BURLINGTON, Vt. – New Hampshire senior defenseman Chris Murray scored a power-play goal with 3:36 left in the third period to give the 4th-ranked Wildcats a 2-1 victory over No. 15 Vermont in front of the 49th straight sellout crowd of 4,003 at Gutterson Fieldhouse on Saturday night. UNH improved to 16-3-1 overall and 12-1-1 in Hockey East with the win while the Catamounts fall to 11-8-1 and 6-4-1 in the league with the loss. The Wildcats are a perfect 10-0 on the road this season.
“We came into tonight’s game worried about the process,” Vermont head coach Kevin Sneddon said. “We had to quickly mend some things in a short turnaround time. I’m just very proud of our guys. Obviously they are very disappointed right now but they played a heck of a hockey game against one of the best teams in the country. UNH is the best team we’ve seen so far and I thought we played a great college game tonight.”
Vermont freshman Colin Vock (Plymouth, Mich.) scored the only goal for the Catamounts for the second straight night.
UNH sophomore Trevor Smith added his 14th goal of the year for the Wildcats.
After a scoreless first period New Hampshire got on the board first just 48 seconds into the second period. Smith scored on a rebound from inside the right circle to make it 1-0 Wildcats.
Vermont answered less than one minute later when Vock scored his seventh goal of the season. Senior assistant captain Chris Myers (South Boston, Mass.) skated in with Vock on a 2-on-1 and fired a shot from the slot. UNH junior goalie Kevin Regan made the save but Vock put home the rebound as he crashed to the net.
The Catamounts outshot the Wildcats 26-19 through the first two periods but the game was tied at one going to the final 20 minutes.
Late in the third period, with the Wildcats on the power play, Murray flicked a wrist shot from the top of the slot past Vermont junior goalie Joe Fallon (Bemidji, Minn.). The goal at 16:24 of the third period proved to be the game-winner and was the seventh goal of the year for Murray.
Vermont outshot New Hampshire 35-27 after being outshot 29-11 last night.
Regan made 34 saves to pick up his 14th win of the season while Fallon made 25 stops in the loss. UVM went 0-for-7 on the power play while UNH went 1-for-4.
Vermont returns to action next weekend when the Catamounts visit Northeastern on Friday (Jan. 12) and Saturday (Jan. 13) at 7:05pm at Matthews Arena. UVM and Northeastern tied 2-2 in this season's first meeting on Oct. 14 at the Gut.
GAME NOTES: Tonight’s game was televised on CN8 and marked the ninth time the men’s hockey team has seen on TV this season ... It was the fourth of eight games to be televised on CN8 this year ... Vermont is 5-6-0 against ranked teams this season ... UVM is 1-6-0 when its opponent scored first ... UNH leads the all-time series against UVM 62-14-3.