College Hockey: Wildcats top Terriers, 4-2

DURHAM – Finally, things are starting to turn around in Durham.

After going winless in five straight games, including three against Hockey East schools, the University of New Hampshire men's hockey team has won consecutive games for the first time since the third week of October.

The Wildcats took down Boston University -- the same team that bounced them from the NCAA tournament in a quarterfinal game at Manchester's Verizon Wireless Arena last year -- 4-2 before 6,501 fans at the Whittemore Center last night.

Last Saturday, UNH took down 10th-ranked UMass on the road, 4-2, to put an end to the five-game skid.

The Wildcats can thank special teams, in large part, to the recent success.

After struggling all year with the penalty kill, UNH has been perfect during the disadvantage the last two games, not allowing a goal in seven attempts. But it wasn't just the penalty kill that has succeeded, as UNH got two goals on the power play last night.

"Special teams is a huge part of the game," said Paul Thompson, of Derry, who scored a power-play goal midway through the third period to give UNH the two-goal lead. "If we're scoring power-play goals and the penalty kill is doing its job, then we're going to be up in most games."

Play was fairly tight for the first two periods, before UNH took control in the third period. The Wildcats grabbed the lead for good on freshman John Henrion's first career goal.

Henrion received the puck off a faceoff and sent it top shelf, over Keiran Millan's shoulder.

"We've been looking to play a 60-minute game (all season) and I think we did that tonight," said UNH head coach Dick Umile, whose Wildcats now sit atop the Hockey East standings. "I think it's the confidence that we're playing with."

The Terriers, however, answered Henrion's goal just 31 seconds later, when Ross Gaudet lit the lamp on a shot in front of the net. Thompson's goal served as insurance late in the game.

"I thought we played OK at the beginning, pretty well in the second period, and the difference in the speed of the game between UNH and BU in third period was night and day," said BU head coach Jack Parker.

Sophomore defenseman Damon Kipp got the scoring started for the Wildcats after a faceoff in their own zone slid back to the blue line. Kipp sent a wrist shot on net that skipped over the leg pads of Millan at the end of the first period.

The Terriers knotted the game 4:33 into the second period when Corey Trivino won a faceoff that slid right to the stick of Zach Cohen, who rifled a slap shot past UNH goalie Brian Foster.

The momentum shifted, though, after Vinny Saponari and Sean Escobedo were whistled for penalties within 40 seconds of each other, putting the Wildcats on a 5-on-3 power play.

Bobby Butler had two good chances during the two-man advantage, one of which was stopped by the stick of a diving Millan, before burying the go-ahead goal on a wrist shot from the slot on passes from Matt Campanale and Blake Kessel.

"It felt good to put it in the net and put us up," said the senior captain. "It was good to get us going. Obviously getting stuffed like that stinks, but it felt good to get another shot and put that one in."

UNH looks to be the first Hockey East team all season to sweep a conference series when it travels to Boston tonight for the second game of the home-and-home.

"We'll have a tough challenge going down to Boston," said Umile. "Hopefully we can get (another) two points in Hockey East."