{"id":97999,"date":"2015-01-12T06:56:27","date_gmt":"2015-01-12T12:56:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.uscho.com\/hockey-east-blog\/?p=1408"},"modified":"2015-01-12T06:56:27","modified_gmt":"2015-01-12T12:56:27","slug":"uconn-good-irish-bad-and-no-sure-things","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wwwproxy.uscho.com\/2015\/01\/12\/uconn-good-irish-bad-and-no-sure-things\/","title":{"rendered":"UConn good, Irish bad, and no sure things"},"content":{"rendered":"
These are the three things I think<\/em> I learned this week.<\/p>\n 1. I should stop being surprised when Connecticut defeats a strong team.<\/strong><\/p>\n Earlier this year, UConn defeated Boston College and tied Boston University in the span of just four days. The Huskies also have toppled Quinnipiac and Vermont.<\/p>\n But I really didn’t think they could knock off Massachusetts-Lowell, thereby giving the River Hawks their first Hockey East loss of the year.<\/p>\n But UConn did it again, shutting out Lowell, 2-0.<\/p>\n Expect more on the Huskies in this week’s column.<\/p>\n 2. Maybe Notre Dame just isn’t that good.<\/strong><\/p>\n I’ve been waiting and waiting and waiting, expecting the Irish to finally put it all together. I’m starting to think it just won’t happen.<\/p>\n The Irish went five games without a win in mid-to-late November, but then followed a sweep of UMass with an upset of sixth-ranked Miami.<\/p>\n So I started to believe, at least just a little.<\/p>\n But then the Irish lost to a Lake Superior team that even with that win is only 4-19-1.<\/p>\n This weekend, Western Michigan, in next-to-last place in the NCHC with a 2-6-2 league mark, swept Notre Dame.<\/p>\n At some point, you just have to look at the record and say, “It is what it is.”<\/p>\n 3. You can’t take anything for granted.<\/strong><\/p>\n I knew this, of course.<\/p>\n But as already noted, Lowell lost its first league game to UConn.<\/p>\n Then Providence, projected in the preseason to finish first in Hockey East and appearing to hit its stride of late, takes on a Brown team next-to-last in the ECAC with a league mark of 1-7-1, and an overall mark of 3-10-0. The Friars take the away portion of the home-and-home series on Friday night, needing overtime to pull out the win. But then they lose back at home, 5-3, and have to settle for a split with one of the ECAC’s weakest teams.<\/p>\n But the piece de resistance<\/em> was BU traveling to Wisconsin. This is not your father’s Badgers. This year’s edition was 2-11-1 going into the weekend. BU was ranked second in the country with an 11-3-3 mark.<\/p>\n Like taking candy from babies, right? I mean, what else do you expect from 11-3-3 vs. 2-11-1?<\/p>\n Well, BU did win impressively on the second night, 6-1, but the Terriers needed not one, but two<\/em>, extra attacker goals to pull out a Friday night tie, the second coming with three seconds left in regulation.<\/p>\n No, there are no more automatics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" These are the three things I think I learned this week. 1. I should stop being surprised when Connecticut defeats a strong team. Earlier this year, UConn defeated Boston College and tied Boston University in the span of just four days. The Huskies also have toppled Quinnipiac and Vermont. But I really didn’t think they could […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":140328,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1425],"tags":[1236,1490],"coauthors":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n