In the previous two years, an apparent postseason food chain was in the works in the NCAA women’s hockey kingdom.
First, Providence would muzzle Connecticut, and then New Hampshire would snuff out the Friars en route to another Hockey East playoff crown. But the Wildcats would ultimately spill their bid for a national title in front of the triumphant Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs.
Well, for better or worse, two of those trends have already reversed this season. UConn bumped PC in the WHEA semifinals, hours before Boston University terminated the Cats’ four-year conference dynasty, but not their candidacy for the national bracket.
And so, UNH accepted an assignment to the No. 7 seed and will visit Guess Who at the Duluth Entertainment and Convention Center, where their last Frozen Four appearance ended in semifinal defeat back in 2008.
But this year’s Wildcats are so different from their immediate predecessors that the real talking point for this Saturday’s quarterfinal is not how much they will prove to have learned from back-to-back losses to the Bulldogs. Rather, this will be a test of how much Brian McCloskey’s pupils have taken out of all the bumps they have received over the course of this season and how they will regroup from their crushing conference tournament loss to the Terriers.
Based solely on their performance within league boundaries, it is obvious that these Wildcats are more like an average bunch of rugged competitors than the Granite State Goddesses they have been in the previous four-plus seasons. If you include their 4-0 loss in the WHEA semifinals –which terminated their four-year reign as playoff champion- they have absorbed seven losses at the hands of conference cohabitants. That is as many as they took between the 2004-05 and 2008-09 seasons.
Yet still, on the national landscape, not much is different. Now 19-8-5 overall, New Hampshire was already bound for the Elite Eight when it had polished its regular season slate and, not unlike the rest of the east coast schools, there is a glorious void it would like to fill.
For any chance of doing that, or even getting a start on it by bucking the Bulldogs trend, a multitude of players will have to step up. Without question, as the transcript reads right now, there is cause for concern.
In terms of resilience, the Wildcats have been inconsistent, already having suffered back-to-back losses on two occasions. And last Saturday was one of their most off-putting results of the season. It was their first shutout loss in 43 games and only their fourth in the last three seasons. It was goaltender Lindsey Minton’s shakiest showing since Frozen Fenway, and after she had gone an irreproachable 4-1-0 with six goals against on 120 shots faced in the team’s previous five games.
And not only was their one reliable line of Kelly Paton, Micaela Long, and Kristina Lavoie held pointless by the Terriers. Those three were also on the ice for three BU goals.
Beneath that top line, McCloskey has expressed unremitting concern about his depth chart. And indeed, there were six UNH forwards who didn’t so much as land a shot on goal in the Hockey East semifinal. The other six combined for 10 SOG.
Katie Kleinendorst has but five shots to her credit and none since November 1. Shannon Sisk has not registered a single stab at the opposing goalie in her last four games. Emma Clark and Sarah Cuthbert have but two shots in their last six appearances while Paige Goloubef has one in that same span.
If you take the season shot totals from those five regular forwards, plus that of Molly Morrison and one of these three: Julie Allen, Kelly Cahill, or Brittany Skudder, you still will not match the 136 bids discharged by the Wildcats’ top puckslinger Courtney Birchard. And just their puck luck, the prolific junior defender Birchard has been missing from the last five games due to injury and was last termed “doubtful” for the NCAA dance.
What to do about all of this? Although it is a greater platitude than the UNH-UMD playoff card itself, McCloskey’s best bet is to somehow instill some fear-killing hunger to his pupils and get them to play their game.
Easier said than done, though. This year was the first since before their dynasty began that the Wildcats went through the whole regular season without getting a test from one of the WCHA superpowers. So, like Bon Jovi, they may ultimately just be living on a prayer.
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