UMass entered the weekend two-game series with the Vermont Catamounts with a 9-6 record in Hockey East play and were fresh off two big wins against UMass-Lowell.
The first game started off fast, when James Marcou used a defenseman as a screen and snapped a wrist shot past Catamount goalie Rob Madore on the first shift of the game. The pace fast, and the action was back and forth until late in the opening frame when Jay Anctil of Vermont hopped on a bouncing puck in the UMass slot and beat Paul Dainton on the glove side. In the second, Casey Wellman rushed end to end, and like linemate Marcou, used a Catamount defenseman as a screed, wiring a shot though both the defender and goalie’s legs to give the home team Minutemen a 2-1 lead. UMass controlled the majority of play for the rest of the game, and would have gotten a larger lead if not for the play of Vermont goalie Rob Madore who made great scramble saves multiple times. With a minute remaining, Vermont pulled Madore, but had mis-communicated as the puck came to their end as doing so. James Marcou passed on a shot at the empty net and passed to Casey Wellman who buried it for his second of the game as UMass went on to take game one 3-1. Continue reading »
We are coming down the home stretch of the High School season and I just wanted to clarify a rule that seems to get a lot of grumbling from the stands. Although I took the rule out of the Federation book, this basically applies to every rule book in hockey. So lets get to it.
We are not even half way through this young season and I have already tossed two coaches and a parent out of different youth hockey games. I know that coaches and refs don’t always see eye to eye and this time I am siding with the coaches on how the behavior of parents effects everyone in the building. Naturally I have a few things to say on coaching but we will focus on 
There has been that on going debate on whether playing in a mens league is a good idea or not. Unfortunately there are those bad apples that put an ugly tag on these leagues and it effects officials as well as players. Being an official and an ex player in these leagues, I have seen just about everything and what disturbs me is that there are guys that play this game like it’s the Stanley Cup Finals and there are scouts in the stands. We all have to get up in the morning for work, let it go already you missed the boat. I am not saying to avoid playing in these leagues, what I will do is give you some advice on getting on the right team makes all the difference in the world. 
