CANTLON: UCONN WINS IN OT OVER UNH 

BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings

STORRS, CT – Carter Turnbull’s scored in overtime to complete a  “hat trick” and allowed the UCONN Huskies to win, 6-5 over the University of New Hampshire Wildcats Friday afternoon at the Freitas Ice Forum.

The two teams will play against Saturday at 5 PM at the Whittemore Center in Durham, NH. With the overtime win, the Huskies earned the extra point, and their record improves to 4-5-1. UNH drops to 3-6-1.

In the three-on-three overtime, the key to success is winning faceoffs, which UCONN’s Jachym Kondelik did against UNH’s Filip Engaras. Kondelik got the puck right to team captain Adam Karachik (Ridgefield), who was just off the left-wing half-wall.

Karachik went from the left point to the right side, skated down the right-wing side, and went behind the net. He then made a quick stop, reversed back, and slipped a backhanded pass to Turnbull, who wasted little time in the lower right faceoff circle; from 10 feet out, he put away his third of the game at 57 seconds.

“Adam has come such a long way from last year when he was just a shutdown guy. He’s spreading his wings and being a little more offensive out there. He did the same thing last year against Yale, where he found a guy, kept his feet moving. It was a great play,” said Turnbull, the recipient of Karachik’s great efforts.

One lesson learned from Head Coach Mike Cavanaugh was how to handle playing three-on-three.

“We had the same thing the last time with them, and we said we have to be aggressive, and we were I thought our guys were. Adam made a terrific play. Carter’s shot, that was a pro-shot.”

The OT loss to UCONN combined with Wednesday’s shutout loss to Boston College left a strained look on UNH Head Coach Mike Souza’s face and came across in his post-game comments.

“It was frustrating,” Souza said. “We lost two guys who played significant minutes for us, one off the first shift of the game. Our guys battled and competed. They battled out there and got us back, got us tied, but we couldn’t see it through. It’s frustrating.”

For stretches of the third period, UCONN kept UNH in check. A late third-period cycle kept UCONN pinned in their own zone for an extended shift. UNH’s Eric Esposito kept the puck in and had a quality scoring chance stopped.

UNH got rotation at the top of the blue line as Ryan Verrier snatched John Spetz’s flip clearing pass out of the air, quickly put it on the ice, and let a shot go that UCONN netminder, Tomas Vomacka, stopped.

With 2:04 left and having pulled their goalie, Mike Robinson, UNH  had an extra attacker. Engaras, an Edmonton Oiler sixth-round draft pick, denied two previous chances in the third and capitalized on the third chance.

With an inside position on Spetz, Engras went down to one knee in a shooter’s position and wristed the rebound into the net with 35.8 seconds to give the Wildcats life. For a second time in two weeks, they tied a game late against the Huskies.

“It’s been a point of emphasis for us to get pucks in deep and have possession. We had a lot of determination from that line and the team in that situation. That’s why this was a stinger. We played well enough to come out with a win,” remarked Souza.

UCONN had a two-goal lead in the third and couldn’t hold it and had a chance with 57.1 seconds left to seal the win with an empty-netter.

Brian Rigali came in off the left wing on his backhand. UNH defenseman Kalle Eriksson, last week’s Hockey East Defensive Player of Week, was in full pursuit.

With a perfectly timed dive, he hit Rigali’s stick and the puck simultaneously as he was about to shoot, forcing the shot wide of the empty cage.

“Eriksson made a great play. He kept the game alive for us,” said Souza.

At 3:05, UCONN gained a two-goal edge early in the third. Jonny Evans found a rebound of Roman Kinal’s net drive that Robinson could not control and chipped in his fourth goal of the season.

‘This is something we have to learn when we’re in this position; to put teams away, but on the flip, I liked our resiliency,” Cavanaugh said.

In the second period, UCONN picked up right where they left off against using the powerplay to restore a lead.

On the play, Spetz was on the left-wing side and fed a cross-ice pass to Vladislav Firstov. The Russian wasted little time depositing his second of the night into the back of the net at 2:57.

