Quarterfinals Preview Vs UNH

Border Battle Hockey East quarterfinal contest has the Black Bears licking their lips, hungry for redemption.

It had to be them.

It was always going to be them.

This season has seen the Alfond generate some of the most magical moments the famous old barn has seen in over a decade. From stunning the #1 ranked Boston College Eagles to witnessing a weekend of back-to-back Nadeau hat tricks to Captain Breen's last-gasp Senior Night heroics. It's only fitting that the college hockey scriptwriters have set the stage for Alfond's final game of the season to potentially be the most memorable.

The opportunity that presents itself?

The chance to silence those noisy neighbors from south of the border, ending their season in the most poetic of ways.

After UNH humiliatingly swept Maine out of the Whittemore Center just a month ago, and following the abuse and harassment the Black Bears, both on and off the ice, endured from our Northern Massachusetts neighbors, many of the Alfond Faithful have been quietly scheming and hoping for the opportunity for redemption to present itself.

Those prayers have been answered.

The Maine Black Bears will host the New Hampshire Wildcats in Hockey East's single-elimination quarterfinal on Saturday night. The winner will travel to Boston Garden for the conference's final four next weekend.

Since, at a minimum, two of the final sixteen spots will be reserved for automatic bids from conference champions who would not have made the tournament otherwise, UNH's ranking at #16 has them well on the outside looking in for an at-large invitation to the National Tournament. Although it is currently still mathematically possible for UNH to squeak into the tournament with an at-large bid, the percentage probability is next to zero. For all intents and purposes, Saturday night at the Alfond will be win-or-go-home for New Hampshire.

Or, from a Maine perspective, win and end the Wildcats' season. What a sweet sentence that is.

Maine, who surpassed the opening round of the Hockey East playoffs with their sweep of the UMass Minutemen last weekend in the most dramatic of fashions, are back to looking like their Black Bear best. Not only getting themselves unstuck from the mud they spent the month of February sputtering in but playing the best, most confident hockey we've seen from them in months, just in the nick of time for the most important time of the year.

Even though the Black Bears' season won't come to a close if the Wildcats do the unspeakable and knock Maine out of the Hockey East playoffs on Alfond-ice, the repercussions from such a tragedy would be nauseating, to say the least. Currently sitting comfortably in the Pairwise ranked #7 in the country, Maine is a 100% lock for their first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2012, according to College Hockey News' Pairwise Probability Matrix.

With just one win away from playing at the Garden for the first time since 2012, the opportunity and experience of playing in an NHL building would not only be a well-deserved reward for a remarkable season but would also give the Black Bears an unparalleled experience of playing in a tournament setting that could prove invaluable come NCAA Tournament time.

Meanwhile, since their sweep over the Black Bears in mid-February, New Hampshire has continued to roll along with a record of 4-3. This has seen the Wildcats split a home-and-home series with UMass the following weekend before being swept by Boston College. Although the sweep to BC was not the result the Wildcats wanted, UNH proved a tricky task to handle for even the undisputed best team in the nation, falling just 1-0 in their Saturday loss to the Eagles that saw UNH impressively hold the offensive juggernaut to only twenty-one shots on goal.

New Hampshire's brick-wall defense continued this past weekend as the Wildcats rolled over the UMass-Lowell River Hawks, allowing zero goals during their weekend sweep. UNH and Lowell would faceoff one more time on Wednesday night in the first round of the playoffs. Here, New Hampshire's defense stood firm again, only allowing twenty Lowell shots on net and zero goals in UNH's 1-0 nailbiting victory.

The Black Bears will be tasked with breaking down a red-hot defense and a confident goaltender in Jakob Hellsten, who has not allowed a goal in over nine periods of play. On top of this, the last time the Wildcats and Black Bears met, UNH skated circles around Maine, outmatching the Black Bears with tremendous neutral zone speed that had Maine's defense leaking off-rush chances.

So while UNH will confidently travel to Orono, believing they have the hot hand, Maine's number, and all the pressure on the Black Bears, Maine has its own wildcard to play. The Alfond.

Fortress Alfond.

The last Border Battle on Maine ice saw the Black Bears blitz the Wildcats for a 5-2 Maine win and a Josh Nadeau hattrick. A contest in which the Bears completely outmatched the Cats.

At its best, as it should be on Saturday evening, the Alfond roar not only jolts endless energy into the Black Bears' legs but can shake the opposition in their skates.

Maine's seventh-man.

New Hampshire poked the Bear back in February. Now they have to come to our place.

For Saturday to be the success we all desperately want, the crowd and the Black Bears will need to work together to put the Wildcats in the washing machine's spin cycle.

