Backcheck
Mathematical technicalities be darned, it is patently unlikely that by the time the next edition of this weekly Hockey East roundup is released, the Vermont Catamounts will have been abolished from playoff contention. At this rate, all that will require is one more regulation loss on their end plus one more win for Boston College, or a two-set of either occurrence. And there are four more opportunities for either event to happen.
But then again, the Catamounts could have been out of it as early as when this author’s last weekly report was published. Yet even though they look about as vegetative as their dark green jerseys, and even though they have failed to score more than two goals since November 28 (a span of 15 games), UVM has won four of its last six contests and three of its last four.
Over the past week, they stamped a grittily executed 2-1 decision on once-almighty New Hampshire Wednesday night, then treated senior goaltender Kristen Olychuk to her first shutout since opening night, edging Maine, 1-0, on Saturday.
Olychuk, one of only two Hockey East goaltenders to have consumed at least 90 percent of her team’s crease time, has best personified the desolate consequences of her program’s underachieving season. This was supposed to be the year of the Great Leap Forward for the Catamounts, but it is now bound to be best described as a “Failure To Launch” campaign.
Even so, Olychuk is now –perhaps most fittingly- reaping the brunt of the rewards in a cliché-but-true “finish strong” homestretch. In her last four wins, she has allowed one goal or less, and she repelled a cumulative 44 out of 45 shots issued by the Wildcats and Black Bears this past week.
Not to mention, with Saturday’s result, she has singlehandedly backstopped Vermont to its first double-digit win season since 2000-01. Not very bad compensation for somebody who had to endure three tough 1-0 losses (to Northeastern on Oct. 31, NU again on Nov. 25, and Maine on Dec. 5) earlier this year.
***
So, Vermont took care of Maine and reversed the roles in the battle to avoid the very cellar of the Hockey East leaderboard Saturday. In ironic coincidence, radiant Providence College made quick to compress a cut in their system and edge Northeastern, 2-1, thus pole-vaulting them above the Hub Huskies to the top of the league.
For a time, everything in Saturday’s tangle at Matthews Arena was fundamentally and sequentially similar to the Friars’ previous two outings, both of which had ended in unpalatable and unaffordable 2-1 losses. They fell behind, 1-0, before the first intermission and stayed that way for the duration of the second period –all the more ominous when you consider that, before they fell to Vermont the week prior, PC had never gone scoreless for the first 40 minutes of any game all season.
And then, even though Florence Schelling’s nominal backup, Leah Sulyma, held fort slightly longer than Vermont’s Olychuk or Harvard’s Laura Bellamy had, the Friars mustered an equalizer via Ashley Cottrell about the halfway mark of the closing frame.
Gee, what was next?
That’s right, a dramatically-timed go-ahead goal en route to another 2-1 final.
Except, this time around, it was the Friars’ towering freshman forward Nicole Anderson, who found a poetically appropriate moment to snap her 10-game goal-scoring drought. Anderson lashed home the unassisted decider with a mere 2:41 to spare, pacing Providence to its first win all year when trailing after the first and/or second period.
Not to mention, she effectively puffed a critical blow of artificial respiration into the 13-9-8 Friars, who were indubitably one loss away from falling completely out of every relevant national poll. Instead, they can now expect a couple of encouraging promotions in the coming days.
Conversely, the Huskies’ transcript (now 16-6-5) was only moderately dented. But given the fact that their Beanpot semifinal victory last Tuesday was officially counted as a tie on their national record; and the fact that they have fallen from ahead in each of their last three games (0-1-2); and the fact that they rank No. 11 in the PairWise system, Northeastern still has one or two smudges on its lens that needs a quick and simple drop of Windex.
Either that, or they just need to answer their wake-up call sooner rather than later, or else risk losing invaluable traction in the standings and polls alike.
***
Did Kelly Paton and Micaela Long ever go missing for the New Hampshire Wildcats, particularly in midst of the program’s peculiar, month-old, post-Frozen Fenway hangover?
Yes and no.
Sure, both are still safely the league’s top two point-getters and playmakers, and neither player has gone more than two games in 2010 without at least a single appearance on the scoresheet.
But put special emphasis on “single,” and you can begin to see the missing link. During their team’s cold streak, which garnered more frostbite in the form of a 2-1 road loss to Vermont on Wednesday and a 5-2 falter at home to Boston University on Saturday, Paton and Long had not been concocting very many of those multi-point games that were so commonplace in the former days.
For one day anyway, that trend resurged on Sunday as UNH vented its embarrassment from yet another home loss (they are now 0-3-1 in their last four at Lake Whittemore) on Connecticut at Freitas Ice Forum. Piloted by a 1-2-3 scoring log via Paton and a playmaker hat trick by Long, the Wildcats charged up an old-fashioned 4-1 victory and handed the Huskies their first loss of the calendar year.
