DURHAM, N.H. – Whatever ills the Massachusetts hockey team fell under Friday in letting a 1-1 tie after two periods turn into a 4-1 defeat, it apparently got worse overnight.

The Minutemen lost 7-2 to New Hampshire Saturday night at the Whittemore Center with a performance that is difficult to describe as anything but embarrassing.

Remember, this team was ranked fifth in the country following a 5-4 win over Colorado College in the Lightning College Hockey Classic – a win that, if followed up by anything better than the 2-11-1 run that ensued, likely would have gone down as one of the most significant wins in the program’s history, one that might have signaled the next big step in carrying UMass hockey to national relevance.

Instead, the Mass Attack laid an egg on the second half of its 2007-08 regular season, and after stringing a few wins together to salvage a postseason berth, UMass laid another one.

Friday night’s 4-1 loss was a clear case of the Minutemen beating themselves with sloppy play. Saturday, however, they let themselves get beat.

The Wildcats played inspired, powerful and clever hockey and proved they were the better team this weekend. But on Saturday, it seemed like the Maroon and White barely tried to disprove that.

UMass coach Don Cahoon cited poor goaltending as the factor that broke the game wide open. After falling behind, 2-0, early, UMass fought back and made it 2-1 after the first period. That’s when Dainton let up a couple goals he probably shouldn’t have.

However, when going down the roster, it’s difficult to find a player that did much better. Dainton certainly didn’t have his best game, but facing seemingly unending breakaways and odd-man rushes, what net minder would?

Scott Crowder’s game misconduct for hitting from behind was ill-timed and put the Minutemen in an early hole, and from that point on, anyone in a maroon sweater seemed resigned to their fate.

Even after Dainton gave up the two goals in the second period and was pulled in favor of sophomore Dan Meyers, the Wildcats still scored twice more before the period ended, taking a ridiculous 6-1 advantage into a lame-duck third.

If nothing else, it was disappointing not to see more from a team we saw so much from at other points during this season.

Whether you want to blame the general youth of the team, the second-half slide being too much for them or just claim that taking two from a clearly superior UNH team was too tall an order, you can’t blame the Minutemen’s season ending this short on a lack of talent.

This year’s version of the Mass Attack was at least as talented as last year’s which came within a game of the 2007 Frozen Four. That said, the only cause for this earlier-than-expected demise is that the Minutemen just didn’t want it enough. Their heads did not look to be in it when they most needed to be.

New Hampshire made it look easy, forcing turnover after turnover and converting each into a scoring opportunity, if not a goal. Pick a blue line, the Minutemen could not keep possession of the puck at either end.

Once Dainton had retreated to the bench, everything aspect of hockey was a struggle for the rest of the team. Everyone was downtrodden; everyone tried to force plays, making it worse.

“I’m not as angry as I was last night,” Cahoon said after the game. “More disappointed for sure, but not as angry.”

Seeing his team struggle to move the puck out of its own zone after UNH dumped the puck in for a line change had to be disappointing, so must have the countless ill-advised passes across the ice, through three or more UNH players, most of which were intercepted and taken the other way.

As I said, this is not a case of an eighth-seeded team getting blown away by a far better regular season champion. The Minutemen waited and waited and waited to break out of their collective funk, and after a three-game win streak appeared to have cured what ailed them, a five-goal loss to the Wildcats proved that time had run out on this UMass squad.

After seeing so many winnable games go to the wayside, you begin to wonder about this team’s ability to shake things off and move forward. This was clearly a very emotional team, and perhaps the sudden drop off in January and February was too much for them to overcome.

As the team left the ice for the final time this season, Cahoon had his arm around Dainton, probably talking him up. Something about next year, I’m sure, was said.

Still, as tough a day as Dainton had in net, he received very little help from anyone else last night. It’s ironic that the surprisingly steady play in net finally failed this team at the end when, had it not been there all year, UMass likely would have been watching Maine play in Durham this weekend.

When asked about this season as a whole, Cahoon described it simply as “odd.’

I can’t think of another word for it.

Jeremy Rice is the Collegian’s sports editor, he can be reached at [email protected].