BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings
STORRS, CT – Good news continues for the UCONN Men’s hockey program these days.
For the first time in the program’s history, the UCONN men’s hockey team has cracked the Top 20 in the national polls. The Huskies debut in the USCHO.com Top-20 poll at No. 20 and came in tied for No. 15 in the USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine Top-15 ranking. The two polls were released on Monday.
UCONN has won three straight games and come off a complete 60-minute effort in a 4-1 road win at Northeastern on Friday night. Northeastern was then ranked 14th in the nation.
The Huskies are right back in action Tuesday when they head to the Tsongas Center for a 5 PM match-up with the UMASS-Lowell River Hawks. NESN will televise the contest. It can be heard on the UConn Sports Network flagship station, ESPN 97.9 FM, with Bob Joyce describing the action.
HUSKIES VS. HAWKS BY THE NUMBERS
The Huskies and Riverhawks have already met once this season. The teams went head-to-head on December 21 at the Freitas Ice Forum in Storrs. UMASS-Lowell eeked out a 2-1 win on a Zach Kaiser goal with just 2:50 left in the third period.
In the win at Northeastern, four different UCONN lit the red light, and the Huskies held a 42-25 shot advantage. In the all-time series between the two schools, UCONN lost their first ten meetings with Northeastern but have rebounded since. With Friday’s win, UCONN has now won five-of-the-last-seven match-ups.
VOMACKA DOMINATING
Another beneficiary of Friday’s win is UConn junior goaltender Tomas Vomacka. On the strength of Friday’s win, Vomacka won his third Hockey East Defensive Player of the Week. After allowing only a first-period power play goal to get the better of him, Vomacka made 24 straight saves to keep Northeastern off the scoreboard and record his eighth win on the season.
Thus far, Vomacka has been in net for every minute of the Huskies’ play (972:37). It’s the most minutes by any Hockey East goaltender this season. Vomacka has made 458 saves, the most by any goalie in Hockey East, and he ranks third in save percentage at .918 behind Boston College’s Spencer Knight (Darien/Avon Old Farms) and Providence College’s Jaxon Stauber, who is the son of former New Haven Nighthawk and Hartford Wolf Pack goalie, Robb Stauber.
Vomacka’s 2.53 goals-against-average ranks him fifth among Hockey East goalies. Vomacka was named to the 2021 Mike Richter Award Watch List last week. The Mike Richter Award is given annually to the top goalie in Men’s NCAA Division-I hockey since 2014.
EVANS ROCKS
Also, coming out of Friday’s win, junior Jonny Evans continued his red-hot play, picking-up his team and Hockey East-leading 12th goal of the season and his second game-winner. His 12 goals have him tied for second-highest in college hockey, trailing only Cole Caufield of the University of Wisconsin Badgers (Big 10), who has 14; however, Caufield has played two more games than Evans.
Last week it was announced that Evans was named a candidate, along with fifty other Division-I college players, for the 2021 Hobey Baker Award, given annually to college hockey’s top player.
Evans has a pair of Hockey East Player of the Week awards to his credit so far this year. His 21 points (12 goals and nine assists) are tied for tops in the league with Bobby Trivigno of UMASS-Amherst. They’re in a six-way tie nationally for 11th place in scoring. His 12 goals lead the conference, and it has him tied for second nationally with Sampo Ranta University Minnesota Golden Gophers (Big 10).
Freshman Artem Shlaine extended his season-high Huskies point streak to six-straight games (a goal and six assists) after scoring his first collegiate goal on a breakaway in Friday’s win at Northeastern.
Junior Jachym Kondelik collected two more assists in the Northeastern win and now has 16 assists on the year. He leads Hockey East in assists and is tied nationally for third.
SPETZ & OTHERS COMING INTO THEIR OWN
Rookie defenseman John Spetz was the runner-up for Hockey East Rookie of the Month in January. Spetz had seven points in January on two goals and five assists. He also had 24 blocked shots during the month, and his 38 total blocked shots lead Hockey East.
The UConn power play has a goal in six of the last eight games (12 for-33 / 36.4%). They are sixth overall in Hockey East at 19.4%. Junior Carter Turnbull is second in Hockey East with four power play goals and tied for fifth in power play points with seven.
Incoming UCONN Husky commit, Nate Hanley, was traded. He goes from the Youngstown (OH) Phantoms (USHL) to the Green Bay (WI) Gamblers (USHL) who are coached by former Beast of New Haven, Pat Miskech.
Former UCONN Husky captain, Miles Gendron, signs a PTO deal contract with the AHL Colorado Eagles. He is expected to be in their line-up for their regular season opener on the road against the San Diego Gulls on Friday.
Gendron has been skating with the ECHL Utah Grizzlies and has four goals and nine points in 13 games.
