May 25, 2013
NORTH ANDOVER — New Hampshire head coach Dick Umile told reporters on Friday that sophomore Casey DeSmith will start in goal on Saturday afternoon when Merrimack College travels to the Verizon Wireless Arena to take on the fourth-ranked Wildcats.
DeSmith sat out his first game of the season on Friday, a 3-2 loss for the Wildcats. Junior goaltender Jeff Wyer stopped 32 shots in the loss, which was just the second of his career.
DeSmith leads Hockey East in both goals-against average and save percentage. But, he has been pulled in two of his last three starts.
Wyer getting the start sort of confused me. Okay, DeSmith lost last weekend to Providence, and before that was a split against BC. Was Umile just trying to shake the team up? Did he look at MC’s latest results and figure they’d be soft?
If DeSmith just needed a rest, I’m still sort of surprised they didn’t give him the road start and then spell him by letting Wyer start in Manchester.
Seems to have been a goalie shakeup weekend with Wyer getting the start over DeSmith, Mountain getting the start over Rawlings at NU, Lowell going back to Carr because of injury and then pulling him for their third stringer.