BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings
PROVIDENCE, RI – The Providence College Friars’ Nick Poisson contributed four assists and a revived power play that went three-for-five on the night downed the UCONN Huskies 6-4 Saturday night.
It was an exceptionally slow start for the Huskies that even after UCONN Head Coach Mike Cavanaugh changed his forward lines, it didn’t solve anything.
Cavanaugh was unhappy with his team’s offensive production despite a good game against Boston College.
His reshuffling of the lineup sent top scorer Jonny Evans, who has struggled, down to the fourth line.
Cavanaugh put Vladislav Firstov, Carter Turnbull, and Marc Gatcomb together, breaking up his top line. He shifted his entire fourth line brought back in Cassidy Bowes and made Sasha Teleguine, his extra forward, and played without an extra defenseman.
“I was disappointed in the result, but was happy with the effort,” the tenth-year head coach said. “Quite frankly, of our last four games, it was the best one we played. We didn’t win the special team battle and that was the difference.”
GETTING IT STARTED
Kohen Olischefski started off the PC scoring parade by getting inside position on Evans. He tallied the first goal as Poisson got his first of four assists.
“We’ve got to be sharper on our penalty kill. We had been doing great,” remarked Cavanaugh, “They got some bounces and some funky goals like the first one. They like to throw pucks at the net. We got exposed.”
Then Jarrod Gourley came off the right point, off a pass from Kevin O’Neil. He scored his first Huskies goal as Firstov waived at the puck in a vain attempt at a tip-in at 5:29. It was tied 1-1, but it all went downhill quickly,
THE SLIDE BEGINS
PC regained the lead at 2-1 as Parker Ford registered a power play tally from Poisson from 25-feet out at 7:50. The goal came just 1:21 after Gourley had tied it.
The third PC goal by Kevin Koopman came off a two-on-one with Mike Needham. Hanson made the initial save, but the rebound went to a wide-open Koopman, who was on the goal line. He backhanded the puck to Hanson whose feet got crossed. Before a back-checking Evans could get to him, the puck went over the goal line with 1:31 left in the period.
“They got us running a little bit there. We didn’t get an icing there and they broke out. We have got to ice it in that at situation.”
SECOND PERIOD
In the second half of the second period, the score grew to 4-1 as PC tallied another power play marker at 14:47. Max Crozier drilled a blue line bomb from 55-feet out.
Any struggles PC had entered the game with on the power play quickly evaporated against the Huskies.
“Their power play was dangerous; three goals on nine shots,” remarked Cavanaugh.
Ryan Tverberg extended his point-scoring streak to five games when he redirected a shot from John Spetz after 1:52 had elapsed as PC had gone up three goals.
ALL PROVIDENCE
Jaxon Stauber (32 saves) was strong in the net for PC especially denying hard-luck Carter Berger for a second night in a row.
PC tacked on two more in the third as Poisson was red hot.
Before Poisson’s night took off, Evans ended a seven-game scoring drought on a pro play pass as Hudson Schandor backhanded a loose puck that came off another Spetz shot. While it made the score closer on the scoreboard at 4-3, the team just didn’t have enough juice to overtake PC.
Jarrod Englebert got his well-earned second point at 12:48 from Mitch Callahan getting his second assist after Michael Moynihan had hit the post just a minute earlier.
FUTURE NY RANGER GETS IN ON THE SCORING
New York Rangers’ sixth-round draft choice, Brett Berard, scored on the power play off a nifty backhander in close on yet another Poisson-engineered play. Moynihan contributed to starting it with his eighth goal at 15:32 on yet another power play, this one from 35-feet out, nailing his third power play marker.
Hanson faced 37 shots for UCONN.
Nick Capone (East Haven/Salisbury School) closed out the scoring as did a turnaround on Artem Shlaine’s pass nailed his third goal of the season to finish the scoring.
LINES
BRADLEY-SCHLAINE-CAPONE
TURNBULL-KONDELIK- TVERBERG
FIRSTOV-O’NEIL-GATCOMB
BOWES-SCHANDOR-EVANS
TELGUINE
BERGER-SPETZ
WHEELER-REES
GOURLEY-KINAL
HANSON
TERNESS
NOTES
Poisson’s brother Ben, a junior, plays at the University of Maine.
PC featured Connecticut connections.
Alex Esposito (West Haven/Loomis Chaffe)
Jaxon Stauber is the son of former Hartford Wolf Pack/New Haven Nighthawk Robb Stauber
Brett Berard, a Rangers’ draft choice, is the son of current PD administrator and one-time UCONN (AHA) head coach David Berard.
