The shortening days and cool breezes have this hockey fan’s mind turning to the upcoming season. For many years now the best way to kick off the Men’s Hockey Season has been the Friends of UNH Hockey’s annual Face-Off Feed. On Saturday, September 11th Fans will have a chance to mingle with their favorite players at a backyard style barbecue held on the front apron of the Whittemore Center Arena.

The Face-Off Feed gives fans a unique opportunity to learn about the new freshman class as they read their personal autobiographies. It gives participants unprecedented access to their favorite returning players. Fans can also tour the Whittemore Center to see the ‘Cats Locker and Work-Out Rooms, and check out the changes that this summer’s million dollar construction project have wrought.

• The Face-Off Feed is open to all. Pre-registration is required.
• The Price for the event is $15.00 for adults and $8.00 for children under 12.
• Check-in will begin at 12:30PM and the Event will start at 1:00
• The Face-Off Feed will be held on the Front Apron of the Whittemore Center (between the turf field and the front doors)
• For more information or questions please contact johnsavage@friendsofunhhockey.com

The first UNH Hockey Golf Tournament was held in 1989. Charlie Holt’s dream has evolved into a major fundraising vehicle for the hockey program. Former players, alumni, and friends have raised over $500K in the last 22 years with proceeds funding various projects and team endowments.

This year, we will continue contributions to the endowments and fund program enhancements deemed appropriate by the coaching staff and the Friends Board of Directors.

The success of the tournament depends not only on the entry fees paid by golfers, but the loyalty and generosity of the tournament’s sponsors.

We thank you for your past sponsorship and hope that you will continue to support UNH Hockey. If you have not been a sponsor, we invite you to come on board! Below are various levels of sponsorship along with respective benefits packages that we think are attractive to all.

Locations will be the Wentworth by the Sea and Portsmouth Country Club Golf Courses.

Registration will be at 7:00AM

The format will be a scramble with a shotgun start at 8:00AM.

Prizes for 1st and 2nd Place teams, Closest to the Pin and Longest Drive.

The entry fee of $200.00 per player includes greens fee, a cart, breakfast, box lunch and a cook.

To Sign up as a sponsor or register your foursome Click Here

Don’t forget all members are encouraged to attend and help us select board members who will serve for the next three years.

The 2010 Hobey Baker Award will be presented this Friday, April 9th in Detroit, the site of the 2010 Frozen Four. Criteria for the award include strength of character on and off the ice, outstanding skill in all phases of the game, sportsmanship, and academic achievement.

UNH senior forward and captain Bobby Butler is one of three “Hat-Trick” finalists named by the Hobey Baker Award Foundation.

Finalists were selected from a field of 24 initial candidates which was paired down to ten by a selection committee and online fan voting.

The Friends of UNH Hockey will hold its annual business meeting on Monday May, 3rd 2010 starting at 6:00PM. The meeting will be held in the media room of the Whittemore Center (ice level) and is open to all Friends Members in good standing.

The primary purpose of the meeting is to hold elections for the Friends Board of Directors, the governing body of the Friends of UNH Hockey.

Each year 7 of the 21 Board seats are elected with each board member serving a three year term. The Board meets once a month, typically the second Tuesday of each month, to discuss how we are going to continue to support the UNH Men’s Hockey Program. In fact we will hold our May meeting immediately after the Annual Meeting. Friends members are always welcome at the monthly meetings although they are not permitted to vote.

Friends members who are interested in becoming involved can email the nominating committee chair Mandy Savage at mandysavage@friendsofunhhockey.com

On Saturday April 17th, The Friends of UNH Hockey will hold its annual Awards Banquet. We hope you will join us in celebrating the success of the 2009-2010 Wildcat Hockey Team. We will honor this year’s graduating senior class, and present the annual team awards.

This year the banquet will be held in the Ballroom of Huddleston Hall, which is located at 73 Main Street, in Durham.

The festivities will begin at 5:30pm, with a buffet dinner at 6:00pm and the awards ceremony to follow at 7:30pm.

Cost for Friends Members who would like to attend this years banquet is $50.00 children 6-10 $25.00. Center Ice Friends members attend the banquet free of charge. Anyone interested in attending needs to register by Saturday April 12th. walk-ins will not be allowed.

Tickets will not be sent to this event. We ask that you sign in when you arrive that day. Please visit the table set up inside the Hall entrance. Proper dress is required (no jeans, athletic wear, or baseball caps).

For questions please contact Kim Rhine at kim.rhine@unh.edu or by phone at (603) 862-1809.

