By Gerry Cantlon, Howlings
HARTFORD, CT – Avon’s Chase Zieky had three points propelling RPI to a 5-2 non-conference win over the UCONN Huskies before 3,165 fans at the XL Center on Wednesday night.
The UCONN record drops to 7-14-1 and 2-10-1 in HEA). They will play home next Friday against The University of New Hampshire. RPI’s record improves to 7-15-0 overall and 4-7-0 in the ECAC.
“It was a disappointing loss for us. Coming off a game against Merrimack, where we didn’t play well at all structurally, I thought we got better structurally as the game went along. We didn’t give up a lot of odd-man rushes like we did in Merrimack, where there were six or seven. From that standpoint, I thought we were better. The game came down to special teams. The Engineers got two power-play goals, but five-on-five it was a pretty even game. We just have to get better as a team; coach better, and play better, and find a rhythm. I don’t think we found a rhythm yet as a club. With 12 games left, we gotta find a way to do that pretty soon,” Huskies head coach Mike Cavanaugh remarked.
The Huskies started the third period having not won in ten tries this season when trailing after two periods. They almost saw RPI make it a three-goal lead early.
Ottoville Leppanen of RPI, saw his shot hit the pipe at 1:07. The red light came on, but neither referee Scott Hansen or Jay Durfee signaled a goal.
Before a whistle could be blown, UConn called for a review and it narrowed the lead to one goal.
UConn team captain, Miles Gendron was in the lower right wing corner and Karl El-Mir’s hard work allowed him to turn and fire it quickly on a sharp angle. The shot evaded the padding of RPI goalie, Owen Savory, at 2:15. The goal momentarily gave the Huskies a brief hope they could make a comeback.
The goal extended El-mir’s point-scoring streak to a season-high six games.
The Huskies had a chance to tie it as Ruslan Iskharov had his best offensive opportunity of the game with a backhander off the right-wing that was denied, but shortly thereafter, RPI reestablished their two-goal lead.
Zieky, an Avon product who played at Avon Old Farms, and who had 30-plus family and friends rooting for him, nailed his third point of the night with a cross-ice pass from high in the left wing circle. The pass found Will Reilly, who had inside position on Evan Wisocky on the right wing. He beat Tomas Vomacka who was over too far to his short-side at 10:44. The goal made it a 4-2 RPI lead.
The Huskies outshot RPI, 33-28, but they missed the net far too often. Their big guns, Iskharov and Payusov, had just three shots between them.
“I would like more shots from everybody,” Cavanaugh said.
In the second period, UCONN came out and put strong offensive zone pressure on RPI and got three shots on the first 1:30.
The Huskies just couldn’t sustain any long offensive zone cycles or play with a sense of urgency as a team with its back up against the wall. This team needs to get on a winning streak as it embarks in playing ten conference games over the next six weeks.
“I don’t know if we played with enough urgency in the first period,“ as Cavanaugh pondered his words carefully as he answered. “In the second period, we came back after the two powerplay goals and in the third period, we played desperately. But you have to play desperate from the start the way the season is going. If we don’t play desperate now, we won’t make the playoffs,” said Cavanaugh.
This season, Hockey East will have the top eight make it to the post-season and the bottom three, they will go home.
RPI was able to establish a two-goal lead off the power play. Ishkarov took a penalty and is known for his speed, but used it poorly when he chased down a player from behind and earned a tripping call in the UCONN defensive end of the ice.
Zieky then got his second goal of the night sneaking behind two UCONN players and converting a perfect pass from behind the net from Leppanen, the team’s Finnish freshmen, at 12:11.
“(It) felt good putting it in the net, and it was good for us to get some power-play goals. Today was our best full-game we’ve played to date,” remarked the PC transfer playing in his seventh game since he became NCAA eligible. “ I had all my little cousins here tonight. They made signs for me. It was pretty cool,” Zieky said.
The Huskies responded quickly.
Brian Rigali picked up a rebound from his first shot that came on the left wing. He snapped it into the open left side at 13:38. The play was set up by Max Kalter, who had retrieved the puck in the right-wing corner with a backhand pass to Rigali.
Another poorly timed penalty allowed RPI to retake a two-goal lead.
Gendron got caught with the extra swat at center ice and that let the Engineers go on to score in the last minute of regulation.
RPI’s Patrick Polino skated around the net and spotted the right-handed, Todd Burgess, all alone in the left wing circle. Burgess snapped a shot over Vomacka’s glove hand into the upper left-hand corner with 44.2 seconds left and a 3-1 lead, giving RPI the game’s momentum.
The Huskies season-long inconsistency put them in a box forcing them to work their way out of it in order to make the Hockey East playoffs, and their first-period play reflected that.
UConn’s center-ice puck management was not up to par as they made too many neutral zone turnovers. RPI connected off their first prime chance for the lone goal of the period.
“I thought in the first we were holding on to the puck too long. We were not moving the puck quick enough, but I thought it got better as the game went along,” said Cavanaugh.
RPI had a whole different perspective on puck amangement.
“Everybody wants to handle the puck and play offense, but we have success when we defend quickly and we were committed to that tonight,” RPI head coach Dave Smith said. “Across the board, UCONN had a couple of pushes. We managed the puck and controlled the ice very well. When they pushed, we fought back very well.”
Brady Wiffen had a quality chance off a turnover and the Engineers kept the puck in the zone. RPI’s fired another shot on goal from the left side by Jake Johnson. Vomacka made the save, but the rebound went right to Zieky who flicked it over the Huskies’ netminder for his second goal in seven games at 5:40 to give RPI the 1-0 lead.
“We talk before every game about getting the lead and we did tonight,” Zieky said. “Its been great for us. We have done that in the last three road games.”
UCONN didn’t get a quality shot on goal until El-Mir’s shot at 10:46. Again, a neutral zone gaffe allowed RPI defenseman Kyle Hallbauer to strip the biscuit from the much taller Ben Freeman. Hallbauer used the backhand with body position, but Vomacka made the save.
RPI had 13 shots in total for the period and a poorly thought-out blind back pass by Ishkarov and RPI’s Jakub Lacka, who was cut off with effective backchecking, kept the puck in the UCONN end of the ice give RPI a chance at some quality shot taking.
The Huskies only other quality shot gave from Brian Freeman with 2:09 left but RPI’S Owen Savory made the save.
NOTES:
Several Huskies have been offensively challenged for about the past month. Sasha Payusov now has three goals in 14 games. The NY Islanders’ second-round draft pick, Ruslan Ishkatov, has one goal in his last 14 games and just four points.
On the plus side for UConn, senior Karl El-Mir (Montreal, QC) has eight points in his last 11 games while freshmen, Jachym Kondelik, has three points in three games since returning from the World Junior Championship tourney in Vancouver where he played for the Czech Republic. He had his mini-point streak ended.
The Huskies’, Johnny Evans, remains out with an upper-body injury. No date for his return has been set. Meanwhile, Justin Howell’s season is over as he’s having knee surgery.
UConn goalie, Tomas Vomacka, played and saw his first game action in over a month since representing the Czech Republic in the World Junior A tournament in Bonnyville, AB. Vomacka was in the net when Canada West’s entry knocked off the Czechs 3-1. He made 37 stops at the RJ Lalonde Arena.
