The University of New England has staked its claim as one of the top programs in New England, a status accelerated by the opening of the Harold Alfond Forum nearly a decade ago and the hiring of Kevin Swallow as head coach in 2015.
At first glance, this year has been more of the same for the Nor’easters, their 13-3-1 mark – and No. 11 national ranking – moving Swallow's career record at UNE to 105-41-14.
But this season’s been anything but typical.
Tuesday’s 3-1 win over Curry pushed the Nor’easters into a first-place tie in the Commonwealth Coast Conference with Salve Regina with five games to play.
Endicott is just two points back and Curry rounds out a clear top four. The last week and a half of the season won’t just be dramatic – it will also be packed with games.
In UNE’s case, that means making up for last time, at least to an extent.
Between Dec. 11, when the Nor’easters closed out their first semester with a win at Wentworth, to Jan. 21, when they played at Curry, the team didn’t play a single game. There were COVID issues on their end as well as with their opponents, and though practices continued in Biddeford, Maine – most of them missing several players – the games didn’t return.
“That was a huge challenge,” said Swallow. “Usually you come back from Christmas break and it takes a week or two to get back into the swing of things. We went five, six weeks without a game. Our guys were just getting sick of practicing.”
The rust showed in their return game, a 6-2 loss at Curry. Both teams were missing players, but the Colonels handled the adversity better.
“We hadn’t played in a while, but they took it to us,” said Swallow.
Since then UNE has won five of six games, the aberration a fan-pleasing, coach-horrifying 8-6 loss to Salve, the toughest game of the season for the defense and goalie Billy Girard IV (2.38 goals-against average, .914 save percentage).
“Billy Girard’s been great for us all year,” said Swallow. “He’s been our guy from day one and he’s had a really good season.”
There’s little doubt UNE will score goals (it’s averaging 4.4 a game). It features a deep attack led by Jake Fuss (8-19-27), Austin Morgan (8-13-21), Jared Christy (8-13-21) and Quinnipiac transfer Daniel Winslow (10-10-20).
“I really like our depth this year,” said Swallow. “In past years we might have been top-heavy with guys like Brady Fleurent or Ryan Bloom, who could lead the nation. … This year, there’s some depth.”
Defensively, captains Chris Jones and Liam Darcy (East Waterboro, Maine) are key players in front of Girard.
The winner of the CCC tournament gets an auto-bid to the NCAA tournament, and beyond that, the Nor’easters have to hope the games they missed won’t take too much luster off their resume.
The games sacrificed included ones against strong NESCAC teams Williams and Colby, and there would have been one against either Norwich or Hamilton at the canceled Northfield Savings Bank Classic.
“We schedule those teams for a reason,” said Swallow. “End of the year when it’s time for (at-large) selection, those are the teams you want on your schedule. But I think our conference has been strong enough over the years that we’ll be in a good position.”
***
As exciting as the race is in the CCC, it’s not the only New England conference that’s taking playoff seeding right to the end of the regular season.
After first-place Hobart there’s a four-team logjam in the NEHC, and one of the next four teams – UMass Boston, Elmira, Babson and Norwich – will find itself outside the top four and on the road for the quarterfinals.
The position of strength in that group belongs to UMB, which took care of business against Johnson & Wales on Tuesday, 6-1, to slide into second place. Pete Belisle’s team is in form and will finish no worse than second if it beats Castleton and Skidmore this weekend.
***
In the NESCAC, first-place Colby (13-4-1, 10-3) needed a third-period goal from sophomore John McElaney (Walpole, Mass.) to beat last-place Middlebury, 3-2, on Tuesday, and keep surging Wesleyan (9-8-2, 8-4) at arm’s length.
With two weekends remaining in the regular season, Williams (9-7, 9-6) and Trinity (10-7-1, 8-5) can also make a run at first if Colby slips.
Colby is involved in the key games this weekend, traveling to Wesleyan on Friday and playing at Trinity on Saturday.
@MikeZhe603
mzhe@hockeyjournal.com