Not just the Balcony but the entirety of the expected sold-out crowd will need to be in a feral voice, giving the Black Bears the impetus and drive to blitz UNH and play at their frantic forechecking best, which has been pivotal to Maine's success this season. Both will look to feed off each other, hoping that the tsunami of noise paired with the whirlwind of Black Bear skaters will cause the Wildcats to crumble under the onslaught of pressure and frenzy.

In order to keep New Hampshire penned in, the Black Bears will be looking to finish everyhit and lay a body on any Wildcat scampering through the neutral zone. In UNH's sweep over Maine, New Hampshire got up ice too quickly and easily, creating most of their chances off-the-rush through superior skating speed or cutting stretch passes that caught Maine out of position and on the back foot. The Black Bears, needing to slow down the Wildcats from entering their zone with as much team speed, must establish neutral zone superiority by clogging the center of the ice and laying a body on any Wildcat trying to break through the neutral zone to slow down and force New Hampshire to dump the puck in deep. From here, I trust the Black Bear's heavier physicality and superior heart to be enough to bully the Wildcats off the puck and come away on top in most of the one-on-one battles.

The more the play is kept deep in the corners and along the boards, the better I feel about Maine's chances. But the more the puck is out in open ice and a track meet opens up, the better for UNH.

Of course, it goes without saying that among the enormous adrenalin and wild Alfond atmosphere, the Black Bears must keep their composure and discipline. Even though they will be looking to hit every Wildcat jersey they can find, Maine cannot allow themselves to get over-zealous and start taking penalties. In the Saturday night game in Durham, the Black Bears were getting the better of UNH, but two five-minute major penalties shot Maine in the foot. They never recovered from the ill-disciplined play that kept them on their heels. Hopefully, Maine has learned their lesson from the growing pains they experienced numerous times in February and these glitches won't rear their ugly heads again.

On the offensive side of the puck, the key to breaking this rock-steady UNH defense, which has only allowed one goal in its last twelve periods of play, will rely heavily upon Maine getting the puck deep, grinding down the UNH defense with a ferocious forecheck, and coming away from the corners with the puck to create quick chances from deep in New Hampshire territory. The only time Maine's offense looked threatening against New Hampshire last month was when they were winning the puck battles against the boards, quickly getting the puck unstuck from the walls, and finding passes to lead to one-timers. Against a goaltender like Hellsten, who is on top of his game, moving the puck laterally with speed and precision, and releasing shots quickly before Hellsten can set himself in net, will be crucial for the Black Bears to break the riddle in UNH's net.

Maine's offensive puck movement looked excellent last weekend against UMass. The Black Bears, poised, confident, and in sync, no longer dwelling over puck decisions, moved the biscuit around with pace and purpose, creating open shooting lanes, enabling blistering one-timers to reach the net. Along with this, Maine's increased net-front presence will also need to continue. Getting to the dirty areas to screen, deflect, and pounce on rebounds will be crucial in beating a goaltender like Hellsten, who is saving everything he can see at the moment.

On top of this, when Maine is cycling the puck, especially when it is on the defensemen's stick between the blue line and the top of the circles, it is pivotal that the Black Bears stay poised and don't allow their shots or passes to get blocked this high in the offensive zone. A blocked shot from the point ricocheting off a UNH player and into center ice would allow the Wildcats to showcase their blistering speed with Maine out of position on the wrong side of the puck.

UNH forwards will look to jump into any open ice and outskate Maine as they did down in Durham. It is vital that the Black Bears don't allow forwards such as #36 Ryan Conmy, #12 Liam Devlin, and #18 Harrison Blaisdell the open time and space to beat Maine in any footraces.

Head Coach Ben Barr mentioned in his Keys to the Weekend on the Black Bears Coaches Show that Maine must do something productive every time the puck is on their sticks. Even if it's just chipping the puck off the glass to move it up through the zones, puck management and not gifting the Wildcats any mistakes will be of the uttermost importance. Teams tend to capitalize on any errors at this time of the year, which become magnified in importance as any mistakes become limited on the ice.

We can expect Albin Boija in between the pipes for Maine. Although inexperienced, the freshman seems to raise his game when the stakes increase. Thriving in challenging situations, Boija impressed last weekend, never giving up on a puck even if he couldn’t see it or was completely turned around, bailing his team out repeatedly. Boija will need to match Hellsten save-for-save if the Black Bears are to come out on top.

One game.

One game for the Garden.

One game for redemption.

One game to end their season.

One final game at the Alfond this season. Leave it all on the ice and in the stands.

While it could end as a fairy tale, it could also end up being the worst of nightmares. Leave nothing to regret.

Together, we need to create a cauldron intimidating enough to domesticate even the wildest of Wildcats. But it will take all of us — every single one of us.

Shout 'til the rafters ring.

Here, kitty kitty, welcome to Fortress Alfond. Your journey ends here.