CANTLON: UCONN BEATS WILDCATS, 7-4 

BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings

HARTFORD, CT – The suddenly revived UCONN offense aided by a pair of seniors, Alexander Payusov two goals and Wyatt Newpower three assists and a plus-five, swept a critical Hockey East weekend series from UNH by the score of 7-4 before a season-high crowd of 8,211 at the XL Center.

UCONN’s record goes to 11-12-4 overall, but the all-important Hockey East number went above .500 at 8-7-2  and UNH falls to (13-11-2 overall, 7-8-1 HEA).

The Huskies are in sixth place in the conference, but in a four-way tie in points at 18 with UMASS-Lowell in fourth place, Providence is in fifth followed by UCONN and then Maine. Northeastern is in eighth with 17 points.

“I was very pleased with the weekend it was the second is where we won the game from start to finish. It was one of our five best periods of the year and we kept the pressure on them,” said a smiling head coach Mike Cavanaugh.

For UNH’s head coach Mike Souza it was a big disappointment.

“Not much to say. Credit UCONN they wanted it more than we did this weekend. It was an unacceptable defensive performance on our part. Hats off to Mike (Cavanaugh) they competed hard and made more plays than we did, that’s for sure. We beat ourselves in a lot of ways tonight.”

In the third period, the Huskies added some extra icing on the cake as sophomore Jachym Kondelik scored two goals himself as UCONN erupted for 14 goals in two games and 12 different Huskies were on the scoresheet at game’s end.

The play was all started by a blind backhand pass by Wyatt Newpower to Kondelik standing at the right side of the UNH net and his first shot was stopped by Trey Taylor, but he got the puck right back and buried his seventh goal of the year at 7:06 for a 6-2 lead.

Newpower’s backhand pass was a no-no as the head coach wanted the blind backhand passes to stop as it was leading to turnovers that have been hurting the team. In this case, it ended well.

“The coach told our defenseman not to do those types of passes just get to the net. It doesn’t have to be the hardest shot it has to be on the net and a speed we can tip it at or get a (rebound) like on Sasha’s first goal, that’s what we need,” said Knodelik.

The head coach was pleased not only his big players came through, but the team got scoring throughout the lineup.

“We got everybody scoring Sasha had two goals, Jachym had two goals, Ruslan’s line two goals. We got scoring from all four lines, that’s a recipe for success. When all four lines are chipping in its hard for the other team to focus on one line and shut it down.

I told the kids if you keep getting multiple shot shifts, not just one and done. Several multiple shot shifts you will wear teams down and will score.”

UNH got a puck bounce of their own on their third goal as Will Mackinnon right point drive went wide short side, but the eight ball bounced off the backboards and off Vomacka’s skate and into the net at 10:04.

It was Mackinnon’s third goal of the year and West Haven’s Eric Esposito picked up the first of his two assists for the game and made the score 6-3.

Kondelik scored his second goal at 16:37 on a great feed from Kale Howarth from behind the net and UNH closed out the scoring as Joe Sacco Jr. son of Boston Bruins assistant coach Joe Sr. scored his first of the season at 18:06 to make it 7-4.

The Huskies regained the lead early in the second period as Brian Rigali, who had a net-front presence, and pest with four shots on goal started this scoring sequence.

Rigali put the puck up the left-wing boards and defenseman Yan Kuznetsov shooting off his back foot got it on the net. UNH goalie Ty Taylor left a 28 oz. porterhouse rebound that Alexander Payusov easily slapped past him far side for his sixth goal at 4:32.

For Cavanaugh, he shows more from his senior winger from Montreal.

“He showed more emotion, he was vocal and was into the game. He was moving his feet, he’s a fun kid to watch when he is playing like that. You can get paralyzed by statistics sometimes were your not scoring goals, but you’re helping your team in a lot of other different ways.

I was really glad to see him get a few goals because were gonna need Sasha going down the stretch.”

The Huskies got the all-important two-goal cushion on some fine work from UCONN’s fourth line.

Defenseman Blake Wheeler (plus four) kept the puck in the UNH end of the ice after a Zac Robbins attempt was stopped.

Justin Howell deep in the right-wing corner corralled the puck that UNH goalie Taylor missed behind the net.

Robbins circling back like an eagle looking for a squirrel went to the net and made a perfect open blade redirect for just his second goal of the year at 15:06.

“That was a big goal and gave our bench a big lift. They did very well in the second and in the third with good puck management.”

Tomas Vomacka kept the lead for the Huskies with several breathtaking saves on Patrick Grasso hat trick bid, Filip Engaras, and Eric MacAdams.

The best though came on Will Mackinnon as the original shot by Mackinnon came off the backboards past Vomacka and went right back to MacKinnon.

Vomacka incredibly got back to the net, past a prone teammate top of the crease to deny him what seemed was a sure goal.

The Huskies went back on the rush from that save as Vladislav Firstov stopped on a left-wing bid on across ice pass on a late-developing break play with 2:50 to go in the period.

The Huskies got some serious puck luck on its fifth goal and third of the period.