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Cornell, a perrennial powerhouse going back more than 40 years, won the ECAC title this past weekend in Albany, shutting out Brown and Union by identical 3-0 scores each night. The Big Red are currently 21-8-4 and are led by the soon-to-be All-American goalie Ben Scrivens (right), who has played all but 32 minutes this season. His statistics are impressive, with a 1.78 goals against average, .937 save percentage and seven shutouts in the season.

Up front Cornell is led by Blake Gallagher (19 goals, 18 assists), Colin Greening (15-20-35), and Riley Nash 12-22-34). Top blueliners are Brendon Nash (2-17-19) and Nick D’Agostino (4-14-18).

UNH and Cornell are no strangers to each other as they met on January 3 in a non-conference tilt at the Whittemore Center. The Wildcats were no match for the Big Red in that game, losing 5-2 in game that wasn’t even that close. Cornell, who outshot the ‘Cats 43-22 in the game, broke open a 2-2 tie with three goals in the third period. Mike Sislo and Matt Campanale scored for the Wildcats.

This will be the sixth time UNH and Cornell have met in the post-season. And to this observer, each one of those meetings had some significance to the Wildcats. Their first meeting occurred in March, 1972 when UNH, led by Captain Dick Umile played in their first ever ECAC semi-final. Facing off against Cornell in those days was a daunting task so, despite their best efforts, the ‘Cats were defeated 6-3.

UNH fared much better in subsequent meetings, the first of which came in the 1977 ECAC semi-finals when the ‘Cats took the Big Red, 10-9, on a Bob Gould goal 23 seconds into the second overtime. That victory propelled the Wildcats into their first ever ECAC final and, more importantly, secured their first ever bid to the Hockey Final Four. Two years later the teams met again in the semi-finals. And while the game was not as raucous, once again the ‘Cats were victorious, beating Cornell. 5-2, as a prelude to their 3-2 victory over Dartmouth for their first and only ECAC championship.

It would take another 23 years before the teams would meet again in the post-season and this time a bid to the Frozen Four was on the line. In the Northeast Regional final in Worcester in March, 2002, two goals by Jim Abbott gave UNH a 4-3 victory and a trip to St. Paul. The next year, the teams met again, but this time in the national semi-finals in Buffalo. Cornell was the number one team in the land, with 30 wins and counting. But behind two Steve Saviano goals and the stellar goaltending of Michael Ayers, UNH was able to hold off the Big Red to play in the second ever national championship game.

While past performance is not an indicator of future results, UNH does have a history with the Big Red. Let’s drop the puck and see what happens! See you in Albany!

COMMENTS FROM THE COACH

“We started off well the last time we played them and they took the game away from us late in the third period. They were a little stronger than we were then. That was right after the Christmas break. They had played a couple games and we hadn’t played in three weeks. We’ll focus on the fact that we’ll be stronger than we were at that point and we can fight through that.

“I think (playing the NCAA tournament) is a chance to prove a lot of things. It’s an opportunity to get to the Frozen Four. That’s the goal. The first challenge is to get through Cornell in Albany. The guys are excited. We had a decent scrimmage on Saturday. Everybody was a little anxious knowing that we could possibly not play. Everybody was excited Sunday when we found out where we were going. I think they like the idea of staying in the East and playing Cornell. We’re familiar with them. So let’s go.”

ALUMNI ASSOCIATION TO HOST PRE-GAME RECEPTION

The UNH Alumni Association and Athletics Department cordially invite you to join fellow alumni, parents and Wildcat fans in Albany (N.Y.) when the 12th-ranked University of New Hampshire men’s hockey team competes in its ninth straight NCAA tournament! The third-seed Wildcats will square off against second-seeded and sixth-ranked Cornell University on Friday, March 26 at 6:30 p.m. at the Times Union Center. The winner advances to the regional final game on Saturday, March 27th against the winner of the Denver v. RIT game.

We’ll kick off Friday night at the Times Union Center with a pre-game reception from 5:00 to 6:30 p.m. – look for the “UNH Reception” signs on the second floor of the front Atrium. The Beast of the East UNH Pep Band will be performing at 5:30 along with an appearance of our very own mascot, Wild E Cat! UNH men’s hockey coach Dick Umile will also stop by to talk to the crowd before the game! Come enjoy complimentary light refreshments and a cash bar. The game is only a few steps away inside the arena!

The Times Union Center is located on Pearl Street in downtown Albany, NY. For directions visit: http://timesunioncenter-albany.com/info/directions.aspx

Butler, along with sophomore defenseman Blake Kessel (Verona, Wis), was named one of 16 semifinalists back in February. After being named a finalist last week, the Marlboro, MA native then topped the other two finalists –Sacred Heart’s Nick Johnson and Yale’s Broc Little – to win the award. Butler is the seventh Wildcat to earn the award, joining Bob Miller (1977), Ralph Cox (1979), Ty Conklin (2001), Michael Ayers (2003), Steve Saviano (2004) and Kevin Regan (2008).