Robinson made a spectacular save shortly after the UCONN goal, keeping the Huskies from streaking away. The game was a product of the COVID world. With so much time between games, the teams relied on a European-like, fast pace on the smaller ice surface at Freitas.

Despite attempts by Spetz, Kondelik, and Artem Schlaine being denied, Cavanaugh felt good.

“It wasn’t like being at the OK Corral. I thought we settled down and got into a groove. You don’t see too many 6-5 games in college hockey anymore. I was glad we got one more than they did.”

Late in the period, UCONN had an impressive stretch of offensive zone time, keeping the puck in UNH’s zone for about a minute and a half. Turnbull’s original bid for a hat trick came when he was wide open on the left-wing. Robinson, who was having issues with puck control, didn’t on this one as he dove across, making the stop, and denying the UCONN bench what looked like a certain goal.

Vomacka did his part in making some critical saves to keep UNH at bay.

He used a blocker save on Grasso, denied an Eriksson blast, Verrier from the left point. He also made two bang-bang saves, the second with his glove hand on Lucas Hermann to maintain a one-goal lead.

UCONN put their bodies on the line blocking shots. They blocked three shots on one PK, the last dinging Rigali, who hung in there and finished his shift.

UCONN wanted offense; they got it first. They also gave up some as the two teams combined for six goals in the first 20 minutes of action.

UNH’s Lucas Hermann opened up the scoring on a two-on-one.  Karachik went for the big hit on Esposito, a West Haven native, and UNH’s, Carson Richels, picked up the loose puck, fed Hermann, who was going down the right-wing, and rifled one past Vomacka at 4:51.

“I was for Hermann. The kid comes off COVID and made some big plays for us,” Souza said.

The Huskies answered back as the moribund powerplay came to life with the return of Firstov.

After entering the zone, Firstov got the puck to Turnbull, who fed Spetz with a short pass. They got rotation at the point, and Spetz put it back to Turnbull.

A right-handed shot at the left point, Turnbull’s first shot was blocked. He didn’t wait for the puck to come to him. He went and got it and snapped his third of the season past Robinson at 7:10 to even the game at one.

UNH used the powerplay to go up 2-1 as Luke Reed, a right defenseman at the left point, shot with Kohei Sato in front, setting a screen allowing the shot to slip by Vomacka at 9:59.

UCONN evened the game at two when Firstov went top shelf over Robinson’s right shoulder under the crossbar with a blazing wrister.

“He was very excited. He had four points on the night and certainly made a difference. When he was at the World Juniors, he didn’t see the type of minutes he sees here. He had a lot of jump, and he certainly helped the power-play. It was the best it looked all year long,” said Cavanaugh.

UCONN scored again at 18:28 as Turnbull scored his second of the night. He carried the puck in deep on the right-wing side. At the goal line, and from a nearly impossible angle, he tallied his second of the game.

“Honestly, I didn’t see a whole lot,“ Turnbull said with a laugh. ”I saw a little opening at the post. I took a shot. I was looking for a rebound, honestly. I was just lucky enough to find the back of the net.”

UNH used he powerplay to even the game at three before the period ended. Jackson Pierson, who burned them twice on their last encounter, did so again.

In the right-wing circle, Pierson took a cross pass from Patrick Grasso and one-timed his shot and the goal at 19:07.

“It was a track meet there for a while. You don’t want to get in those,” said Souza.

LINES:

Firstov-Kondelik-Evans
Gatcomb-Schlaine-Turnbull
Tverberg-Schandor-Capone
Robbins-Bowes-Rigali
Kuznetsov-Karachik

Berger-Spetz
Kinal-Rees
Wheeler

Vomacka

GAME NOTES:

UNH lost forward Angus Crookshank to an upper-body injury on his first shift of the game.

It was UNH’s sixth OT game thus far this season.

UCONN leads the series 18-9-1 and 8-2-1 in the last 11.