Friday night's Hockey East quarterfinal action between the top-seeded UNH and eighth-seeded Vermont saw plenty of scoring, but the regular-season conference champion Wildcats outlasted the Catamounts 7-4 at the Whittemore Center.
UNH was able to open the scoring six minutes in, when league-leading sniper Bobby Butler picked up his 26th goal of the season on the power play. Matt Campanale and Blake Kessel notched the assists.
UVM scoring quickly began to heat up, though, as it responded with two goals in four minutes. Drew MacKenzie and Jay Anctil lit the lamp at 13:09 and at 17:53, respectively, while Jonathan Higgins and Tobias Nilsson-Roos picked up the assists. The underdog Catamounts outshot the Wildcats 8-5 through twenty minutes.
Both teams burst through the gates to start the second, as each scored a goal within the first four minutes of play. UNH's Nick Krates would even the score just 1:27 in, while Peter LeBlanc notched the helper.
Josh Burrows would respond just minutes later for the Catamounts at 4:03, on a feed from Brian Roloff. Both teams would strike again before the end of the frame, as Jonathan Higgins put the Catamounts up 4-2 at 8:40. UNH's Mike Sislo closed the gap for the Wildcats at 18:00 to end the period.
But UNH took over in the third, opening the scoring floodgates and never look back. The Wildcats scored four unanswered goals, starting with Kessel's just 38 seconds in. The Wildcats' top line continued its unstoppable play, as both Sislo and Butler struck again for the team's fifth and sixth goals at 3:25 and 4:08. Paul Thompson would put the nail in the coffin with an empty-netter at 18:58.
Though UNH was able to come out on top, UVM outshot the Wildcats 35-26 overall. The Catamounts will look to even the series when action gets underway on Saturday night at 7 p.m.