Butler has already taken home his share of hardware this season. Last week he was named the Hockey East Player of the Year and was selected first team All-Hockey East. He is currently one of 10 finalists for the Hobey Baker Memorial Award, the winner to be announced during the Frozen Four weekend in Detroit the second week in April. Butler was also the Hockey East Three Stars Award winner, given each year to the player who has the most Player of the Game Awards in a season.

Butler is enjoying not only his best season as a Wildcat, but also arguably the greatest season by any Wildcat forward in recent history. Butler ranks first in the nation in goals with 27 and is fifth overall in scoring with 50 points (1.35 ppg). Butler sits third in goals per game at 0.73, sixth in points (51), ninth in short-handed goals (2) and 18th in game winners (4). He ranks first overall in goals, third in points, seventh in power play goals, second in short-handed goals and third in game-winning tallies. In conference play, Butler finished first in points (41) and goals (21), and sixth in assists (20). He became the first player in Hockey East to register 20 goals and 20 assists in league play since 1999 Hobey Baker winner Jason Krog of New Hampshire.

The Walter A. Brown Award is given each year in the memory of a legendary Boston sportsman who owned the Boston Garden and was president of the Boston Celtics for several years. In 1953 he was instrumental in bringing college hockey into the spotlight with the introduction of the Beanpot Hockey Tournament, originally played at Boston (now Matthews) Arena and then the Boston Garden.

Senior co-captain Bobby Butler was named Hockey East Player of the Year at the Hockey East Awards Banquet held on March 18 in Boston. Butler led Hockey East with 21 goals in league games and tied Maine’s Gustav Nyquist for the league lead with 41 points. He is the first Hockey East player to register at least 20 goal and 20 assists in league play since UNH’s Jason Krog did it in 1999.

The POY award is one of the many accolades that the senior from Marlboro, MA has received this season. Butler was named Hockey East Player of the Week three times and was Hockey East Player of the Month in November. He has been nominated for the Walter Brown Award as the top American-born player in New England and for the Hockey Humanitarian Award for his off-ice efforts in the community. On March 18 he was named one of the ten finalists for the Hobey Baker Memorial Award as the premier player in the country.

Butler is the seventh Wildcat to win Player of the Year honors in the past 12 Hockey East seasons. The most recent winner was Kevin Regan in 2008, preceded by Steve Saviano (2004), Michael Ayers (2003), Darren Haydar (2002), Ty Conklin (2000), and Jason Krog (1999). He becomes the sixth Wildcat to be selected as a Hobey finalist, following Mark Mowers (‘98), Conklin (‘01), Haydar (‘02), Saviano (‘04) and Regan (‘08).

Butler was also one of three Wildcats to be named All Hockey East first team, joined by goalie Brian Foster and defenseman Blake Kessel. It is the first time that UNH has had three first team selections in the same season. They were joined on the first team by Nyquist, BU defenseman Colby Cohen, UMass defenseman Justin Braun, and BC forward Brian Gibbons.
After a less than stellar start to the season, Foster (right) backstopped the Wildcats as they made their run to the title in March. He played more minutes than any other goalie in the league (1,594:18), finished second in saves (764), second in saves per game (29.4), fourth in save percentage (.913), and fifth in goals against (2.75). He was Hockey East Defensive Player of the Week four times and was the league’s Goalie of the Month in December and January.

Kessel (below) finished third in league scoring for defensemen with 24 points (6 goals, 18 assists) and was also third in plus/minus rating at +11. He’s only the third UNH defenseman (Scott Malone, ‘94 and Brad Flaishans, ‘08 are the others) to gain first team honors in the 26 year history of Hockey East.

Also feted at the Awards Banquet was Coach Dick Umile, who was named Bob Kullen Co-Coach of the Year along with Merrimack’s Brian Dennehy. UNH was ranked fourth (with Vermont) in the pre-season coaches poll. After a rocky start the Wildcats took sole possession of first place the third week of November and were never headed. They clinched the regular season title in dramatic fashion, coming from three goals down to tie Boston College in the last home game of the year. It is the sixth time Umile has received COY honors, having previously been named in 1991, 1997, 1999, 2002, and 2003. The award is named in honor former UNH coach Bob Kullen, who passed away in 1990.

Photos Courtesy of Mike Silverwood & UNH Athletic Media Relations