Inside College Hockey | 2005 NCAA Northeast Regional Final

March 27, 2005
NCAA Northeast Regional Final
Wake-up Call
A subpar effort against Bemidji State helped jump-start Denver

By Joe Gladziszewski

Denver 4, New Hampshire 2
Team	Goal	Str
Time	Assists
First Period
1-DU	Gabe Gauthier (21)	EV
13:42	K. Ulanski, J. Drummond
1-NH	Jacob Micflikier (20)	EV
14:36	J. Aikins, B. Flaishans
Second Period
2-NH	Daniel Winnik (18)	SH
13:27	Penalty Shot
2-DU	Gabe Gauthier (22)	PP
18:02	A. Veideman, M. Carle
Third Period
3-DU	Ryan Dingle (6)	EV
16:17	L. Fulghum
4-DU	Gabe Gauthier (23)	EN
19:38	K. Ulanski, J. Drummond
Goaltending
NH: Kevin Regan, 59:35, 42 saves, 3 GA
DU: Peter Mannino, 60:00, 31 saves, 2 GA
Penalties: NH 9/18; DU 7/14
Power Plays: NH 0-5; DU 1-8
Attendance: 3,441
All-Regional Team
G: Kevin Regan, New Hampshire D: Matt Carle, Denver D: Tyson Teplitsky, New Hampshire F: Gabe Gauthier, Denver (MVP) F: Daniel Winnik, New Hampshire F: Kevin Ulanski, Denver

AMHERST, Mass. – Denver's players were a much more focused bunch for Sunday's noontime regional final versus New Hampshire. The Pioneers survived a sluggish performance against Bemidji State on Saturday and had a chance to lace up the skates one more time this season. What did the team address on Saturday night? What was talked about on Saturday night?

"I don't know if the players did much talking. We kind of got chewed out last night," senior Luke Fulghum said. "We just tried to play our game. We wanted to come out and be dominant."

"We came out flat and our game plan was to come out strong and compete and I think we accomplished that," game-winning goal scorer Ryan Dingle said.

That was the first part of Denver's better effort. In the first period against Bemidji State, Denver allowed an early goal. It gave the Beavers confidence and forced Denver to come from behind. Sunday's game was much different. Denver was flying right from the start. They took a 1-0 lead on their 16th shot of the first period, while New Hampshire had only registered two shots against Peter Mannino to that point.

Being aggressive in all three zones is the second key to Denver's good play. It was a point of discussion and emphasis in team meeting on Saturday.

"Our play starts with our puck pursuit, whether that be in the defensive zone, the neutral zone, or the offensive zone. When we're playing our game, we're pursuing pucks. Yesterday we didn't," assistant coach Seth Appert said.

It's easy to point to the caliber of opposition as a reason or excuse for Denver's vastly different performances. Fulghum admitted to that being some of the problem, but a look at Denver's overall season shows a different reason, one that they're trying to figure out. The Pioneers have been a significantly better team in the second game of a weekend series.

One needs only to look at the last week of the regular season for an example. In battling arch-rival and No. 1 ranked Colorado College for the WCHA regular season crown, the Pioneers were handily beaten in Colorado Springs in the opening game of the series, before rallying with an emphatic 5-0 win at home in the second game.

"We've been a team this year that's won a lot of Friday night games, but haven't played great on Friday," Appert said. "We've left Glenn Fisher out to dry a little bit and he's had a lot of tough games. We talked about just going out and playing our game."

Those keys were realized, and Denver was able to earn itself one more weekend of college hockey, where sloppy play in the opening game against CC won't allow for a chance to come back with a better effort on Saturday.

INCH's Three Stars of the Regional

3. Luke Fulghum, Denver
Ended the weekend with just one assist on the scoresheet but was a big-time presence for the Pioneers. His work ethic along the boards and willingness to sacrifice his body for the team are duly noted.

2. Kevin Regan, New Hampshire
Goaltending was a question mark for the
Wildcats heading into the playoffs. Regan was steady in Saturday's overtime win against Harvard and was very confident in Sunday's game. The only time he lost track of the puck was on the goalmouth scramble that turned into Dingle's game-winner.

1. Gabe Gauthier, Denver
The regional's Most Outstanding Player was an obvious choice. His favorite part of playing hockey is competing at this time of the year. You can tell. He has seven points in his last three NCAA Tournament games, including the game-winning goal in last year's title game, and a hat trick in Sunday's win over New Hampshire.

SEEN AND HEARD AT MULLINS

• The music selection in the arena, occasionally pre-empted by the UNH pep band, was diverse and unique. The mix of hard rock, hip hop, top 40, alternative rock and some pop classics received mixed reviews. I'll give it a thumbs up in being better than the typical stadium presentation.

• Eastern-based reporters and hockey fans get to read an awful lot about talented Denver defensemen such as Matt Carle, Brett Skinner, and Matt Laatsch but don't get to see them play in person. And the Bemidji State game didn't allow for their talent to present itself. The flow of Sunday's game and Denver's better all-around effort showed why these players are so highly regarded.

• Daniel Winnik's penalty shot attempt for New Hampshire in the second period didn't demoralize the Denver Pioneers. "The mood was still up, because whenever you have a penalty shot, no matter who has it, it's still exciting to watch," Gabe Gauthier said. "I have to say it, it's very exciting to watch. We still stayed upbeat."

• Denver forward Geoff Paukovich returned to the lineup after sitting out the last two games while suspended (first by the WCHA, then one additional game imposed by head coach George Gwozdecky). Paukovich centered the Pioneers' third line.

• Kevin Regan, goalie for New Hampshire, injected a bit of humor into the post-game proceedings in an otherwise somber UNH press conference. When asked about his selection to the All-Tournament Team, Regan astutely noted that he was the only goalie that started two games.

• The wonders of AM radio were apparent on Saturday night. After filing a story from Amherst, en route to Worcester for the Boston College-North Dakota game, I checked the AM dial for the Boston College broadcast, but ended up catching the Cornell post-game show out of Ithaca, N.Y.

• Speaking of Cornell, one fan made sure that the Big Red weren't forgotten by shouting "red" during the singing of the Star-Spangled Banner before the games in Amherst on Saturday and Sunday, as the Lynah Faithful always do during the line "and the rockets red glare."

• The INCH staff has been asked many times about the NHL lockout and its impact on college hockey. The college game impacted one fan in a profound manner, as a fan drove his vehicle featuring New York Rangers license plate frames and a logo sticker to Amherst, and emerged from the vehicle wearing a Rangers jersey.

• Traffic on the Massachusetts Turnpike is renown for moving at a rapid rate, but there was a bit of a slowdown on Friday afternoon when both halves of a double-wide manufactured home were being transported on the Mass Pike. With the trailer swerving back and forth between lanes, the other vehicles had to adjust and it made me wonder. Was Bemidji State or Alabama-Huntsville playing at the Amherst Regional?

PLUSSES AND MINUSES