PJ Stanley/Collegian

The Massachusetts hockey team has advanced to the Hockey East Semifinals in three of the last five seasons. Each time, the Minutemen drew New Hampshire in their path to the conference championship – including last season when the Wildcats defeated UMass, 3-2, in double overtime.

The Minutemen won’t have to wait until the second round to take on the Wildcats this season. With the Minutemen earning the eighth and final playoff spot, they head to Durham, N.H., this weekend for a best-of-three series with the top-seeded Wildcats.

A home-and-home series between the teams in January signaled a turning point for both teams as the second half of the season began. The Wildcats swept the weekend, and the Minutemen began a plummet that took two months to amend while the wins over UMass were Nos. 3 and 4 in a 16-game unbeaten streak in conference play for UNH.

The Minutemen did fix things in time to qualify for the playoffs, winning three consecutive games to close out the regular season.

“If anything, it strengthened us, having to play until the last day kept us [mentally] fresh.” UMass coach Don Cahoon said about the competition with Maine for the final playoff spot. “But we’ve got to play the game at the end of the day and be smart throughout the course of the weekend.”

Smart play is key against a team like New Hampshire. At every position, on every unit, the Wildcats have a talented, experienced player who will almost certainly execute his assignment. The UMass upperclassmen, while not as talented as a whole, possess the same instincts and poise as the UNH veterans. Cahoon does, however, play several freshmen in key roles; James Marcou is UMass’s primary playmaker and Paul Dainton emerged as the starting goaltender despite struggling at times in the season’s second half.

“At this point in the season, age doesn’t matter. Every body has played playoff hockey at some point in their life, we’ve all played at a high level of hockey at some point in our lives,” UMass captain Mike Kostka said. “We’ve played the whole season together; there are no more freshmen on this team.”

In 2006-07 many believe that the Wildcats were the class of Hockey East. But inconsistent defending and goaltending undid UNH. Senior goaltender Kevin Regan enjoyed the best season of his career in 2007-08, leading the Wildcats to Hockey East’s best scoring defense.

“There is no question that Kevin’s been the backbone of our team,” UNH coach Dick Umile said during Tuesday’s teleconference. “I think in the preseason poll people picked us at the top of the league because of Kevin.

“He’s played consistently well and gives us an opportunity to win every single night. It’s comforting to know you have Kevin Regan back there. If you make a mistake, he’s there to cover up for you.”

UMass’s descent began because of an inability to consistently create offense. Against the Wildcats, beating Regan isn’t the only concern. Senior defenseman Joe Charlebois and Craig Switzer lead an experienced, well-coached defensive unit.

The Minutemen experienced success offensively against UNH in the three regular season games, scoring nine goals. But both teams were at such different points in their season at that time that not much can be drawn from the matchups.

“You can look at how they play and how they matched up against us,” Kostka said. “The biggest thing for us is continuing to play the best we can within our system.”

In the final three games of the regular season, UMass played like the dynamic, fluid team that was a legitimate national championship contender three months ago. The offense they struggled to create came as timely and often as they needed it to.

The formula worked well enough that the Minutemen should employ the same line combinations they used last week. The top line pairing of Marcou and junior Alex Berry on the wing with junior Cory Quirk playing the pivot will remain the same. Cahoon knows he will need production from the other three lines as well. Wingers Chris and P.J. Fenton both excelled last weekend in their roles in both even strength and special teams situations.

Joe Meloni can be reached at [email protected]

Click here to listen to Joe Meloni and Jeremy Rice talk about UMass Hockey.