For a goaltender, confidence is everything.
It’s no surprise that New Hampshire fifth-year senior Mike Robinson (Bedford, N.H.) has been playing with plenty of it while backstopping his team to three consecutive wins entering this coming weekend’s Hockey East home-and-home series with Boston University, its final action before the holiday break.
The back-to-back Hockey East Goaltender of the Week, Robinson turned aside all 27 shots he faced to pick up Friday’s 1-0 win at Harvard — his eighth career shutout — and another 20 in the following night’s 3-2 overtime win over Holy Cross. He earned the first honor following a 32-save effort in the Wildcats’ Nov. 20 overtime win against UMass.
“As I’ve said 100 times, the best of Michael Robinson is pretty good, and we’ve seen that over the last few games,” said UNH head coach Mike Souza, whose team is now 3-3 against ranked opponents this season. “When you shut out one of the best offensive teams in the country, it’s a big boost for our guys and for Mike. We’ve seen him do it before, he’s gone toe-to-toe with Spencer Knight before. I’m happy for him. He’s put in a lot of work.”
It was a difficult start to the season for Robinson, who entered the aforementioned UMass game with a .860 save percentage across his first seven outings. After leading UNH to two season-opening wins over Union, he had lost four consecutive decisions before the current run.
Like the previous week’s, Friday’s performance can help the Wildcats — and Robinson — continue to build momentum as the unofficial first half closes.
“I’ve really implemented just (having) more of a positive mindset,” Robinson said on Friday. “As a goaltender, you’ve got to have a short memory when things don’t go your way. You really can’t dwell on the past. … It was a great team win. That’s a really good (Harvard) team, and I thought we played hard and physical. It’s definitely a boost for us.”
One difference between this season and the last few is the presence of a goaltending partner who has seen a considerable share of action. Alabama Huntsville transfer David Fessenden has competed with the team’s established starter for the previous three full seasons, going 2-2-1 in five starts.
“We’ve had a great relationship,” Robinson said. “I think we’ve really gelled as a goalie duo. He pushes me and I hope I do the same for him.”
“(Goaltending development coach) Ty Conklin has done a tremendous job with all three guys, but really, really helping Michael through a stretch that wasn’t a lot of fun for him,” Souza added.
On the opposite end, scoring has been ultra-difficult to come by for the Wildcats as their 1.57 goals per game are the fewest in Hockey East. Their only game above the three-goal mark so far this year was the Oct. 8 opener.
Senior Jackson Pierson has led the charge offensively, scoring five of the team’s eight total goals over its previous five games prior to Saturday. Four of his six goals this season have been game-winners, including overtime tallies against Providence and UMass.
“Your best players have to make big plays at big moments. He did that,” Souza said. “But, the thing that’s impressive about Jackson is how hard he’s worked away from the puck, whether it’s backchecking or finishing checks. He’s our best guy on the penalty kill and the power play. There’s a reason he was a second-team all-league player last year. I’m just glad we have him.”
While a usually-strong power play has struggled, the Wildcats changed line combinations prior to the UMass series to try to keep squeezing the most out of Pierson’s game.
Souza has been impressed with the senior’s combination with rookies Liam Devlin (Needham, Mass.) and Robert Cronin (Plymouth, Mass.), the former of which set up Pierson’s breakaway goal against the Crimson. Cronin assisted on Saturday’s game-winner by senior Filip Engaras.
“We’ve been trying to move guys around to get him somebody, and I’ve been really happy with how the freshmen have played,” Souza said. “Robert is effective when he moves his feet and Liam is heavy on pucks. We’re trying to get him going any way we can.”
Falcons snatch first sweep
In one of only two Atlantic Hockey series played over the holiday weekend, Bentley swept rival Army West Point to pick up all six possible league points from a series for the first time this season. The Falcons won the games by a combined 8-1 margin to move into a tie atop the league with RIT, though the top six teams are separated by three points and Sacred Heart and Canisius — the two teams immediately behind them — have two games in hand.
Bentley, which has earned points in all five of its league series and won three straight, finished off the Black Knights with a 5-0 Saturday shutout in which graduate student Evan DeBrouwer made 25 saves. The Arizona State transfer earned both victories while backstopping a perfect 12 for 12 penalty kill.
“I saw a lot of signs of a cohesive group with the way we were playing for each other on the penalty kill,” Bentley coach Ryan Soderquist said. “For the last 6-7 minutes, we were playing for Evan who deserved the shutout. Guys weren’t out there trying to get points, they were trying to block shots and get him the shutout. When you see your guys playing for the guy next to them, you know you’re headed in the right direction.”
