CANTLON: (1/31) UCONN LOSES CT ICE TITLE TO QU 

BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings

BRIDGEPORT, CT – A timely third-period goal by Desi Burgart and Yaniv (Yanni) Perets (Dollard-des-Ormeaux, QC) 27 saves earned him his ninth shutout of the year and an NCAA record 12th of the season allowed the #2 Quinnipiac University Bobcats to take home the second annual CTI (Connecticut Ice) title in a 2-0 win over UCONN early Sunday evening in the Park City.

Perets was voted the tournament MVP by title sponsor SNY and presented a trophy by Curt Gowdy, Jr.

“We’ve done very well in front of our goalies all year long. This group was very good all weekend,” remarked the tournament’s winning coach, Rand Pecknold.

The lone goal came off the stick of Burgart, the trailer on a QU solid entry.

A GOAL

Ty Smilanic, a Florida Panther draft pick, was on a three-on-two rush on the right-wing and sent a shot on Darion Hanson. The UCONN netminder flagged it down, but the rebound went right to Burgat, who was trailing the play.

Burgat put a backhander on the net at 7:11 for his fifth goal of the season. The Bobcats clinched it with an empty-net tally as Ethan De Jong had the honors.

The Huskies were pressing in the QU end of the ice seeking the tying goal, when grad transfer from last year’s UMASS national champion team and the one responsible for the championship-winning goal  Oliver Chau, bumped off Harrison Rees on the right-wing boards sent De Jong on his way to seal the win with 39 seconds left in the contest.

Both teams had a tight, scoreless defensive battle for two periods, and each goalie was superb in keeping it that way.

Jonny Evans had a game-high ten shots for the Huskies, including a sequence of three in the second period. The last one was with Evans alone in the left-wing circle and seemed like a surefire goal, but Perets got his blocker on it.

At the other end, Darion Hanson (29 saves) was stopping Skyler Brind’Amour, son of the Carolina Hurricanes head coach. Wyatt Bongiovanni had seven shots, including one in the second in front of the net. He got crushed by Marc Gatcomb midway through the second period and narrowly missed a major penalty.

NOTES

Yale’s Nik Allain (North Branford/Taft) is the son of Yale head coach Keith Allain. He was serving his suspension in the game because of a high crosscheck hit to the head area of Sacred Heart’s Troy Conzo, a grad transfer from Colorado College (NCHC) in Friday’s game. He earned a major and game misconduct late in the third period along the left-wing boards in the Yale offensive zone.

He was a UCONN recruit before he de-committed and is at Yale.

UCONN is now (12-11-1-0 overall, 8-6-0 HEA), while absorbing their third shutout of the season, plays Providence College  Friday night at the XL Center, and then travels to New Hampshire next Saturday night for a date with the Wildcats.

Both games are to air on NESN Plus.

RECORDS

Quinnipiac improved to (21-2-3overall, 10-1-1 ECACHL) and likely solidified their #2 national ranking plays at home in Hamden against Union and its new interim head coach, John Ronan, and RPI ECACHL meetings.

QU has a CT player in Daniel Winslow Fairfield.

The Bobcats also have another son of ex-NHL’er in Marcus Chorney, whose father Taylor played in Pittsburgh Penguins.

The Bobcats’ second goalie, Dylan St. Cyr, is a grad transfer from Notre Dame (Big 10) who played against Sacred Heart in the first game Friday, is the son of former New Haven Senator Gerry St. Cyr. His mother is Manon Rhéaume, the first woman to play in an NHL exhibition game in the early ’90s in goal for Tampa Bay. His uncle Pascal is an assistant coach with Trois-Rivieres (ECHL), a former Ranger, and AHL Hartford Wolf Pack. His cousin Nick will be at UMASS-Lowell (HE) next fall.

UCONN HUSKIES

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