UNH men’s hockey: Wildcats vs. Merrimack matchups and notes

Joshua Shaw, Sports Writer
February 25, 2022

Preview

The University of New Hampshire (UNH) Wildcats will conclude their season series with the Merrimack College Warriors this weekend.

When the two teams last met on Feb. 4, the Wildcats’ 5-2 loss was just their second in a four-game skid. Since then, the ‘Cats have traded wins and losses, going 2-2 over their last four games. The Wildcats come into the one-game standoff on the heels of a five goal outing, something they’d only accomplished two others times.

As for the Warriors, they’ll arrive in Durham as winners of three straight against the University of Vermont Catamounts. Their sweep of the Catamounts netted the Warriors 14 votes in Feb. 21 USCHO.com polls. Their sweep has also helped push them into a tie for third-place in the Hockey East with the University of Connecticut.

Saturday, Feb. 26th, 2022

University of New Hampshire Wildcats (14-15-1, 8-12-1) vs Merrimack College Warriors (17-12-1, 12-9-0)

When: 7:00 p.m.

Where: Whittemore Center, Durham, N.H.

Watch: College SportsLive.

Listen: WGIR 610 AM, WQSO 96.7 FM, WPKX 930 AM.

UNH lines @ Vermont (Feb. 19)

Forwards

#15 Chase Stevenson, #11 Jackson Pierson, #26 Liam Devlin

#14 Tyler Ward, #16 Filip Engarås, #13 Nick Cafarelli

#25 Will Margel, #15 Chase Stevenson, #19 Eric MacAdams

#29 Joseph Cipollone, #21 Cam Gendron, #12 Eric Esposito

Defensemen

#5 Will MacKinnon, #3 Ryan Verrier

#10 Kalle Eriksson, #27 Luke Reid

#28 Alex Gagne, #20 Colton Huard

Goaltenders

#31 Mike Robinson, #41 David Fessenden

Key Players

UNH first-year defenseman Alex Gagne secured a pair of firsts following last weekend’s performance against the University of Maine Black Bears. Gagne scored his first-ever goal and tallied two assists Saturday night to earn Hockey East Rookie of the Week, the first of his career.

Despite being benched in the first period of last Friday’s game, senior goaltender Mike Robinson will presumably be between the pipes Saturday night. Robinson started 12 straight games and bounced back last Saturday, making 16 saves on 18 shots faced.

The Wildcats should be wary of graduate student Max Newton on Saturday. Through 29 games played, Newton has netted 32 points, which leads the Warriors and is fourth-most in the Hockey East this season.

Merrimack could deploy either of their goalies Saturday night as both sophomore Zachary Borgiel and first-year goaltender Hugo Ollas have practically split starts all season. However, Ollas has started five of their last seven.

Of the two, Ollas has been a touch better statically, with a 2.07 goals-against-average and a .924 save percentage, both of which are top-five among all Hockey East goaltenders.