DURHAM -- Geographically, Boston's TD Garden isn't that far from Durham.
In terms of playing there in recent years, it's been a world away for the University of New Hampshire men's hockey team, which is back in the semifinals of the Hockey East tournament after a two-year absence.
Second-seeded UNH will face No. 4 Merrimack on Friday night at 8 with No. 1 seed Boston College taking on No. 6 Northeastern in the other semifinal at 5.
The Wildcats moved on by sweeping feisty Vermont over the weekend in a best-of-three quarterfinal series at the Whittemore Center while the Warriors eliminated Maine in two games.
There was no extra satisfaction for UNH in beating the Catamounts after losing to them in the quarters last season.
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"We're just trying to play in the moment right now," said senior captain Mike Sislo, a former Superior Spartan who scored the game-winning goal Saturday night. "We're happy with moving on to Boston. Our mindset is just to focus on that."
The Wildcats also have a chance to win their first playoff title since 2003, their second of back-to-back championships. They lost in the final in 2005 and 2007. Merrimack advanced to the semis for the just the second time in league history.
UNH had won just two of its previous eight games entering the postseason and had to work to get by Vermont, particularly Saturday night when the Catamounts overcame a 3-1 deficit to tie the game late in the third period.
"In a situation like that there's always going to be adversity, especially in the playoffs with two good teams going against each other and fighting for their season," said senior forward Paul Thompson, whose goal at 9:06 of the third period gave UNH a 3-1 lead. "That's just something you have to learn to deal with and I think we dealt with it very good in not letting it bother us and coming back and trying to get one of our own which we did."
Sislo's goal with three minutes left on the next shift kept the Wildcats alive.
"Their backs were against the wall," Sislo said of Vermont. "This was it for them. They were playing hard all night and they forced us to push ourselves too."
Only the seniors have played at TD Garden, but not since they were freshmen.
"It was definitely a little emotional," Thompson said of his final game at the Whittemore Center. "We ended our last game here on a good note We accomplished what we wanted to get done so I think we're as happy as we can be right now and we're glad to get back to Boston for sure."
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"It was definitely sad going around there at the end," Sislo said. "We were happy to win and win the way we did. We thought we played pretty well. To go out like that will be a good memory and hopefully carry us to Boston."
UNH went more than 37 minutes without scoring Saturday night. Until Austin Block and Stevie Moses connected 42 seconds apart late in the second period the Wildcats had visions of last year's playoff series against the Catamounts when goalie Rob Madore posted back-to-back 1-0 shutouts after giving up six goals in the opener.
"Once Block scored it was a little bit of a relief," Thompson said. "We wanted to get that one out of our way to not remind us of last year."
"He's a good goaltender," said UNH coach Dick Umile. "My thought was, boy we better get one by him because he shut us out (twice last year). That's what he's capable of doing."
For the first time in three years the Wildcats have a game to prepare for this week. The last two seasons they went almost two weeks between games. UNH hosts the NCAA Northeast Regional in Manchester on March 26 and 27.
"We knew it was going to be a battle," Umile said. "We're excited to be going back to Boston. We haven't been there for a couple years. I guess you have to go through some adversity for something good to happen."
UNH (20-9-6) went 1-2 against Merrimack (24-8-4) during the regular season. The Wildcats beat the Warriors on Nov. 27 at the Whittemore Center, 2-1, but Merrimack swept a home-and-home series Feb. 11-12 by scores of 4-2 at the Whittemore Center and 3-2 the following night in overtime.
"It's been tough the last two years, taking that week off, sitting around and waiting and wondering," Sislo said. "We want to control our destiny. We want to be playing."
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-- Copyright (c) 2011, Foster's Daily Democrat, Dover, N.H./Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
