{"id":88779,"date":"2018-11-01T06:00:56","date_gmt":"2018-11-01T11:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/?p=88779"},"modified":"2020-08-24T14:10:28","modified_gmt":"2020-08-24T19:10:28","slug":"souza-new-hampshire-gain-first-notch-in-2018-19-win-column-with-never-say-die-attitude","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/2018\/11\/01\/souza-new-hampshire-gain-first-notch-in-2018-19-win-column-with-never-say-die-attitude\/","title":{"rendered":"Souza, New Hampshire gain first notch in 2018-19 win column with &#8216;never-say-die attitude&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"ps_captionIns\" aria-describedby=\"caption-ps-captionIns\" style=\"width: 640px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"\/img-show\/I0000QoRt4dJwn6c\"><img decoding=\"async\" title=\"Photo By: UNH Athletics\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/patrick-grasso.jpg\" alt=\" (UNH Athletics)\" width=\"640\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-ps-captionIns\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Patrick Grasso leads New Hampshire with 22 shots on goal through five games this season (photo: UNH Athletics).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>When Benton Maass buried a perfect feed from Charlie Kelleher in overtime last Saturday night, giving New Hampshire a 3-2 come-from-behind victory over Vermont, it marked the first win for Mike Souza, who took over as head coach this season after the retirement of veteran bench boss Dick Umile.<\/p>\n<p>Souza calmly shook the hands of his assistant, and most likely let out a sigh of relief.<\/p>\n<p>That sigh, though, wasn\u2019t to get win No. 1 behind him as much as it was to get in the win column for his players.<\/p>\n<p>You see, wins haven\u2019t been easy to come by for the Wildcats.<\/p>\n<p>A 4-3 loss to Army West Point on Dec. 6, 2017, started a skid for UNH. Between that time and last Saturday, the Wildcats had mustered just a single win, a 3-1 victory over Massachusetts on Feb. 3.<\/p>\n<p>In other words, the last 11 months have been trying times for UNH.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c[Losing] starts to wear on you,\u201d said Souza, who had served as an associate head coach on Umile\u2019s staff last year and was all too familiar with the struggles. \u201cIt\u2019s certainly not from a lack of effort on the kids\u2019 part or the coaches\u2019 part. It just is what it is.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This season, wins have felt attainable. Though sitting a 1-3-1, UNH has never lost by more than a goal this season, pushing Colgate to back-to-back 2-1 losses on the road to start the year before earning a 3-3 tie and suffering a 4-3 loss at Colorado College.<\/p>\n<p>That gives Souza and his team a sense of hope.<\/p>\n<p>And Saturday, after giving up two early goals to Vermont, the Wildcats scored twice in the third to force overtime before getting the overtime victory.<\/p>\n<p>That, said Souza, can be a confidence builder.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf you look at our third-period scoring this year, while it\u2019s exciting and we\u2019ve shown a ton of resiliency and resolve, we\u2019ve had a never-say-die attitude,\u201d said Souza, whose team has outscored opponents 7-4 in the third period and overtime thus far, but always have been coming from a deficit. \u201cI told the guys it would be nice to start out with a couple of goals one night.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The first period has pretty much been the death of the Wildcats this season, being outscored 8-2 in the opening frame and outshot 60-40. From that point on in every game, UNH has held the advantage in both categories, which makes one wonder what this team has to do to get out to a quicker start.<\/p>\n<p>For Souza, even that is a difficult question, as he feels in many games his team has played well out of the gate but still seems to fall behind.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSometime I think [getting a faster start] is just hockey speak,\u201d said Souza. \u201cI know out in Colorado College, we took two penalties early in the game. So you\u2019re never into a rhythm.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe ebbs and the flows of the game can contribute to how you start. It\u2019s hard to pinpoint it. We just try to talk about it at practice. We try to make sure guys are dialed in and focused from the very first drill we do. I think that carries over.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSome guys it\u2019s coming up with one or two things you need to do. Whether it\u2019s get a hit, get a blocked shot.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think it has more to do with the ebbs and the flows, whether there\u2019s icings or what have you. We haven\u2019t been awful [out of the gate], but we haven\u2019t scored first either.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>If there has been one strong positive early on in the season it is the back end \u2013 defense and goaltending. Through five games, UNH has allowed just 13 goals, with four of those coming in a 4-3 loss to Colorado College. Sophomore goaltender Mike Robinson\u2019s numbers have been strong with a 2.07 GAA and a .927 save percentage.<\/p>\n<p>Add to that the play of the UNH defense, particularly junior Andrew Wyse, and Souza feels his back end is a very strong element of this team.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c[Wyse] is not a guy who is going to show up on the scoresheet every night, but he leads our team in ice time every night,\u201d said Souza. &#8220;He\u2019s really stepped his game up early on in the year here.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>If UNH wants to find out where they are in Hockey East, this weekend\u2019s series against upstart Massachusetts may be their best early test.<\/p>\n<p>The Minutemen are off to a 5-1-0 start and have shown a significant increase in overall team speed, something that will likely be on display on the Whittemore Center\u2019s Olympic-sized ice sheet this Friday night.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think every program is starting to get their play faster and play with pace, and [UMass] does a great job of that,\u201d said Souza. \u201cA lot of their pace and a lot of their offense starts at the back with those two players that have in Cale [Makar] and [Mario] Ferraro. They\u2019re two special players.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGreg [Carvel] is a great coach with a long track record. They\u2019ve got some guys who get your attention. Our guys have to be aware when they\u2019re on the ice.<\/p>\n<p>As you hear so often from coaches, Friday\u2019s game may come down to doing the little things right.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey play fast, they play hard. They\u2019re detailed,\u201d Souza said. \u201cThey\u2019ve got a really good group.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s no surprise to me that they\u2019re off to the start they\u2019re off to.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When Benton Maass buried a perfect feed from Charlie Kelleher in overtime last Saturday night, giving New Hampshire a 3-2 come-from-behind victory over Vermont, it marked the first win for Mike Souza (photo: UNH Athletics).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":111256,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[812],"coauthors":[800],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Souza, New Hampshire gain first notch in 2018-19 win column with &#039;never-say-die attitude&#039; - 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