Coming in, UConn had just won a program record nine consecutive games and were 10-0-1 overall since the Times Square balldrop. A win would have pole-vaulted them into first place in the WHEA standings and a point would have at least tied them up there with Providence –whom they shall face in a home-and-home set this coming weekend.
But for the first time in nine outings, two decisively unfavorable twists worked against the Huskies. Their offense failed to tune the mesh more than once and the oft-reliable goaltender Alex Garcia actually allowed more than one goal.
Although, the latter event could certainly be attributed to the carbonated frustration of Paton and Long, who shared a hand on the same three scoring plays, two of which were power play conversions.
***
Boston University cemented its conference playoff berth through Saturday’s peculiar come-from-behind victory at New Hampshire. The Terriers mustered a mere nine shots on goal all day –including one on an empty net- yet connected on five of them. Meanwhile, goaltender Melissa Haber rinsed out her vinegar from Tuesday’s Beanpot semifinal loss, repelling 33 of 35 Wildcat bids for her second-highest single-game save count of the season.
Forecheck
For all of the recent league-wide streak-snapping, for better or worse depending on your program, neither Boston College nor Maine has had access to the losers’ cure. With their 3-1 shortcoming at UConn last Saturday, the Eagles are an acrid 0-9-3 in their last dozen games and have lost all of their last seven. The Black Bears, who were newly demoted to last place following a 1-0 loss to Vermont, have dropped all six of their meaningful contests since New Year’s.
The good news: one of those trends will let up this Friday, as might the other on Saturday, when the two plebeian packs confront one another in a two-game set at Alfond Arena. Although, BC still has more to gain and Maine more to lose. A simple regulation win for the Eagles on Friday would zap the Bears out of playoff contention and put BC within tapping distance of clinching the last available quarterfinal passport.
Weekly scoreboard
Tuesday, February 2
Northeastern 5, Boston University 4 (SO)
http://www.collegehockeystats.net/0910/boxes/wbu_noe1.f02
http://www.goterriers.com/sports/w-hockey/recaps/020210aaa.html
http://gonu.com/whockey/2010/wh10-26.shtml
Harvard 5, Boston College 0
http://www.collegehockeystats.net/0910/boxes/wbc_har1.f02
http://bceagles.cstv.com/sports/w-hockey/recaps/020210aaa.html
Wednesday, February 3
Vermont 2, New Hampshire 1
http://www.collegehockeystats.net/0910/boxes/wunhver1.f03
http://www.unhwildcats.com/sports/wice/2009-10/releases/20100203x6egjs
http://www.uvm.edu/~sportspr/womens_hockey/?Page=News&storyID=15944
Saturday, February 6
Connecticut 3, Boston College 1
http://www.collegehockeystats.net/0910/boxes/wbc_con1.f06
http://bceagles.cstv.com/sports/w-hockey/recaps/020610aaa.html
http://www.uconnhuskies.com/sports/w-hockey/recaps/020610aaa.html
Providence 2, Northeastern 1
http://www.collegehockeystats.net/0910/boxes/wnoeprv1.f06
http://gonu.com/whockey/2010/wh10-27.shtml
http://www.friars.com/sports/w-hockey/recaps/020610aaa.html
Vermont 1, Maine 0
http://www.collegehockeystats.net/0910/boxes/wmnever1.f06
http://goblackbears.cstv.com/sports/w-hockey/recaps/020610aac.html
http://www.uvm.edu/~sportspr/womens_hockey/?Page=News&storyID=15971
Boston University 5, New Hampshire 2
http://www.collegehockeystats.net/0910/boxes/wbu_unh1.f06
http://www.goterriers.com/sports/w-hockey/recaps/020610aaa.html
http://www.unhwildcats.com/sports/wice/2009-10/releases/20100206gtvfsq
Sunday, February 7
New Hampshire 4, Connecticut 1
http://www.collegehockeystats.net/0910/boxes/wconunh1.f07
http://www.uconnhuskies.com/sports/w-hockey/recaps/020710aaa.html
http://www.unhwildcats.com/sports/wice/2009-10/releases/20100207n9oeas
Upcoming schedule
Tuesday, February 9
Boston University vs. Boston College, 5:00 pm
Northeastern at Harvard, 8:00 pm
Friday, February 12
Boston College at Maine, 7:00 pm
Connecticut at Providence, 7:00 pm
Saturday, February 13
Boston College at Maine, 2:00 pm
Vermont at New Hampshire, 2:00 pm
Northeastern at Boston University, 2:00 pm
Providence at Connecticut, 4:00 pm
Sunday, February 14
Vermont at New Hampshire, 2:00 pm
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