BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings
HARTFORD, CT – The UCONN Huskies (4-6-3 overall) showed their best attributes and their worst in a 60-minute, wild, action-packed 6-4 non-conference win over the Miami (OH) RedHawks (4-7-3) before a holiday crowd of 3,006 at the XL Center on Friday afternoon.
The win was the Huskies first at home this season.
The two teams meet again Saturday afternoon at 4 PM.
“I was certainly pleased with how we responded after the first period,” UCONN head coach Mike Cavanaugh said. “We started out OK, but Miami took it to us the rest of the first period. In the second and third period we skated pretty well.”
UCONN came out in the third frame and scored three unanswered goals. The pivotal first one, that knotted the game at four, came early in the period just as the Huskies had done in the second.
Marc Gatcomb circled behind the net and chipped the puck in front. Both Jachym Kondelik and Alexander Payusov had whacks at it, but the puck squirted out in front allowing Gatcomb, who was right there, to gather and put in the goal at 1:21.
“That was point of emphasis this week. Playing in front of the net, or net-front, whatever you want to call it because Providence (College) owned that on us all last weekend, and it paid off for Marc tonight,” Cavanaugh said speaking of the efforts of the sophomore.
The Huskies had a great chance to break the deadlock, but Ruslan Iskharov was denied by Miami goalie, Ryan Larkin, nine minutes in.
The Huskies then erupted for two more goals in just 28 seconds, getting the crowd on its feet and taking the win out from beneath the RedHawks.
Iskharov came in a rush down the right-wing side and curled and hit the trailer, Alexander Firtsov. He made a patient move, almost too patient, but got Miami defenseman, Rourke Russell, to commit. As he did that, Larkin was semi-screened as Firtsov ripped his fourth goal of the season into the net.
It capped Firtsov’s first three-point game as a Husky (goal and two assists) and his first game-winner.
“Vlad played very well tonight and all four lines gave us great efforts and it’s good when you can get four lines rolling like that. It gave us that much more energy and becomes infectious,” said Cavanaugh.
UCONNfollowed by executing a perfect three-way play that established a two-goal lead at 6-4 that would hold up as the final score.
Zac Robbins made a perfect pass to Brain Rigali. He slipped a beautiful backhanded pass. The righthanded Rigali was on the left-wing side. He sent it to Justin Howell who finished the sequence perfectly for his first of the season at 12:14.
“We have been working on that play the last couple of weeks after practice and it worked,” Rigali said with a laugh. Howell then finished the thought, just like he did the shot, “We weren’t linemates then yet. Now coach shuffled the lines around a bit, so it was a pretty neat play and I was just fortunate enough to be right there and finish it off.”
With UCONN’s play not going as the coach would have liked it to in the first period, there could have been some choice words for the team between the first and second periods, however, Kavanaugh was more professorial than say an Army drill sergeant might have approached it.
“The mistakes we’re making weren’t effort mistakes, but more self-inflicted. We were making poor decisions,” remarked Cavanaugh. “We turned the puck over, rather than making the right play. Basically, I said to them the effort is there making the right decisions. In the neutral zone turning some pucks over, if we play better puck hockey, putting pucks behind the defenseman, we’re going to be OK.”
The Huskies came out of the chute in the second period buzzing around the Miami net. Rigali was first and stopped, then a tremendous save on Zac Robbins off a shot from the puck came right to Ben Freeman who buried the shot at 19 seconds, narrowing the lead to 3-2.
The fans, who were quiet with the PA announcement at the start of the second, “Here are your UCONN Huskies,” finally had something to cheer for.
“Robbins, Rigali, and Freeman gave us a great effort for sixty minutes. It got our bench alive. It was a great way to start the second period,” said Cavanaugh.
For Rigali, it was getting back-to-basics.
“We just said, ‘Stick to our motto… Keep it simple…” I just stayed with our systems the right way and played hard (on that shift) and put the puck in the back of the net. We wanted to set the tone and we took off right from there.”
Rigali’s three-assist night was critical in the win, but game-in and game-out consistency were noted by Cavanaugh.
“He’ll score on one of those breakaways one of these days. I tell the guys this every day, ‘Be the same player every day. You can be great on Friday and not so good on Saturday. It’s a wash. Brian Rigali is the same guy every game, and that what you get from Brian, and the block he made on the penalty kill, that was as good as block your gonna see in a hockey game.”
The Huskies evened the game as Rigali sprung Firstov on the right-wing. Firstov made a good move off the right-wing, cut to the middle on RedHawks defender, Derek Daschkle, and snapped a wrist shot across the grain on Larkin over his glove hand at 15:09 and tied the game at three.
“We talk about it all the time; skill doesn’t mean anything if the will isn’t there. It has to be will over skill. When the will is there then their skill is gonna shine. If we’re gonna rely on skill, we’re gonna be in trouble, and we were trying that a bit there in the first period.”
UCONN gave away the momentum it had built handing it right back to Miami (OH).
They were able to get a three-on-two break as Monte Graham hit Scott Corbett off the right-wing and he hit the trailer Derek Daschkle perfectly with all sorts of free real estate down the middle. He blasted it past Tomas Vomacka for his fourth goal. Iskharov vainly tried to backcheck but was two paces behind.
UCONN scored early on a five-on-three with Iskhakov parked at the right side of the net and tallied his third goal of the season at 2:51 converting Firtsov’s pass.
The rest of the period was all RedHawks.
Penalties were UCONN’s undoing on the first two Miami (OH) goals. Perhaps the effects of an over-indulgence of turkey and the tryptophan it from Thursday’s Thanksgiving dinner had the Huskies looking sluggish.
The first goal came on the backend of a five-on-three powerplay at 10:43. Karch Bachman perfectly redirected a Russell right point shot for his sixth of the season.
UCONN’s penalty penchant created Miami’s second goal. The combo of Casey Gilling and Gordie Green was top on the menu.
The RedHawks swarmed around the net as Chase Pietzker’s shot from the right point was redirected by Grilling but stopped by Vomacka, but he couldn’t contain the rebound at 16:08.
Green was at the left point and slipped a pass at the blue line to Grilling. From the right point, he skated in uncontested to about twenty feet at the top of the right-wing faceoff circle and wired his shot over the left shoulder of a thoroughly screened Vomacka by his own defenseman at 17:26 and a 3-1 Miami of Ohio lead.
NOTES:
UCONN’S trio of Firtsov, Kondelik, and Gatcomb combined for 19 shots on goal to help UCONN to a season-high 48.
Kale Howarth is out of the lineup with a non-sports related spleen injury according to Cavanaugh. “His spleen is enlarged. The good news is that all of his lab results have come back clean at this point. He is skating however in a non-contact jersey until it resolves itself he can’t be in the lineup right now.”
Miami (OH)’s Larkin is the younger brother of former Yale player, Adam Larkin (now with Greenville-ECHL) and is the cousin to NHL’er, Dylan Larkin (Detroit).
Defenseman Bray Crowder is the son of former NHL’er, Troy Crowder. Ryan Savage is the son of ex-NHL’er, Brian Savage, while Chaz Switzer is the son of former Muskegon Lumberjacks, of the old IHL rearguard, Erle Switzer.
