BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings
STORRS, CT – UCONN’s senior-laden squad has one last game at the XL Center, but hopefully not the last of their season. They seek both victories to end an 0-9 post-season record.
UCONN Head Coach Mike Cavanaugh holds Boston University in high regard both as an opponent and as a program. “They’re a formidable opponent and have played some of the most consistent hockey in the country since Christmas. I assume they’ll have (Alex) Vlasic back and he’ll add another dimension to their defense. They don’t have too many weaknesses.”
UCONN expects to have Nick Capone (East Haven/Salisbury School) back. As of yesterday, Chase Bradley remained questionable pending the team’s last practice Friday and a medical evaluation.
“Freshman year to now, we all know that we’ve accomplished so much. But we all know that we’re not done. We don’t want to be done. I would love to be the first to get to The (Boston) Garden and raise that trophy as the first UConn team ever,” UConn senior centerman, Carter Turnbull, said.
The Huskies enter as the Number Four seed earning the much-sought-after home game to start the Hockey East playoffs. They will play against the Number Five seeded Boston University Terriers (19-12-3, 13-8-3 Hockey East) in the quarterfinals at the XL Center on a cold, wet miserable Saturday at 4:30 PM.
“I told the kids this week they don’t call it the ‘Worried-offs;’ they don’t call it, ‘The Afraid-Off;’ they call them ‘The Play-offs.” The team that plays will have the best chance to win,” Cavanaugh said of his remarks about addressing his troops during the week of preparation.
Next weekend, the winner advances to the conference semifinals in Boston at TD Bank Boston Garden.
UCONN (18-15) went 14-10 with 41 points in Hockey East play in the regular season. That’s the team’s best record the program has achieved in the eight years since joining the Hockey East Conference.
“This class has just continued to build off what we started in Hockey East (when we started). They’ve gotten better and better. They’ve had more wins than any senior class at Connecticut in Hockey East. They were the first class to be ranked in two separate years. So, in a lot of ways, no matter what happens tomorrow, they are by far the most successful class we’ve had here at UCONN. I can’t thank them enough, and I want them to really enjoy the experience and have no regrets tomorrow,” Cavanagh noted in the team’s weekly press briefing.
Before this group of seniors arrived, the Huskies made the Hockey East quarterfinals in 2018. However, they were eliminated by Boston University (who had a yet drafted Brady Thachuk in their lineup).
Since that playoff series, they have played in just one playoff game, a 6-1 loss to Providence College over a year ago at the Freitas Ice Forum.
The senior Huskies class missed the conference playoffs their freshman year, and as sophomores, they saw their season shut down due to COVID-19 in March 2020 with bus to Maine warming up in the parking lot.
“We lost last season, but we’ve kind of got to roll with it, learn from it. There’s a little something in the back of the head that you just want to get that first win. I think that will fuel us this Saturday,” Turnbull ruefully intoned about their short spring fling g with post-season.
Turnbull, a senior forward from Nanaimo, British Columbia, has been one of the strongest Huskies in the last six weeks of the regular season.
He finished with 11 goals and four assists. Although several weeks ago, Turnbull was switched from wing to center on a line with seniors Marc Gatcomb and Jonny Evans, his teammate for eight years from their Powell River Kings (BCHL) to their time at UCONN paid dividends for this squad.
He was highly complimentary of them.
“They’re awesome to play with, I can rely and have trust in both of them. All week long we work on stuff, we build chemistry.” Turnbull effusively remarked.
UCONN won five of six games to crack the national rankings for the second time in two years. Then, they came back to earth in the crowded, contested Hockey East field and lost three in a row before last weekend’s finale split with Vermont.
The Huskies have faced Boston University three times this season: losing 2-1 at home and on October 8th, then winning 5-1 in Boston on October 9th on the back-end of the home-and-home.
Then losing 2-1 in OT in Hartford on January 14th as BU as UCONN had to contend with some serious strong goaltending from Drew Commesso.no slouch representing the US in the aborted WJC tournament and Olympics.
He was in the net for all three games against UCONN.
Darion Hanson, a Hockey East All-Star honorable mention, has started 32 of 33 games in goal for the Huskies this year following the Cavanaugh recipe he had with Adam Huska and Tomas Vomacka.
The grad transfer had post-season experience at Union College (ECACHL).
The Huskies also have sophomore red-hot Ryan Tverberg (13 goals, 18 assists), who, as no surprise, is a 2021-22 Hockey East first-team All-Star and second-team selection 6’6 center Jachym Kondelik (11 goals, 20 assists). Kondelik was also voted the conference’s top defensive forward, a nice bonus.
“Honestly, I think it’s just not overhyping these games, the stakes are higher, but that’s something that’s (on the) outside. This is a massive game for us, but that’s more important for writers than it is for us, and we have to keep that in mind.” Hanson remarked, trying to tamp down expectations.
Playing a single-elimination format matchup could serve UCONN as it tries to write a new script and advance.
