UMass coach Toot Cahoon says he has no answer to why the Minutemen's worst period is the first.
The UMass players have the mood of people waiting in line at the Registry during the post-game handshake after the 5-4 loss to Providence Saturday.
Rphoto by J. Anthony Roberts
The Minutemen set fire to a glorious opportunity to move up in the Hockey East standings, and put themselves in a good spot to make the playoffs. The 5-4 loss to Providence at home Saturday sadly offset the tremendous 3-2 win Friday at No.1 BU.
And now they are in big trouble with only six games remaining, and the next two are back to back next weekend at Maine - like going on vacation to Alcatraz.
"I'm as frustrated and puzzled as anyone might be, and if I had the answer, we wouldn't be going through this continuum that we're going through - all types of looks from the team , all types of performances from different individuals - stellar performances one night, and then it doesn't even look like the same player the next night," Cahoon said.
UMass had another bad first period Saturday night, which has been a trend for most of the season - although not the case Friday at BU.
So, what's up with the first period?
"I hate to keep pointing the fingers, but I'm not putting the skates on, and neither is Blaise or Lenny (assistant coaches MacDonald and Quesnelle)," Cahoon said. "We certainly spend a lot of time with these guys, meetings, individual times, plenty of film work, talking about the value of preparation. I'm lost for words, I don't have an explanation for it."