On the first Saturday of November, in the aftermath of junior Lindsey Minton’s third consecutive shutout, some fans and pundits were still suckers for the scoreboard and judges of the present based on the past.
True enough, New Hampshire was a sparkling 8-2-0 overall, riding a seven-game winning streak, and had just swept a five-game homestand in Lake Whittemore. What else was new for the program that had earned the moniker “Granite State Goddesses” through a four-year conference championship dynasty and five consecutive seasons of at-large-caliber national transcripts?
Since then, particularly after these Wildcats delved into the first phases of their Hockey East schedule, the other skate has dropped. And its incisive blade has cut open a bag of unsavory revelations, not to mention a few psychological wounds for a proud fan base. Even if anyone did see this coming, it is still impossible to brace for.
During an eight-game losing skid, which included seven straight league losses and only ended with a 1-0 triumph over Dartmouth in the last engagement of the semester, UNH has failed to score more than twice on a given night. In fact, it has not tuned the opposing mesh thrice since squeaking past St. Lawrence, 5-3, 12 games ago on Oct. 23.
Through nine conference games, UNH is lodged in last –repeat, last- place at 2-7-0. It is 6-4-0 overall at home. Its power play is the second-least efficient in the nation with a 7.4 percent conversion rate and does not get many opportunities to begin with (only 68 through 19 games).
Maybe now is the time, if it has not been addressed already, to explain what’s going on to the Wildcat faithful. Kelly Paton is not walking through that door, Kacey Bellamy is not walking through that door, Sam Faber is not waking through that door. And if you expect them to be coming through that door, they’re not going to be eligible for anything but an alumni twirl or an international event.
No one in this game, except for maybe the three jewels of the WCHA’s perennial hegemony, is immune to even a temporary post-dynasty recession. The Cats are indubitably rebuilding and refilling on talent –as evidenced by their top scorers in freshman Arielle O’Neill and sophomore Kristina Lavoie. But those two are on pace for 19- and 17-point seasons, respectively while senior co-captain and point-based puckslinger Courtney Birchard, one of the last remaining specimens of the brighter years, is looking at a projected 18-point campaign.
Contrast that to a year ago, when five Wildcats broke the 20-point plateau, including 51 points apiece for Paton and Micaela Long. Or the year prior, when four out of a mere 14 rostered skaters finished in the 20-point range while another three reached the 40-point sphere. Or three seasons ago, when en route to a Hockey East championship three-peat, 10 UNH players garnered 20 points.
A lot is lost, but not everything. UNH has already maxed out the unofficial limit of 10 overall losses, its first double-digit in the L column since 2001-02, and thus spilled any hope of another at-large NCAA tournament passport. And at this point in the Hockey East pennant race, even home ice for the wild card round is in question, at best.
But remember that behind the bench is a four-time Hockey East Coach of the Year in Brian McCloskey. He may be facing a much different breed of adversity than, say, warding off fatigue from a short bench the way he did in 2008-09 en route to a fourth consecutive crown, but he and his veterans have had time to digest the new realities and flexibly adjust.
The Wildcats have never finished sub-.500 in their 34-year history. The only time they even finished on the fence was in 2000-01, when they went 17-17-0.
That trend, if nothing else, is still realistically salvageable, although it may be asking a little much when it comes to playing the last two games of the season series with the likes of Boston College and Boston University.
Ultimately, the healthiest attitude is to play it more modestly in the immediate future with loftier long-term ambitions still in mind. Simply running the younger classes through a rigorous race to the postseason and getting them the experience of an elimination bout in the quarterfinal could go a long way towards re-sharpening the Wildcats’ claws come 2011-12 or 2012-13.
Al Daniel is the Hockey East correspondent to Beyond the Dashers
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