On the offensive side, freshman Danny Pearson has six points in six games after scoring his first two collegiate goals on Saturday. Senior defenseman Luke Orysiuk scored in each game, combining with Pearson for two goals in seven seconds on Saturday, setting a new conference record for the fastest consecutive goals.
Shutout and scoring success
Providence tied for the nation lead with 12 wins on the season after reclaiming the Mayor’s Cup with Saturday’s 4-0 win at Brown. Western Michigan transfer Austin Cain pitched a 24-save shutout against the Bears in his first career start, while sophomore Brett Berard (East Greenwich, R.I.) had a six-point weekend to more than double his output from a season ago and move to the top of the Hockey East scoring charts (10-11--21).
The Friars erased a three-goal deficit to beat Dartmouth on Friday, 7-4. Another Ocean State native was the star of that game as junior Parker Ford (Wakefield, R.I.) registered his first career hat trick as part of a four-point night.
UMass Lowell senior Owen Savory logged his third shutout of the year with Saturday’s 2-0 win over Maine. For the season, Savory’s save percentage (.954) is four points better than Northeastern’s Devon Levi for tops nationally and GAA (1.10) ranks second only to Yaniv Perets, whose Quinnipiac team was idle on Friday and Saturday.
Hockey East jumped above the .500 mark in non-conference play (30-25-4) on the season with a strong effort to finish the weekend, winning twice on Sunday following Boston University’s Red Hot Hockey setback to Cornell. Northeastern swept RPI despite having five regulars out of the lineup — including junior defenseman Jayden Struble (Cumberland, R.I.) — in Sunday’s come-from-behind, 2-1 win at Matthews Arena. Vermont and UConn also picked up wins over ECAC clubs.
THREE MORE STARS:
Hockey East - Andrew Lucas, Vermont
After Yale earned its first win of the season against the Catamounts on Thanksgiving Eve, Lucas helped his team right the ship and pick up Saturday’s 3-2 win at twin-state rival Dartmouth. The junior defenseman set up goals by juniors William Lemay and Joe Leahy in a span of 1:57 in the first period, increasing his team-leading assist total to seven in 12 games.
Lucas also added an assist against Yale and captained a Vermont defense that blocked 15 shots in the weekend series, with two to his name.
ECAC - Mark Gallant, Dartmouth
Gallant, who hails from Concord, Mass., scored both of Dartmouth’s goals in its Sunday loss to Vermont and has more than doubled his career total with six across his first six games of the season. The junior has lit the lamp in five of those contests as he also opened the scoring on Friday at Providence.
The Groton School product had a 4-5--9 line in 26 games back in 2019-20. He is currently the only Big Green skater averaging over a point per game or with more than two goals this year.
Atlantic - Nick Hale & Ryan Leibold, Holy Cross
A junior defenseman who played three seasons at Salisbury School, Hale extended his point streak to six consecutive games, scoring the eventual game-winning goal — his third of the season and second of the streak — in the Crusaders’ 5-1 triumph over Brown on the day after Thanksgiving. Though his run ended the next night at UNH, he blocked a pair of shots to help the Crusaders extend the game to overtime.
Leibold is the only Holy Cross skater higher on the scoring charts than Hale, as he set up sophomore Lucas Thorne’s first-period goal against the Wildcats in what was his and senior defenseman Matt Slick’s 100th collegiate game. He has 15 points on the season after dishing out three of his 10 helpers in the last three games.
THIS WEEK’S HAT TRICK:
1. Marquee series: The Hockey East schedule features a pair of home-and-home series between teams currently sitting at the top of the heap as first-place Providence faces Northeastern and Massachusetts takes on in-state system rival UMass Lowell.
In particular, the former series will pit strength against strength with the Friars’ power play (32.8 percent) matching up against Northeastern’s penalty kill (91.3), both of which enter the week ranked second nationally.
2. Ivy, ECAC rivalries: This weekend marks the first crossover of New England’s four Ivy League programs this season and since before the COVID-19 pandemic, while Quinnipiac puts a nine-game unbeaten streak to the test against RPI and Union in New York’s Capital District. Harvard will be playing its final pair of games before Christmas.
Yale looks to build upon its first win — last Wednesday’s 4-2 triumph over Vermont — when it welcomes Dartmouth and Harvard to New Haven. The Big Green and Crimson will also play at Brown during the weekend, taking on a Bears team that has lost seven straight since a season-opening win over Yale.
3. Key stretch in Atlantic: Three of the region’s four Atlantic Hockey teams are playing their final games of the 2021 calendar year over the coming week. Sacred Heart will look to continue its recent winning ways (4-1-2 in seven games) with a Thursday night visit to West Point.
In Massachusetts, Bentley will host Mercyhurst for a pair while Holy Cross entertains Niagara.
