Kelleher, Correale Lead UNH Over UCONN: Goal-by-Goal

Sophomore Tyler Kelleher 1 Goal, 1 Assist

Junior Dan Correale 1 Goal, 2 Assists

Junior Brett Pesce Game-Winning Goal

The addition of UConn to Hockey East necessitated a change in the format for the 2015 Hockey East Playoffs. All 12 HE teams will qualify for the Playoffs. The opening round will be a best-of-three series involving the 5th to 12th-ranked teams. Teams 5-8 will have the home-ice advantage for the series. The winners of the opening round advance to a best-of-three quarterfinal series against the top 4 teams.

The big incentive for UNH over the final four regular season games is to earn home-ice by finishing in 8th place or better. Last night, UNH took the first step in achieving that goal. UConn entered the game with 16 points in a tie for 8th place with the Univeristy of Maine. UNH, with 13 points, trailed UConn and Maine by 3 points. With a convincing 4-1 victory in Hartford last night, UNH is now only 1 point behind UConn and Maine in the battle for 8th place. UNH has played one less game than UConn so far this season. The two teams match up again tonight at the Whittemore Center in Durham, NH.

In Friday's game, UNH's third line of Dan Correale-Andrew Poturalski-Tyler Kelleher game up big accounting for three of UNH's four goals. After a scoreless first period, the threesome scored twice on its first shift of the second period. Sophomore Tyler Kelleher got UNH on the scoreboard off a 3-on-2 rush into the UConn zone. A minute later, junior defenseman Brett Pesce scored the eventual game-winner with the primary assist going to fellow junior Dan Correale. After missing 4 games in December with a knee injury and 4 more games in January with a respiratory problem, Pesce has begun to heat up his offensive game. He has a goal and 4 assists over the last four games.

UConn broke up freshman goalie Danny Tirone's shutout on a power play goal late in the second period. Tirone, a native of Trumball, CT, was playing in his home state for the first time as a collegian. Midway through the final stanza, Correale picked up the insurance goal on a pretty feed from Kelleher. Senior Captain Matt Willows potted his second empty-net goal in the last two games to close out the 4-1 victory.

Points of Interest

~ Remarkably, Senior Alternate Captain Grayson Downing returned to the lineup after missing only two games. Downing suffered a severe ankle sprain two weeks ago at UVM. Though he looked to be skating slightly slower than usual, he skated his regular shift on the first line and played on UNH's first power play and penalty kill units.
~ Downing returned to center the first line between Casey Thrush and Mat Willows. The other three forward lines were the same as in last Saturday's victory over BU: Foegele-Camper-Eiserman, Correale-Poturalski-Kelleher, Salvaggio-McNicholas-Hill.
~ UNH had 9 freshmen in the lineup - 5 forwards, 3 defensemen and goalie Danny Tirone
~ It was a special evening for freshman Jason Salvaggio. A couple years ago, he played for the Selects Hockey Academy at the South Kent School in Connecticut. He originally had verbally committed to UConn but came to UNH instead after UConn changed coaches.

Goal-by-Goal Breakdown

PERIOD 2

Tyler Kelleher-13 (Assisted by Dan Correale-6 & Harry Quast-4)
1:44 of 2nd Period - UNH 1, UConn 0



Brett Pesce-2 (Assisted by Dan Correale-7 & Andrew Poturalski-10)
2:21 of 2nd Period - UNH 2, UConn 0



Cody Sharib PP (From Gerling & Poe)
6:37 of Period 2 - UNH 2, UConn 1



PERIOD 3

Dan Correale-4 (Assisted by Tyler Kelleher-19 & Matias Cleland-6)
11:48 of 3rd Period - UNH 3, UConn 1



Matt Willows-14 ENG (Assisted by Richard Boyd-2)
19:55 of 3rd Period - UNH 4, UConn 1