NEWS

Heading into the playoffs there was no team hotter than the University of New Hampshire Wildcats. With a 7-1 victory, UNH won its second title in 5 years. The last time the team captured the league championship, it also captured the national championship. UNH looks to duplicate that feat in Dallas later this month. Even though the score of the final game was lopsided, UNH was tested, at times, last weekend.

On Friday night, the opening game of the quarterfinals featured the #3 seed Siena College and the #6 seed Army. Siena, who had a fantastic close to their regular season, would face a "never quit" Army squad with something to prove. After a scoreless first period, Army would find the net on a Jay Peterson shot to take a 1-0 lead early in the 2nd period. The Black Knights would hang on to the lead as they killed off several 2nd period penalties and take the 1-0 edge into the locker room between periods. In the third, both teams battled and exchanged chances. Army's Calvin Mckee would score late to expand the lead to 2-0 with just 2:13 remaining in the third. Siena would not simply roll over as Sam Kurathowski would cut the lead to 1 just 33 seconds later. The last minute and a half were filled with chances for the Saints with their net empty, but Army would close out the game 2-1 and earned a trip to the semifinals against #2 RPI on Saturday.

Not to be upstaged, the game that followed did not lack entertainment value either. Marist and Sacred Heart put on a show, the extended version, for all of the fans in attendance and watching online. Marist opened the first period with a 3-0 lead on two Conor Flynn goals and another by Dan Roberts. The second period was all Sacred Heart as they scored two to get the game within 1 goal on a Ryan Gawricki tally and an additional goal from Mike Zdanowicz. Sacred Heart would then score two more in the 3rd period to take a 4-3 lead as Andrew Demming and Drew Homola added to the Pioneers tremendous comeback bid. Conor Flynn would not let the Red Foxes go quietly, as he completed his hat trick with 1:40 remaining in the third period. The teams would need not 1 overtime to settle the match, but 3. After two scoreless overtime periods, Marist's Garrett Mast would score 1:20 onto the third OT to earn a bid to the semifinals against UNH on Saturday.

In the first game of the semifinal matchups, UNH faced an extremely determined Marist team fresh off of an emotionally draining win on Friday. UNH, weeks earlier would cruise to a 13-2 romp of the Red Foxes, but this game would not go the same way. Marist's Conor Flynn would score his 4th goal of the playoffs just 4 minutes into the opening period to take the lead over the shocked Wildcats. However, UNH's Dan Mullin and Dillon Arno would respond to take the lead back from Marist in the first period. Marist's Brendan Buckley would tie the game at 2 midway through the second period and goaltender Zack Rogers would turn away all 18 shots the Wildcats fired at him in the middle frame. Rogers would remain strong throughout the third period until Alex Campbell would add the game winner 12:32 into the final period. Marist would again, not go down quietly as they had several opportunities including a 5 on 3 powerplay in which they were able to pull Rogers to make it a 6 on 3 for the last two and a half minutes of the game. Marist failed to get any shots through to Luc Ravenelle that posed a threat, and the Wildcats were able to cling to the one goal lead as time expired.

In the second semifinal game, RPI squared off against Army. The Engineers would come out quickly and take the lead as Jack Ryan found the net just 4 minutes into the first period. Chris Zaverdas would add another goal to extend the lead just 5 minutes later and head into the locker room with a 2 goal advantage. Army would score 30 seconds into the period to close the gap on a Luke Schneider goal. The teams would exchange goals at the midpoints of the period and RPI's Shawn Horner would recapture the two goal lead for RPI late in the second period. RPI would add a Brady Campbell goal in the third period to cruise to a 5-2 victory. 

With the finals set, the only thing left to do was to play the game. UNH against RPI, #1 versus #2. Just like the day before, UNH would surrender the 1st goal just 1:08 into the 1st period as Jack Ryan would find daylight behind UNH goaltender Brendan Sullivan. UNH would add goals from Robert Leone and Matt Lambert to take the lead 2-1 into the second period. UNH would add three goals in the second period from Pat Hughes, Jay Roberto, and Al Arno with 1 second remaining in the 2nd. With the game firmly in hand and leading 5-1 after two periods, UNH would add to the lead in the third on goals from Bulat Khamidullin and Cole Spence to take the game 7-1 and capture the second SECHL championship for the University of New Hampshire. 

With UNH receiving the automatic bid to the national tournament in Dallas, RPI hopes to join them as they square off in the Northeast Regional tournament this coming weekend. For at least two teams in the Super East, the season will continue into the coming weeks.