CANTLON: (FEB 7) UCONN BEATS NORTHEASTERN IN OVERTIME  

BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings

HARTFORD, CT – The UCONN Huskies reversed what could have been another looming one-goal loss and instead in dramatic fashion, turned it into a thrilling 3-2 overtime victory over the 13^th ranked, Northeastern Huskies 3-2.

UCONN improves their record to 8-17-2 overall (3-12-2 in Hockey East) while Northeastern’s record slips to 16-9-1 overall (9-6-1 in the conference).

UCONN will play Merrimack on Saturday at 5 pm at the XL Center in an extremely critical Hockey East matchup for both teams.

UCONN moved into a tie for the tenth spot with one less loss, and one less win than Merrimack. UConn is now seven points behind eighth spot holding Maine.

“We’re excited with the win and we have been playing pretty well during this homestand. We just haven’t gotten the results, and tonight we stayed with it,” UCONN head coach Mike Cavanaugh said with a clear sigh of relief.

The OT game-winner came when Northeastern‘s Jordan Harris lost control of the puck as a result of pressure from Sasha Payusov from behind and just outside the crease area. The puck found the right player for UCONN, as Jachym Kondelik wasted little time feathering a perfect pass to Payusov, who corralled a rolling puck and went upstairs with it on 6’4 netminder, Cayden Primeau, ending the game at the 1:05 mark of the extra session.

“We just made eye contact and he got it right to me. It was rolling a bit, I just got it on the net,” Paysusov said. After four other of Paysusov’s previous bids stopped by Primeau, he observed something he was able to use.

“He (is) so good down low. I wasn’t getting one there, so I tried to go upstairs and that worked better,” Payusov said with a very broad smile. For Paysusov, it was his team-leading 14th goal and first game-winner of the season.

Kondelik picked up his team-leading 20th assist and completing a two-point effort for the game.

Northeastern head coach Jim Madigan was red-faced and direct in how he felt regarding his team play over the final period and overtime in what was just a twelve-second press conference, likely a new post-game record.

“Our puck management sucked, any questions?” Madigan said, then stood up and charged out of the room.

The Huskies tied the game late after pulling starter Tomas Vomacka with 1:37 remaining. They got a double screen on Primeau with the 6’7, Kondelik, and 5’8, Brian Rigali. The shorter of the two got the deflection of Ruslan Iskhakov’s right point shot.

“I just showed my stick on the play. He (Iskharov) put it right there and was able to get it,” said a smiling Rigali.

“We have been working all week on this type of play, the six-on-five and it paid off,” Rigali said.

Karl El-Mir’s hard work resulted in a forced turnover in the Northeastern zone. It got the whole play started.

“That’s the only way to beat him,” Cavanaugh said chuckling while offering his analysis of the Hockey East goaltending. “There are a lot of good goalies in this league, Joe Woll (BC), (Tyler) Wall (UMASS-Lowell), (Jake) Oettinger (BU), who’ll we’ll face next week. If you don’t take their eyes away from them it’s going to be awfully hard to beat (any) of them.”

Cavanaugh’s two goalies, Adam Huska, and Tomas Vomacka also rank right up there with the names he mentioned.

Knowing the team’s post-season hopes are slim, Cavanaugh was very happy with the team character they showed in the third period, even while trailing and seeing several good shots go wide that would have tied it earlier in the period.

“I liked how we stuck with it, staying with it no matter what happens. Miles (Gendron, the team captain) challenged the team to score the first goal and we did. When they scored early in the third period, I liked how we stayed with our game plan and it’s a good win. We’re very happy with,” Cavanaugh remarked.

The early part of the third period saw the Huskies come out flying and with their feet moving in the offensive zone. Isharov hit the post at 1:28 on a quick breaking two-on-one. Payusov was denied a bid on the right wing try. Isharov was then denied on a left-wing rush at 4:56.

The first solid scoring chance Northeastern got they buried in the net.

On a strong cycle off the left wing, Grant Josezek, before he circled the UCONN net, reversed the puck back to the left side to Eric Williams, who was wide. Williams easily fired his third goal of the year past an unsuspecting Vomacka at 2:03 to give Northeastern the lead.

“That was some blown coverage when you have guys get two players chasing one, but I like our mindset. We have played good third periods in our last three games, and that wasn’t the case early in the year. We have made it a focal point of our team in the second half that we want to win third periods.”

Tyler Madden, who was quiet for Northeastern in the first period, but was very noticeable in the second. He was stopped twice and was a forechecking menace throughout the second frame. One of those chances came in the last minute of play and he got into two skirmishes as well.

UCONN had a stellar chance on a redirect by El-Mir, but Primeau, the son of the ex-Hartford Whaler and NHL’er, Keith Primeau, did a great job tracking the puck. UCONN’s Tomas Vomacka (31 saves) was equal to Primeau 29 saves) knocking aside a redirect by Zach Solow.

Jeremy Davies of Northeastern was at the left point and chipped the puck down the wall to Solow. He was able to come out of the left wing corner uncontested on Vomacka. He deked and swept the puck past Vomacka scoring his 12th goal of the season at 6:15 of the second period.

The goal tied the game at one.

UCONN was able to start generating some quality offensive pressure late in the period and collected the first goal of the game.

A beautiful three-way passing play started by Roman Kinal at the right point to El-Mir in the lower left wing corner. He sent it to Kondelik in front, who put it past Primeau at 15:21.

The UCONN Huskies really started to apply some offensive zone pressure to get Primeau to move, but UCONN’s Marc Gatcomb and Jordan Timmons were denied.

NOTES:

Offensively, UCONN is ranked last with 30 goals for, but they’re also first in goals against with 67.

Northeastern is in fourth place in the conference. They are tied for the third-best in scoring offense and fourth best in scoring defense. Their PP is seventh while UCONN’s is tenth.  The Northeastern PK is seventh and UCONN is tenth.

El-Mir has six powerplay goals are is second in Hockey East and ninth in the nation.

Kondelik has 22 points, good for third among freshmen and fifth in the nation.

Madden is the son of the former NHL’er, John Madden, who is now the head coach of the Cleveland Monsters (AHL). He also attended Avon Old Farms for one year. Besides Primeau, there is one more son of a former NHL’er on the team. He is the fourth-line center, Eutu Selanne, the son of NHL great Teemu Selanne, but not nearly as much of an offensive threat as his father with no points in 13 games.

Former UCONN goalie, Garrett Bartus, who’s currently with the Greenville Swamp Rabbits (ECHL), has signed to play this summer with the Sydney Ice Dogs (Australia-AIHL).

Last summer, former UCONN Husky, Trevor Gerling, scored the overtime game-winner to help his CBR (Canberra) Brave win the Australian Goodall Cup championship.