side or anemic on the offensive side, you take yourself right out of a game.”

Despair Or A Mad Dash?

By now, Massachusetts-Lowell coaches, players and fans are long past the preseason predictions of a third-place finish. That’s not even in the rear-view mirror.

The only looking backward is to a year ago when the River Hawks found themselves in a similar plight and came on strong in the second semester. The 2004-05 edition lost its first five league games and held an 0-5-2 Hockey East mark heading into the new year. Those River Hawks promptly ran off a 10-2-1 stretch in league games to make a major run at playoff home ice.

This season, Lowell emerged from the break with a 3-7-0 record in Hockey East games. A run similar