Coach Souza Comments on Playoff Win

Mike Souza
UNH Head Coach

UNH's convincing 7-2 victory over perineal rival Maine in the opening round of the Hockey East Tournament was Mike Souza's first playoff win as a head coach. In the postgame press conference, Coach Souza reflected on the team's performance.

Mike Souza (UNH Head Coach): We're really excited. I thought that was the best team win of the year. I thought our special teams came through when they had to, made saves when they had to, made plays when we had to.

They (Maine) play hard, they're a big heavy team and physical. Our guys did a really good job tonight playing in a building that's not easy to play in, whether there's fans here or not, it's still a tough place to play. I'm very proud of the way our team competed for 60 minutes. We got contributions from everyone. Our best team win of the year.

Mike Lowry (The UNH Men's Hockey Blog): Congratulations coach on your first Hockey East Playoff win at the University of New Hampshire as the head coach.

Coach Souza: Thanks Mike.

Mike Lowry: Maine came in with the 9th best power play team in the country. What adaptations did you make in the penalty kill to effectively shut them down?

Coach Souza: Well, I think it's no secret to anyone that we've struggled killing penalties this year. We made some adjustments on what we were going to do. That was one of the added benefits of having the extra time off, extra practice time. So, we made some adjustments, the kids adjusted.

It was nice to get a shorthanded goal. There hasn't been a lot of shorthanded goals by way of the Wildcats the last several years. That was a huge play by (Tyler) Ward and (Filip) Engarås. They executed what they were asked to execute and I'm proud of the guys and their effort.

Hayden Choate (The Portsmouth Herald): (Mike) Robinson made 38 saves. How important was it for him to be solid tonight?

Coach Souza: I didn't realize he made that many saves. I thought we defended well. We did a good job playing inside the dots defensively. Michael (Robinson) made saves when he needed to. I was happy for him. He had a great week of practice in preparation and carried it over into tonight's game.

Jim Wrobel (UNH Athletic Communications): Just a note on Mike Robinson. He now has over 2,000 career saves. He went over that today.

Mike Lowry: Could you comment on the job that your defensive core did with Benton (Maass) down and no extra defenseman in the lineup tonight?

Coach Souza: That was one of my comments to the guys after the game. I thought the D-core stepped up. Hope to have Benton back for Sunday, but you never know.

It's one of those things I always wrestle with - always having an extra defenseman in the lineup. We dressed the extra forward (Carsen Richels) for a particular reason tonight. It almost came back to bite us a little bit, but the guys stepped up.

It's hard to single out one of the five guys, that played the bulk of the minutes, but the players recognized Luke Reid after the game, with the game ball. I thought that was very apropos.



Because of the single elimination format, UNH's victory ended Maine's season and advanced the Wildcats to the Hockey East Quarterfinals. They will face Boston College, currently ranked #1 in NCAA Division I hockey, on Sunday, 4:30 at Conte Forum in Chestnut Hill, MA. The game will be covered by NESN and live streamed on Hockey East on CBS. In early January, UNH played two games against Boston College. Both ended in overtime with UNH winning 4-3 at Conte Forum and BC winning 3-2 at the Whittemore Center.