Alexander Payusov from behind the goal line as he got the puck from hard work by Harrison Rees dump in.

Payusov just wheeled and fired the puck that went off the skate of UNH defenseman Ryan Verrier and into the net with 12.7 seconds left, ending a 20 shot barrage from UCONN.

The Huskies went to the intermission with a commanding 5-2 lead plus roaring ovation from the crowd.

“We shot a lot more pucks than we did last week. We didn’t get the bounces last week but we’re happy with the outcome. The crows were great today.”

The Huskies grabbed the 1-0 in the first period as they did Friday in New Hampshire.

Once again their top line Ruslan Iskhakov-Vladislav Firstov and Jonny Evans factored in the goal.

Evans on the right-wing got a good lead pass from t Firstov and Ruslan Iskhakov had inside position on the defenseman and redirected the perfect soft lead pass by Wildcats netminder Ty Taylor at 4:12 for his ninth goal.

They finished a combined plus five with six points and on Friday had 11 points and combined plus 15 with each forward plus five.

“The commitment to playing defense is helping them, they’re playing a 200-foot game. It was an emphasis we made to shoot one-time pucks, off the pass we saw that a couple of times tonight.

My college coach Terry Meagher at Bowdoin always said shoot five-hole when your struggling when looking to pick corners that’s when you miss the net.

That is something we have been doing really, really well this week,”.

UNH’s lethal powerplay quickly tied it at one just 36 seconds later and 16 seconds into the penalty. The penalty call by Jamie Koharski on Adam Karaschik was a very weak interference call.

UNH’s Patrick Grasso received a pass from the left-wing boards from fellow assistant captain Charlie Kelleher at the left side of the net,

Grasso completely unchecked turned and swept his 10th goal of the season by Tomas Vomacka.

UNH took the lead at 2-1 as Max Gildon from the right point with the puck on edge came off the right point with a slapshot that Vomacka stopped.

The rebound was right there and Patrick Grasso found a still bouncing puck swiped at it and put in his second of the period and 11th of the season at 14:01.

The Huskies top line was involved in their second goal that came in the last minute of play in the first.

Wyatt Newpower at the right point let one fly and with a partial screen from Firstov who cleanly tipped the puck with 52.6 seconds left the Huskies had a lead and momentum going into their locker room.

The period saw Vomacka keep the lid on what could have become a wild scoring free-for-all with several stops that he has made look routine as he has all season.

NOTES:

-UCONN has a bye week off and returns to action against the Maine Black Bears with the second game in Orono will be another NESN broadcast at 7:30 pm on the 15th.

-RW Carter Turnbull (lower body) was injured on Friday was out and likely won’t be back till the Maine series in Orono in two weeks.

-UNH lost Charlie Kelleher for the game with a lower-body injury late in the first period.

-Ben Freeman continues his solid faceoff work with 12 of 23 many in the UCONN end of the ice in PK situations.

-UNH had some local ties in Eric Esposito (West Haven/Loomis Chaffe Prep), head coach Mike Souza an ex-Bridgeport Sound Tiger and associate head coach Glenn Stewart, is a former UHL New Haven Knights in his sixth season.

Goaltending Development coach ex-Pack, Ty Conklin in his first season.

-The Wildcats Patrick Grasso’s uncles are former NHL superstars Joe and Brian Mullen and ex-New Haven Nighthawk, Tom Mullen.

Patrick Mullen his cousin is still playing with the Belfast Giants (Northern Ireland-EIHL).

-A recent article in USHCO .com by Jim Connelly intimating that Hockey East as a conference might change its format and become part of all-conference setup with all sports.

A longtime trusted hockey source and confidant, very familiar with Hockey East and hockey in general, collegiate and minor pro, shot the article down like an incoming drone.

“Utterly and completely baseless. I have no idea where that information came from, but there is no truth to it whatsoever.”

It seems farfetched because nearly half of the conference would be disqualified from BU, Maine, UNH, Merrimack, Vermont, and UCONN either are have no conference affiliation or only in certain sports.

College hockey is on the verge of expansion not contraction in the next two years.

The long plan anticipated inclusion of Holy Cross into Hockey East is still not on the horizon our source commented, “I think that issue might be something the next commissioner will handle.”

Joe Bertagna after 23 years is stepping down at the conclusion of the season and a conference committee has been interviewing candidates and has been narrowed down to five candidates.

-The UCONN rink bond package has been written according to our source, however, when it will be formally presented to the bond commission remains unknown at this time as legislative jockeying is still ongoing with the Governor and other legislators.

-Good news for UCONN hockey fans for next season a Nashville organizational source said both Tomas Vomacka and Jachym Kondelik will be back for their junior years as neither will be offered contracts this spring when the college season ends.

-Matej Blumel, from the Czech Republic who was a former UCONN player, but never skated a minute for the Huskies bolting for the Czech Elite League three weeks before the season was to begin.

The NHL draft choice of Edmonton Blumel has just three goals and four points in 26 games has re-signed with HC Litvinov (Czech Republic-CEL) for next season.