AMHERST - The University of Massachusetts hockey team will try to keep both its momentum and New Hampshire's early season struggles going as the two Hockey East rivals meet in a pair of 7 p.m. games at the Mullins Center tonight and Saturday.

New Hampshire has struggled early in the season at 2-5-2 overall (2-1-1 Hockey East), but that could be more of a reflection of who they have played rather than a sing of weakness by the Wildcats. Two of the new Hampshire losses came at Wisconsin.

The Wildcats have a loss and a tie with No. 1 Miami-Ohio and a loss to No. 5 UMass-Lowell, which leads Hockey East with seven points.

Still, UNH is winless in its last four games (0-3-1) and its only wins have come against struggling Hockey East squads Maine and Northeastern.

"I would say they're a whole lot better than their record," UMass coach Don "Toot" Cahoon said. "Anybody can lose two games at Wisconsin and Miami is the No. 1 team in the country."

The 14th-ranked Minutemen (6-1, 3-1 Hockey East) are second in the conference, one point behind the River Hawks.

After sweeping Niagara last weekend, UMass returns to conference play for a series that Cahoon said is a barometer for where his team stands.

"I think it's going to be a measure of where we are right now," he said. "It's going to be a prelude to what the season is going to be like as it goes along.

"It's early season Hockey East play with two games against the same opponent. There's certainly enough on the line to make it really competitive." Cahoon added, "It's good to be where we are record-wise, but the kids realize and I realize that it's going to get tougher as we go. We're going to have ups and downs. We have to play through the downs and take advantage of the things we've got going for us."

Cahoon believes his team is ready to deal with it.

"I see a leadership group that kind of understands how fragile this whole process is that's working hard to keep everybody on an even keel," he said.

"We have a good team and we're playing good teams. We have to keep doing what we're doing to the best of our ability."

The game will feature many of the league's top offensive stars. Minuteman forward James Marcou is tied for the Hockey East scoring lead with 13 points, while his linemate Casey Wellman and New Hampshire senior Bobby Butler are tied for third with 11 each.

Blake Kessel of the Wildcats is the league's top scoring defenseman with 10 points, one ahead of UMass blue-liner Matt Irwin who has nine.

The Minutemen lead Hockey East and are fifth nationally in scoring offense with 3.86 goals per game, and are No. 4 in the nation in power play scoring at 30 percent.

New Hampshire senior goalie Brian Foster has struggled a bit so far this season. Foster, who was drafted by the Florida Panthers, has started all nine games and has a goals against average of 4.19 (worst in Hockey East) and a save percentage of .871 (No. 11 in Hockey East).

STILL OUT - Cahoon listed freshman Rocco Carzo and sophomore T.J. Syner as the only players who would be unavailable for this weekend's series due to injury, which means junior Chase Langeraap could return to the UMass lineup for the first time since the season opener.

DIFFERENT SCHEDULING - In previous years, UMass and the Wildcats played a home-and-home weekend series each year with one team hosting the Friday night game and the other the Saturday night contest. The teams also played a third game each season at a different time, alternating between schools.

But this year and for the near future the teams will play two weekend games in the same arena, this year at the Mullins Center. This season the third game is at New Hampshire on Jan. 9.

That is the same scheduling approach UMass uses with Vermont and Maine. Cahoon said the distance between Amherst and Durham, N.H., made the second game of the weekend tougher than it needed to be for both teams.

"It's just a little too far to go up there on Saturday night after playing them here on Friday," Cahoon said. "It works better doing it like we do with Vermont and Maine."

RADIO BROADCAST - Because of the time conflict with the men's basketball game at Central Florida (WRNX, 100.9 FM), tonight's hockey game will be broadcast on WMUA-FM (91.1).

TICKET PROMOTION - Fans with a ticket for Friday night's hockey game or Saturday's football game against James Madison at noon will be able to purchase a $5 general admission ticket to Saturday's hockey game.

Matt Vautour can be reached at mvautour@gazettenet.com. For more UMass coverage, including a UMass sports blog, go to http://www.gazettenet.com/blog/umass-sports.