CANTLON: River Hawks Blank Huskies
VERSUS 
BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings
HARTFORD, CT – The UConn Huskies most effective offensive pressure of the game came during the final 2:07 of regulation but it couldn’t produce a game-tying goal and led to a tough 1-0 defeat to visiting UMASS-Lowell Saturday afternoon at the XL Center.
The Huskies pulled goalie Adam Huska upon taking their timeout. The team’s most golden opportunity of the several they had was off the stick of Ed Wisocky from the right point. He zipped a perfect pass to Maxim Letunov who made a gorgeous redirect at the open left side of the net just went wide of the post.
“If we had any puck luck, we would be a scary team. We will take one going off a shin pad at this point. We certainly had enough opportunities at the net, its gotta eventually turn,” UCONN head coach Mike Cavanaugh said with the hope the hockey gods would answer his petitions.
Max Kalter had two quality offensive zone draw wins during the frenetic final two minutes. The wins allowed UConn to keep the pressure on UML. Cory Ronan got stopped and Johnny Austin’s left point drive in the waning seconds got tipped aside by the stick of Hernberg.
“We played pretty well. The frustrating part is we’re not getting the results we want,” a nearly speechless Cavanaugh said. “The only thing you can do is keep battling. That’s what I told the kids. I really believe if you keep playing like that it’s eventually going to turn (in the Huskies favor with wins).”
UML got strong play in net from junior Finnish netminder, Christoffer Hernberg (33 saves). He pitched the Riverhawks second shutout of the season. The other was in the net, a 5-0 blanking of St. Lawrence. He was a major factor in the Huskies loss.
“He was the difference in the game tonight. We had good looks; we had rebounds, got pucks to the net. Our attempts were 68-to-39. We played a great game,” Cavanaugh said. He was obviously exasperated despite a quality effort. The Huskies continue a slide down in the Hockey East standings.
Ronan led the Huskies with five shots on goal but was snakebitten as a player could be, but not as a result of a lack of effort.
“He just has to keep pounding away and they will come,” Cavanaugh said of his senior forward.
UConn’s record drops to 3-10-2 overall, 2-6-1 HEA and sits in eighth place. UMass-Lowell‘s record improves to 8-6-0, 5-5-0 HEA. They are now tied for second place with Northeastern.
After UConn failed to capitalize on any of their several quality chances, UMASS-Lowell scored the games only goal.
Sophomore Kenny Hausinger raced out on a two-on-one with junior Connor Wilson. Hausinger was on right wing and laid a pass perfectly on his tape and Wilson caught Huska sliding across the crease and zipped his shot to the short side for his third goal of the season.
Prior to the goal Miles Gendron and Ronan were on the doorstep but couldn’t get the puck past Hernberg.
After the goal, the Huskies did step up the pressure and got some shots on goal, but there were no second or third chances that might have allowed them to tie the game up.
Jesse Schwartz, the following shift after the goal, Letunov off the left wing and Brian Rigali were denied in various ways by Hernberg.
The UML River Hawks nearly got a second goal, but for spectacular save by Huska.
Chris Forney was just inside the offensive blue line and snapped a hard, cross-ice pass to Colin O’Neil out on the right wing. O’Neil wasted little time firing his shot, but Huska read it perfectly with just about 8:00 to go.
“That was a huge save at that point. It could have changed the game,” said Cavanaugh.
Tyler Mueller was also stopped on a late UML powerplay chance by Huska.
The first twelve minutes of the game saw flashes of tight checking, sloppy play, and a general lack the energy before a sparse crowd 3,177 at the XL Center.
Neither team was getting second or third chances. There were just 13 shots in total.
Each side had a powerplay chance and each managed to get just one quality shot on goal.
NOTES:
One thing that could help the offense is the return of leading goal scorer Alexander Payusov who could return next week. He has been skating the last two weeks and is waiting for medical clearance.
The Huskies PP woes continue. They went 0-7 in the two-game series.
Kalter got UCONN’s third shorthanded goal of the season on Friday night and his first of his collegiate career. Kalter almost got a shorthanded breakaway in the second that Hernberg got to the puck first, however.
Huskies head to Burlington, VT to play Vermont Tuesday before Thanksgiving Day then close out November at home against non-conference RIT from Rochester, NY next Saturday at 3:00 pm and then Northeastern Tuesday the 28th.
The Huskies will have just 16 games left in the season over three months after playing 10 this month.
Not an equitable schedule.
XL Center scoreboard all of two years old was only visible from only one side for the game.
Ryan Dmowski (East Lyme/Gunnery Prep) had a strong night last night for UML with two goals. He had family and friends in attendance with a couple UML jerseys bearing his name.
The Huskies Brian Freeman has had penalty shots in back-to-back games, a first in conference history.
UML lost one forward Guillaume Leclerc earlier in the week as the French native left school early and signed a pro deal in the Magnus French Elite League team from Grenoble. The league just expanded its schedule to 55 games this year and features 14 teams. He has just one assist in 25 games with the River Hawks in little over a year of play.
Hockey jersey of the game: Hartford Whaler Robert Kron #18, Henrik Lundqvist #30 for the Rangers and a unique Minnesota Wild Mikko Koivu #9.
Our condolences go out to Hockey East member Providence College over the passing Drew Brown after a long battle with Ewing’s Sarcoma cancer. This particular disease is one of the most aggressive bone cancers that strikes young adults from ages 16-22 and is almost always terminal.
Brown also played his prep school at Kent Prep for two seasons.
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