CANTLON: UCONN & COLLEGE HOCKEY’S BEST 

BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings

STORRS, CT – It will be a whole different Boston College (BC) team from when these two teams hooked up on December 14th.

It’s still a “David versus Goliath-like” situation for UCONN and their Head Coach, Mike Cavanaugh. He and his Huskies are not only facing off against BC, but in BC, they are also facing off against the number one ranked team in the country for the first time in their short Hockey East tenure.

“That’s not how we’re going in, like David versus Goliath. Though I would like it to turn out how it did for David,” Cavanaugh said with a sarcastic laugh.

“They’re number one?“ He said, feigning faux surprise. “We can’t get caught up in that. We’ve played many times. It’s a game. We have to play very well and not focus on our opponent. Respect our opponent. We know how good they are in goal and how strong they are on defense; with the addition of (Jack) St. Ivany and upfront, they’re as dangerous as any team in the league.

“We play well in all three zones, and that’s going to be our mantra going into tomorrow night, and we’re not playing like that. We deserve to be in this league; we have proved that. We respect that team, and we can win.

“If we have our B-game against them and expect to win, it won’t happen, but if we have our A-game and they have their A-game? I like our chances,” a confident Cavanaugh said.

He called the contest “a major midterm hockey exam of a game,” speaking of the twin 4 pm games starting Friday afternoon at Kelley Rink in Boston and then Saturday afternoon at Freitas Ice Forum in Storrs.

ENTERING THE WEEKEND

Fourth-place UCONN has a .500 record at 5-5-1. They are a percentage point ahead of fifth-place, Providence College.

Sporting an 8-2-1 BC trails only first-place UMASS, however, as of last week, the Eagles have five games in hand over the Minutemen.

The Hockey East Player of the Week was UCONN junior Jonny Evans. Last weekend, against an injury-depleted University of New Hampshire team, Evans and his linemates, Jachym Konedelik and Vladislav Firstov combined for 14 points. They will now face a full-powered BC lineup. The Eagles feature three World Junior Championship Gold medal team winners. They are goaltender Spencer Knight, defenseman Drew Helleson, left-winger, Matt Boldy, and silver medalist from Team Canada, centerman Alex Newhook.

“We came out of our shell last weekend and scored some goals which we needed to do. To beat Boston College, we’re going to have to score goals.

EVANS AND THE POWER PLAY ARE KEY

“He (Evans) has had a terrific year for us so far; he has to keep working hard. The biggest thing and jump he has made is that he has become a 200-foot player. He has always been a good (offensive) player; he played defense, but now he has put both things together at both ends of the ice, and that makes him a top-notch elite player.”

Evans now has a point in nine of eleven games this season and leads the team in scoring (six goals and seven assists) with four multi-point outings and tied for sixth-place in Hockey East with Zach Solow Northeastern.

UCONN’s power play was operating at an anemic 7.1%. That ranks their PP dead last in the conference, but it sprung to life with the return of Firstov and at 17% has moved up to seventh overall.

“To be effective, you can’t be afraid of their (ability) to score shorthanded. We or trying to force plays on our powerplay; we’re taking what they give us, winning puck battles, and if the puck doesn’t go in the net, we have won the puck battles and retrieve the puck and try again. When we come up with the ice, we have to manage the puck well and not turn it over in the neutral zone.

Knight (Darien/Avon Old Farms), their undefeated (7-0-0) goalie, and Florida Panthers draftee leads the Eagles. He also is tops in college hockey with a 1.71 GAA and a .948 save percentage.

Knight presents challenges in his technique and size, but his intangible comes from playing the game. “He is technically sound; has great size, but it’s his mental makeup,” Cavanaugh said. “He is unflappable. He doesn’t get rattled too often in a game. That being said, you go and put shots on him, get traffic in front, take away his eyes, and win those battles in the blue paint area if you want to score goals on him.”

