BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings
STORRS, CT – For the second time in UCONN’s hockey history, the Huskies knocked off the nation’s second-ranked team, Boston College, 3-1 on Saturday, earning their first win of the season.
In the third period, UCONN did all the small things they needed to win a hockey game and thwart the Eagles’ (5-1-0) ability to mount a counter-attack.
“One of the things we talked about this morning in our team meeting was that we wanted to pick up where we left off last night.
“Put together three periods of hockey like we did last night in the second and third periods. We haven’t done that all year long. I thought we accomplished that and did so right from the get-go. We played good hockey, five of the six periods this weekend.”
With two points on the night, forward Jonny Evans was pleased with the way the team played.
“We played a full 60 tonight. Last night, we played a period-and-a-half, almost two. Tonight, we played the 60. We kept playing pressure, taking away time, and space. We just wanted to eliminate that.”
Shining in their effort and commitment to the team, UCONN captain and defenseman, Adam Karachik (Ridgefield/Avon Old Farms) laid a big hit on the Eagles’ Logan Hutsko’s rush while Hudson Schandor’s effort on the backcheck to stifle a Jack McBain. Evans getting off the ice on a PK rather than try for a loose puck in the middle of the ice heading to the BC zone were great examples of solid teamwork.
Late in the game, UCONN won four-of-the-five final faceoffs taken in BC’s end of the ice rendered it impossible for the Eagles to pull goalie Henry Wilder for the extra attacker, thus securing the win.
“We got smart hockey players and those are team players. Some guys can get caught when they have a break. (Brian) Rigali had a chance, but instead, he went wide and didn’t force a pass that can get picked off and they can go back on odd-man rushes.
“It’s situational hockey. I remember watching the New Jersey Devils win the Cup. They got a 2-0 lead. They didn’t lose it. They locked you down and played very, very well. All championship teams, all good hockey teams, have that in their DNA, when they have a lead they stay with it.”
BC’s only goal came as Trevor Kuntar was on the power play and made a perfect tip on Mike Hardman’s shot from the right point to the stick-side of UCONN’s netminder, Tomas Vomacka. It was his fourth season and came at 7:03 and would be the only puck to get past Vomacka (24 saves).
BC’s goal was their impressive 16th on the powerplay in this very young season
Solid Huskies’ chances were stopped by Wilder (35 saves) and prevented the Huskies from expanding on their lead.
Wilder stopped Carter Turnbull early in the period, Then Vomacka stopped BC’s Ambrosio, who was open in the slot, making a quick reaction glove save, and showing his off-season glovework is paying off.
“Tomas is unreal,“ said Evans. ”He kept us in the first game (last night) with like 15 or 16 saves (21). We know he is good. When you have a good goalie back there… he made some really good ones back there tonight.”
The second period was the Huskies’ best of the young season.
UCONN scored their first goal at 4:15 of the second. Freshmen, Artem Schlaine, showed his offensive upside coming off the left-wing and feathering a pass that went right through the goal crease to a hard-charging Evans, whose shot went off a fully extended Wilder’s left pad and into the net just inside the right post.
“I thought we had a three-on-two or three-on-one kind of play, Artem made a great (play). I thought he was gonna pass to Kale (Howarth) at first, but he saw me flying down (the right-wing). I was screaming for it. I guess he heard me.”
UCONN then picked up two goals in a 52-second span.
Marc Gatcomb tallied his second of the season after snagging a rebound of Jachym Kondelik’s shot from 15 feet out with traffic. He was in front and went upstairs over Wilder and UCONN established a 2-0 lead.
The lead grew to three goals at 8:34 as Nick Capone (East Haven/Salisbury Prep) was in front of the net, and using his great hand/eye skills, he swatted a mid-air rebound of Ronan Kinal’s left point drive that went off the Wilder’s chest and found the back of the net to make it 3-0.
Wilder (39 saves) was not a new face for Capone as he played against him in prep school at Salisbury and Wilder was at Hotchkiss and played together for the Yale Jr. Bulldogs U-16/U-18 teams plus his baseball skills came in handy with the play.
“There was a three-on-two, and we had a lot of rebounds and I saw the puck in the air and I (just) got it,” Capone said of his first Huskies goal.
On a powerplay, after two Turnbull chances were turned away, Evans was just inside the blue line and unloaded a cannon of a shot. The puck sailed over the net and went through the glass and shattered it from the top down, just behind the net. The glass break caused a 15-minute delay at 10:33 of the period.
“I told them, ‘Don’t let this be the story,’” Cavanaugh intoned, “We lost all our momentum when the glass breaks, and to their credit, they didn’t.”
When action resumed, UCONN continued to keep the handcuffs on BC. They did not allow second or third opportunities and kept their momentum.
The Huskies had a chance to score with 40 seconds left after Gatcomb made a small move away from the defenseman at the glass and found Kondelik, whose scoring bid was denied,
UCONN outshot BC 20-11 in the second period and reflected who had the puck more often and consistently.
In the first period, UCONN was able to keep the BC speed machine in check, holding them to eight shots on goal. The scoreless period did produce exciting action at both ends of the ice.
Vomacka was thoroughly engaged and made some marvelous saves when called upon. Mitchell Warren, the game-winning goal-scorer for BC on Friday night, challenged him at 1:42 on top of the crease and Vomacka was up to the task.
“He was sharp tonight,” remarked Cavanaugh. “The one-saves he made was kind of self-inflicted. He put the puck up around the wall, but the recovered really well and quickly made the blocker save.
“He was calm, and when Tomas is playing well, he is smothering pucks, and they’re not a lot of rebounds. I thought he did that exceptionally well tonight,” Cavanaugh commented.
The Huskies got their first quality chance just after Vomacka stopped a McBain re-direct at 11:58, and Evans at 12:28 tested Wilder.
With 3:24 left in the period first, Wilder made back-to-back stops again on Evans, who stayed near the net, got the rebound, and fed Schlaine, who was wide open. The tape-to-tape pass was perfect and Schlaine snapped one upstairs. Wilder flashed the glove hand to deny him his chance for his first collegiate goal.
Then from 25 feet, Nesterenko was rejected by Vomacka from the right-wing circle.
NOTES:
The last nationally-ranked number two team the Huskies beat was UMASS-Amherst in the Cale Makar era in 2018.
The win ended a UCONN six game losing streak against the Eagles. It also snapped a 14-game Eagles winning streak that dates back to last season.
The win rivals UCONN’s first home win at the XL Center a 1-0 shutout in 2014,
Schlaine led the team with six shots on goal. Marc Gatcomb had five as UCONN finished above 40 shots on net for the first time with 42.
The next scheduled UCONN game is on New Year’s Day and then on January 2nd against the University of New Hampshire Wildcats.
Team Russia announced it’s WJC team. Both Huskies players, defenseman, Yan Kuznetsov (Calgary), and Vladislav Firstov (Minnesota) made the squad.
Amazingly, they’re the first two collegiate-based Russian players to make a Russian team. The WJC tourney starts Christmas Day and the Russians’ first game is against the United States at 9:30 PM.
Russia departs Sunday for Edmonton to begin their two-week mandated Canadian quarantine.
In late-breaking news, goalie, Darion Hanson, a grad transfers from Union College (ECACHL) to UCONN (HE) for the second semester. Union canceled its season earlier this month making 21 grad transfers this year. Hanson is the third grad transfer in the Huskies brief Hockey East history
