BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings
STORRS, CT – The apex of UCONN’s Hockey East regular season rests with their fourth meeting this season with a national champion in the program’s Division I hockey history. UCONN begins a home-and-home series with the UMASS Minutemen starting tomorrow night at the XL Center in downtown Hartford at 7:00 PM.
“Over the last few years, they have been the class of the league (and the country), and he (Greg Carvel) has done a fantastic job since he got there, and winning the national championship.
“This year, he’s right there again. This is a solid team from their first line, defensive corps, and the goaltending of Matty Murray. From top-to-bottom, it’ll be quite a test for our club,” said UCONN Head Coach Mike Cavanaugh.”
The second half of this battle in Amherst, MA, is Saturday at 7:30 PM in the Mullins Center.
EVANS SPEAKS
“We’re pretty even-keeled right now. We realize every game is big, and first place is on the line,” remarked rejuvenated UCONN senior Jonny Evans.
The Huskies enter the game riding a six-game winning streak. They are 12-6 and in second place in Hockey East and have a 16-11 record overall. UMASS is tops in the conference at 11-5-2 and holds a 16-9-2 overall record.
UMASS is ranked #10 nationally. However, for the second time in school history, UCONN comes in ranked at #20.
“This is what we have strived for,” Cavanaugh said of this meeting between the number one and number two teams in the conference. “Since I came to UCONN, this has been my expectation. The vision was to play in these type of games late in February. Our team is excited. I’m sure UMASS is exited, and I’m excited for a big game tomorrow night at the XL Center.”
SCOTT MORROW
The play of Darien native and the nephew of former Hartford Whaler, his namesake, Scott Morrow, bears watching for UCONN.
“His puck skills are outstanding and are as good as anybody in the league. That first power play unit moved the puck so well. They get the puck to the net quickly. They have great deception in their game. They make it look like they’re going to pass one way and then go another. We’re going to have to be very cognizant when he is out on the ice.”
EVANS
One of the reasons for the revived offensive output has been switching Evans from right-wing to center and pairing him with his former Junior-A teammate at Powell River (BCHL), Carter Turnbull. Over this stretch, they have combined for six goals in each of the last three games.
Evans has been enormous, and his line has revived UCONN’s offense and made it highly effective. “We’ve had such balanced scoring having 18 goals in our last three games. Nobody has gotten more than two in a game. So that says a lot about the balance of our lineup,” Cavanaugh said.
“Switching from center (early in the second semester) from the wing is the biggest change I’ve made; a little different position,” Evans said with a wry smile and soft laugh. “He (Cavanaugh) talked to me and said, ‘Hey, we’re gonna put you at center.’ I Iove to be back there and help the team anyway that I can. I played four years of junior (at center), so it felt comfortable to go back there.”
NO MAGIC POTION
Cavanaugh admits this wasn’t a magic elixir he concocted in his hockey lab in his basement.
“I certainly like the results. I’d like to say a lot of thought and conversation went into it, but I was just trying to get him going. Give him a different look, and get his mind off why he wasn’t scoring.”
While admitting he has work to do on his faceoffs, he’s also having some fun with it. He and his much-taller team captain, centerman Jachym Kondelik (eight goals in his last 13 games), have a friendly post-practice competitive ritual going.
“After practice, we do some drills one-on-one with the other centerman, and then me, and Jachym do a little game thing head-to-head with each other. It’s kinda fun.” Evans said with a smile.
“Its fun to get under a big guy like that. I try to get lower than him, honestly. ‘Try to get lower,’ Jachym says, and he is a pretty good centerman so I try to get tips from him. We’ve been doing it the last couple of weeks. We start out with five warm-ups and then do a best-of-five and see who wins and who gets bragging rights. He won last week. So I gotta get him this week.”
MARC GATCOMB
Along with Marc Gatcomb (the Gunn School), the whole line has been a big plus for the Huskies.
Despite the switch, he does his best to stay within the structure Coach Cavanaugh has been preaching since September.
“We all can skate pretty well. We’re a pretty fast line. Marc has a heavy game and Carter and I played together back at Powell River. We have a little chemistry and now we’ve played a bit together (here) and we’re clicking together.”
” We haven’t played much together in college, so let’s play like we did in Powell River; do our thing and go out there and enjoy it. It’s our last year here, and that’s all we’ve been doing out there is having fun.”
The game at the XL will be on a regulation surface, while the game at the Mullins Center will be on the larger international surface, but Evans doesn’t feel the difference will faze him. He welcomes it.
“We’re a fast team, so honestly a bigger surface is better for us. We can adapt to any ice surface we’re on.”
The explosion of offense has been fueled by solid net-front play.
“We’re in front of the house (net) more; getting the greasy goals, which is good. We’re not afraid to take it to the net.”
The team has also gotten help from unexpected sources, such as Jarrod Gourley, who had two goals against BC for his first muti-goal game in two years (ASU- Brown Jan. 11, 2020, scoring the game-winner).