The BC defense was already stacked with Helleson’s return from the World Juniors and Marshall Warren, then added a second-semester transfer from Yale University (ECACHL) in Jack St. Ivany, a fourth-round draft pick of the Philadelphia Flyers, going 112th overall in 2018.

Cavanaugh discussed one of the challenges UCONN will face this weekend against such a powerhouse of a defensive lineup.

“(The BC defense corps) is very good, but we can’t change the way we play offensively. We have to manage the puck well because they can transition from defense as quickly as anybody else in the league. Managing the puck in the offensive zone and neutral zone, we have to reload those forwards, and that’s going to be very important.”

UCONN can boast of plenty of strengths.

Coming into this weekend showdown junior forward, Carter Turnbull broke out of a mini four-game slump with a hat trick and six points last weekend against New Hampshire.

Cavanaugh worked on things with Turnbull that made a significant and immediate impact on the hardworking, very opportunistic scorer.

“We didn’t work on any specific part of his game. At times, Carter waits for the game to come to him. He’s a player who has to seek the puck and use his feet to make plays. That’s when I think he is most dangerous for us,” said Cavanaugh.

The Huskies will gladly welcome back Kale Howarth, sidelined for three weeks with an upper-body injury. UCONN will need to make some lineup decisions about who will lace them up with a completely healthy lineup.

“Kale brings a lot to our lineup five-on-five, winning faceoffs, and his size was happy to have him back. That’s the hardest thing about the sport; we put players in the stands,” Cavanaugh said.

“You have 100 guys on the sidelines. In baseball, they all dress, and basketball, everybody dressed and never played. We put guys in the stands, and it’s always tricky because of the matchup of the team we’re playing; who is playing well at that time? A lot of things go into it. After this, I’m going to sit down with my staff and put together the best lineup we can for tomorrow night against the BC Eagles.”

Finding lineup balance on the ice that leaves some players sitting is a challenge for UCONN heading into the weekend.

“There isn’t a coach in the country that doesn’t want diversity in their lineup. Rarely do you have three physical players on one line. You want that diversity of physical and skilled players. You have good guys at hunting the puck and opportunistic players; you mix and match to make the best lineup you can make most effective for your night-in and night-out.

“It’s a balancing act all season, and I hope we have the right combo tomorrow night.”

The Hockey East conference announced it was tossing out the initial league composite schedule. Going to a scheduling matrix on a week-by-week basis is just another obstacle for Cavanaugh and his staff to contend with in a season overflowing with obstacles and hurdles.

“It’s something we never had to deal with before. We’re all in the same boat. It’s better because, in some ways, instead of speculating, we have a schedule, now we’re supposed to play Merrimack this weekend. Will the series happen? We played UMASS already, so now we wait till Tuesday to see what happens. So when the schedule comes out, we’ll play whoever is on it.

“It’s a part of the way of life (now). If my wife hands me a change on our schedule, I’ve got to handle that curveball, or it is gonna be an unhappy week. We can’t get too worked up about it,” remarked Cavanaugh.

There are seven weeks left in the Conference’s regular season where all eleven teams will make the postseason that has yet to define a post-season format.

The NCAA Regionals and Frozen Four are still on, but the usual regional city has all been scrapped, but for now, Cavanaugh is focused on the weekend ahead of him and his team.

“It will be exciting to play Boston College again. We had a great series when we played them last time. They were down a couple of guys, and we were down a couple of guys. It’ll be fine to tee-it-up against the Eagles this weekend.”

NOTES:

Saturday’s game will be televised locally on CW20 with Randy Brochu doing the play-by-play and a very able color guy, the only voice of the Hartford Wolf Pack, Bob Crawford.

Bob Joyce will handle the play-by-play for the radio broadcast on ESPN radio (97.9 FM) and Adam Giardino.

Coach Cavanaugh could have a chance to play for win number 100 on Saturday. A win for UCONN women’s basketball coach Geno Auriemma on Saturday will be number 1,100.

Former UCONN Husky, Ben Freeman, was released from his contract by the Wheeling (WV) Nailers (ECHL).