BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings
STORRS, CT – The COVID-19 carousel has finally come to UCONN Husky hockey.
Monday night, the team issued a two-sentence press release stating they have paused their activities because an undisclosed player tested positive. The pair of weekend games, originally slated for Thursday and Saturday with Northeastern, were postponed.
No other details were released
The UCONN scheduling on the fly was supposed to continue against the 14th ranked team in the USHCO Poll and number 15th in the USA Today poll.
The Huskies were to be without forward, Kale Howarth, for a second straight weekend. Howarth has an upper-body injury, and freshmen defenseman, John Spetz, was listed as questionable in a morning Zoom call.
The Huskies (3-5-1) were to be welcoming back two important cogs in their hockey machinery as defenseman Yan Kuznetsov, and forward, Vladislav Firstov, return from the World Junior Hockey Tournament in Edmonton. It concluded Tuesday night with the US taking the gold medal with a 2-0 shutout win over Team Canada. Kuznetsov and Firstov and their fellow Russians missed out on a bronze medal when Russia lost to Finland, 4-1.
“I expect them to land in Boston this afternoon (early evening). They will be (COVID) tested in the morning and we’ll see about their ability and availability to play tomorrow, but I expect them to play Saturday.”
The experience was a once-in-a-lifetime chance for both players, but their experiences were different.
In Tuesday night’s bronze medal game, neither of the two Huskies played. Kuznetsov was on the ice for 17:37 in a 5-0 loss to Team Canada and was scoreless in seven games. He had the sixth-best number of minutes in the game against Team Canada.
Firstov didn’t dress the last two games and was pointless in five games. In his last game against Germany, he had just 10:38 of ice time.
“Vlad was used to power play time for us and getting a lot of minutes. And he didn’t see those minutes in the World Juniors. He’s going to be energized and excited to be back with us.
“Yan played a little bit more and when Tage (former Husky Tage Thompson) got back after (the US) won gold (over Canada in Montreal) he was exhausted and it took him a week to re-energize.”
Cavanaugh has a recipe to help his returning players come back from this high-level, high-intensity environment that the pair have been a part of for six weeks since leaving for Moscow on November 25th.
“They need to take two or three days and not be near a rink at all. They need a break. They’re excited to be back, but the body has to speak. It needs rest and they’re going to get it.”
Certainly, it will cause some lineup changes, but with injuries, one at forward and one on defense, they can slide right in.
The freshmen contingent of Artem Schlaine or Hudson Schandor, are among the four first-year Huskies. This is an evolutionary process going from being the big fish at a prep school or junior team to becoming a small fish in the larger pond of Division I college hockey.
“A guy like Hudson has been taking some big minutes playing against other team’s top lines, and he is scratching the surface of how he can play. The same thing with Artem. We just got off the ice with him. It takes time to score at a Division I level (at BC). Cam Atkinson had just nine goals as a freshman. He had 30 eventually and he has scored 30 in the NHL.
“Some guys have two points in nine games and wondering, ‘What am I doing wrong?’
“That’s what our jobs as coaches is, to tell them they’re not doing anything wrong (and) just believe in the struggle and you can get to the finish line.
“The internal drive (to succeed) is there and it’s our job to help them relax and that today’s discomfort will be tomorrow’s success.”
The conversation saw Cavanaugh open up about the struggles of sophomore defenseman, Roman Kinal, and the tremendous hurdles and obstacles he faced in the last two years.
While having a decent freshmen year, he encountered a serious life-threatening, medical situation, and his rib area had formed clots. He had to undergo immediate medical surgery to alleviate the seriousness of the situation that had developed.
“He had developed numbness in his hands; that was the first sign something was up. He had the rib removed and to take out the blood clot.
“He was having academic difficulty, now compounded by a serious medical issue, being on skates was pushed to the background with his recovery regime requiring him to do nothing, not a recipe for anybody, especially a healthy young athlete.
“He had to take a deep long look at himself and he had to get better academically and to watch him do that and become a better person. I’m very proud of him and it has shown in spades this year.
“He won the award this year for being the best academic student, and on the ice, he and Harrison Rees have been our most consistent and solid pairing performers all season long.
“When he scored the goal the other night (the game-winner) the bench went bananas!! All the kids saw what he went through, and I know his Dad is a Northeastern grad, so he’ll be pumped this weekend for these games.
“What he went through with the physical therapy and the rehab, the kids got to see what it takes to get back into Division I college hockey and in the classroom turned himself into a 3.5 student. It’s meant a lot to this team.”
In a season of so much volatility just entering the New Year it’s one of the better hockey stories.
UCONN ICE SHAVINGS:
The Huskies split their season-series with NU last year. They lost at home, 5-2, in the XL Center. They won 3-2 in overtime on the road in Boston. After losing their first ten match-ups with Northeastern, UConn is 4-2-0 in their last six meetings with the Huskies.
UCONN was heading into this weekend’s match-ups off a seven-point week where they posted a 2-0 shutout over No. 15 Providence and split with New Hampshire, getting their first road win of the season, 2-1.
For the second time this season, UConn junior goaltender Tomas Vomacka was named Hockey East Defensive Player of the Week. The junior netminder stopped 98 of the 101 shots he faced last week. He opened the weekend registering his second career shutout, stopping 37 shots in a 2-1 win over No. 15 nationally ranked Providence. He made 30 saves to help the Huskies earn their first road win of the season, 2-1 at New Hampshire. Vomacka finished the week with a 30-save effort in a 2-1 overtime loss at home to the Wildcats.
On the season, Vomacka has played every minute for the Huskies and owns 2.52 goals-against-average and a .923 save percentage. He ranks fourth in Hockey East in save percentage.
Jaxson Stauber, the son of former Hartford Wolf Pack, New Haven Nighthawk, and Hobey Baker winner, Robb Stauber, has a Hockey East best 1.30 GAA
Hockey East was very well represented at the World Juniors and lots of medals are coming back.
In the gold category, there was BC goalie, Spencer Knight (Darien/Avon Farms), forward Matt Boldy, and defenseman Drew Helleson, Brett Berard, who’s a New York Rangers draft pick, from Providence College, his fellow Friar, Tim Moynihan, along with the Friars head coach, Nate Leamans.
Other gold medal winners with CT connections are defenseman, Jake Sanderson, the son of former Hartford Whalers great, Geoff Sanderson, ex-Wolf Pack and Sound Tiger and current Harvard coach, Ted Donato, and his nephew John Farinacci of Harvard, who’s playing currently with the Muskegon Lumberjacks (USHL) after the Crimson canceled their season.
Coming home with a silver medal include an area pair of Northeastern Huskies in Sam Colangelo, and goalie, Devon Levi.
Trevor Zegras (Avon Old Farms) has signed a pro deal will be reporting to Anaheim Ducks with the tournament MVP in tow after a spectacular seven goal and 11 assist performance including a goal and assist in the gold medal clinching game.
