Blake Kessel has a shooting percentage that might make his brother envious. Heck, it even puts Shaquille O’Neal’s free throw percentage to shame.
Madison, Wis. native Blake Kessel returns to his hometown as the leading scorer for the New Hampshire Wildcats.
Kessel, the New Hampshire sophomore defenseman who is also the younger brother of Toronto Maple Leafs forward Phil Kessel, is off to a blistering pace on the stat sheet. Through four games, he’s tallied three goals, a team-high seven assists and is tied for the Hockey East lead with 10 points. This is after he compiled six goals and seven assists in 37 games as a freshman.
“I think I’m definitely a little more comfortable this year,” Kessel said. “I feel a bigger responsibility, and I feel I’ve got to step up after losing our seniors last year. Those guys were huge to our team. I kind of took it personally this offseason to make sure I got myself better for the team, and I feel like I’ve got to step up along with the rest of our defensive corps because we are kind of young at that spot. I proved that I can do it in the past, and last year wasn’t a bad year but it wasn’t a year I was looking for. This year, I’m hoping to continue on with the early success that I’ve had.”
Kessel’s three goals this season have come on six shots.
“I’d say I have one good shot,” Kessel said. “The other ones were questionable. Obviously, I need to put the puck on net more often. Hopefully, I’ll get more shots and continue to get more goals, but I’ll take them when they come.”
Kessel has a homecoming this weekend when UNH visits Wisconsin for a pair of games that will be mightily important for the Wildcats, who are 0-2-1 in non-conference games this season. They lost to Rensselaer in the season opener before going 0-1-1 in a home series with Miami. After this weekend, UNH’s last two non-conference contests are against Cornell and Dartmouth, so the Wildcats have little room for error against some tough opponents.
Kessel understands teams can slip out of the NCAA tournament picture by not experiencing success out of conference, and he said the team is aware of what is at stake this weekend.
“Obviously, you’ve got to look at the end of the season when those rankings come out,” Kessel said. “We want to play our best, and we feel like we do need to rebound, one way or another. This is one weekend we have to have, especially with us only having two other games besides these next two out of conference. We’ve got to really show the rest of the country who we are, and hopefully we’ll be jumping up the rankings at the end of the season.”
UNH’s early struggles outside of the league were contrasted last weekend with a pair of convincing Hockey East victories against rival Maine and Northeastern. Kessel had a goal and an assist against the Black Bears in Saturday night’s win at the Whittemore Center, and he knows a victory against Tim Whitehead’s crew is always helpful to jumpstart a run for the Wildcats.
“It sets the tone for the season, especially in Hockey East,” Kessel said. “Against a team like that, they’re always going to battle you hard, and that’s why we’ve got the great rivalry between us. But getting that win sets the stage for Hockey East and shows that we’re here to play. That little momentum will get us excited, our fans excited and get things going in the right direction.”
