Wildcats are in a good place

MANCHESTER, N.H. -- The University of New Hampshire is the No. 1 seed in the Northeast Regional of the NCAA Tournament, and the Wildcats will be playing on their home-away-from-home ice at Verizon Wireless Arena, some 45 minutes from their real home ice, the Whittemore Center, in Durham.

What's not to like about that?

"The good thing for us is that we knew we'd be playing in New Hampshire, playing in front of a home crowd," said coach Dick Umile, whose Wildcats (26-10-2) will face off against Miami of Ohio (23-13-4) at 1 p.m. in the first game of today's semifinal doubleheader.

But Umile insisted yesterday his Wildcats face no inherent pressure.

"I don't think we've paid any attention to the fact we're the No. 1 seed," he said. "But it's great that we'll be playing in front of the home crowd. But [No.] 1 playing 4? Anyone can win these games, so we've got to pay attention to the fact we're going to be playing against a pretty good Miami hockey team."

Clarkson, the top seed in the East Regional, learned that lesson the hard way yesterday in a 1-0 overtime loss to fourth-seeded Massachusetts in Rochester, N.Y.

After getting throttled, 5-2, by Boston College, the Northeast Regional's No. 2 seed, in the championship game of the Hockey East tournament last Saturday night at TD Banknorth Garden, the Wildcats will be looking to rebound.

"The effort was there, but not necessarily the execution," said Kevin Regan, UNH's junior goaltender from South Boston, who possesses a 2.06 goals-against average and .936 save percentage. "You never want to go out like that, but now we have a second opportunity this week to show who we really are as a team."

Regan, to a certain extent, will attempt to show why Hockey East goaltending has been as superb as that in any conference this season. "Probably the biggest strength of our league this year was the goaltending," Hockey East commissioner Joe Bertagna said on ESPNU during an intermission in the UMass-Clarkson game at Rochester, N.Y.

In 34 starts this season, Regan has posted a 24-8-2 record, ranking first in the nation in save percentage.

"Obviously, he's been very important to the success of this team," Umile said. "We wouldn't have gotten as far as we did without him. He's the backbone, no question."

A ninth-round pick of the Bruins (277th overall) in 2003, Regan credited much of his success this season to his workload, starting all but four games this season. Regan's last respite came March 3 when freshman Brian Foster drew the start in a 4-2 loss at BC. That came on the heels of a 4-1 loss to the Eagles the night before in Durham, a game Regan started.

"I think when you are sharing time [in net], and only playing one day a week, you try to do too much or save the world," said Regan, who will be opposed today by Jeff Zatkoff (13-7-3, 2.24 GAA, .918 save percentage). "When you play two games, you need to relax a little bit more and you get into more of a routine. Coming into the tournament, I'm not playing 16 games -- this is like my 34th, 35th game. You feel a lot more confident knowing you're going to play a two-game series."

It should give the Wildcats the same sense of confidence against a Miami team that finished third in the Central Collegiate Hockey Association behind Notre Dame and Michigan, and 13th in the final polls, but one Umile compared to Boston University because of its aggressive forecheck. UNH is 0-1-2 against BU this season.

"We're playing a No. 1 seed and they've been great all year," said Miami coach Enrico Blasi, whose penalty-killing unit entered the NCAA Tournament ranked second in the nation, having stifled 89.2 percent of opponents' power plays. "We need to come out and play as a team and take care of what we can control and pay attention to detail. They're a No. 1 seed for a reason. We're going to have to make sure we limit their chances."

Michael Vega can be reached at vega@globe.com.