Oh UMass hockey, you never cease to surprise. After being eulogized by the entire hockey community, signs of life are shown in a distant place against a top 3 team. And it was convincing.
Last night UMass hockey shocked everyone, including themselves by dismantling the Maine Blackbears (in Maine!) 5-2. After a month of disappointments offensively, and defensively on the road, both sides of the puck decided to show up and once again we are forced to believe again. In fact, UMass can jump as high as 6th place with a win tonight, due to the clusterfuck in Hockey East standings. And while anything is possible anytime, something is possible if we win tonight and make it to 6th somehow. I’ll be honest, I can’t muster the mental power to find out all of the possibilities of standing based on tonight’s results, but I have heard its possible we could play Lowell in the quarterfinals. While such a matchup wouldn’t be easy, does anyone think thats a layup for either team?
Lets face facts, if we end up playing BC or UNH, we are most likely done, with the optimistic side of me thinking only one close win is possible. But outside of those two, anything is possible. UMass has strung together 2 great games in a row, and while it didn’t get things done last week, that same performance would down 95% of teams in college hockey. Maybe we woke up? Maybe 5 hour bus rides are a good thing. Maybe Toot wasn’t blowing smoke when he went off on last week’s radio show (available in podcast form on iTunes by the way). However it happened last night was a first half performance, and maybe, just maybe, the team is back to what they were. Yes, I know its hard to vividly remember what this team used to be, but let me remind you: we were great. We didn’t fear any team in the league and we felt as though we deserved to be at the top of Hockey east. Well maybe we will end up at the top of hockey east, except the Mullins was burned down by Big City making a steak in the locker room and we need to play elsewhere so we actually play on the road and the only adequate facility is owned by the opposing team in the quarters. Yup, thats what happened.
Hey, whatever makes you sleep at night, whatever gets us a win.
-Matt
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