Welcome to the Whittemore Center, where the universities of New Hampshire and Vermont meet with a trip to next weekend's Hockey East semifinals at stake. The Wildcats won Game 1, 7-4, then the Catamounts answered with a 1-0 win last night -- and whoever loses for a second time may well see their season end tonight.

DURHAM – After the sophomore let six pucks past him on Friday night, University of Vermont Coach Kevin Sneddon pulled no punches in assessing the performance of goaltender Rob Madore, never quite pinning total blame on his netminder – but coming awful close.

“I don’t have much to say about our goaltending tonight,” Sneddon said after Friday's loss. “I feel bad for our team; I thought we put an effort forth that certainly deserved more than seven goals against. That’s going to be the key to tomorrow night. We need to get better goaltending.”

Welcome to the Whittemore Center, where the University of New Hampshire looks to close out Vermont and clinch a trip to Boston in Game 2 of their Hockey East quarterfinal series. The Wildcats scored five times unanswered to win last night, 7-4, though they're expecting they'll need to be better for longer tonight against the desperate Catamounts.

DURHAM – Since the buzzer sounded last Saturday at Boston College, Dick Umile has been insistent. The regular campaign is in the past. It’s the playoffs now. And that means a new season altogether.

Welcome to the Whittemore Center, where the universities of New Hampshire and Vermont open their Hockey East quarterfinal with the first game in a best-of-three series. UNH won the season series by going 2-0-1, and enters as the No. 1 seed -- to Vermont's No. 8 -- but the stats show little separation between these teams, and it's expected to be a tight weekend.

My all time favorite photojournalist, Henri Cartier-Bresson, often used to talk about the use of geometry in his photographs. Lately, I've been playing around with intersecting lines and geometry in frames. Moving a little to the left or right can dramatically change the way a scene looks to the viewer. I quickly recognized the shapes and lines here and camped out at this spot until someone moved into the scene. I'm not really sure if I accomplished what I set out to achieve here in this frame, but it's a start.

If you’re among the many who’ve wondered about the University of New Hampshire this hockey season, tonight’s the night for you. Tonight the playoffs open for the Wildcats. Tonight the games really begin to matter.  Tonight we start to find out whether UNH is a really team that can survive spurts of inconsistency because they’re so darn good when everything is clicking – or if those periodic struggles signify a fatal flaw that’s been covered up by clutchness that can’t possibly last forever.

Sizing up the eight contenders for the Hockey East tournament title, all of which enter this weekend's quarterfinal action with a legitimate shot to win the league's automatic NCAA berth.

No. 1 NEW HAMPSHIRE vs. No. 8 VERMONT Whittemore Center - Durham, NH
WILDCATS	* * *	CATAMOUNTS
16-11-7	OVERALL RECORD	15-12-7
15-6-6	LEAGUE RECORD	9-11-7
T10	PAIRWISE RANKING	T16
9-2-5	HOME/ROAD	5-7-4
4-3-3	LAST 10 GAMES	3-3-4
1-1-3	LAST 5 GAMES	2-1-2
6-4	ONE-GOAL GAMES	6-3
2-0-1	HEAD-TO-HEAD	0-2-1
116 (98 HE)	GOALS SCORED	105 (78 HE)
3rd (2nd)	LEAGUE RANK	5th (7th)
108 (77 HE)	GOALS ALLOWED	99 (82 HE)
T7th (2nd)	LEAGUE RANK	T3rd (4th)
16.9 (17.0 HE)	POWER PLAY	17.7 (16.5 HE)
9th (8th)	LEAGUE RANK	8th (10th)
80.7 (78.1 HE)	PENALTY KILL	80.6 (79.1 HE)
5th (8th)	LEAGUE RANK	6th (6th)
Butler: 25-22-47 Thompson: 16-18-34 Kessel: 8-25-33	LEADING SCORERS	Irwin: 15-19-34 Vock: 11-17-28 Roloff: 8-17-25
7	20-POINT SCORERS	5
Brian Foster 15-11-7, 3.06, .906	GOALTENDER	Rob Madore 11-10-7, 2.70, 9.07
0	SHUTOUTS	2

I shot this picture of Granny D at her 100th birthday party in January. The Governor's Executive Suite was pretty crowded with her fans and various media, and I decided to get creative to show her in the spotlight. I wrote about it on my personal blog, saying I wasn't sure whether the picture really worked. Dennis Burke, who co-wrote her memoir, happened upon the entry and told me that he'd showed the photo to Granny D. "She thinks it is, hands down, her favorite picture of herself," he wrote. What a compliment. She was an inspiration to many of us here in New Hampshire and throughout the US, and she will be missed. Keep shining, Granny D.

I hopped over to White Park in Concord to grab some features before it got too dark one day last week. These kids were playing a friendly game of basketball after school. Top is Kyle Seay (left), 10 and  his brother Dustin Seay, 12. They were playing with high school boys so I felt lucky for them that they had each other to  mark instead of the teenager. Bottom is Nate Groleau (left), 16, and Trevlyn Gosse, also 16. (Concord Monitor photo/Sarah Beth Glicksteen)