#brianrigali

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CANTLON: UCONN LATE GAME MAGIC UPENDS MINUTEMEN

BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings HARTFORD, CT - In about as dramatic fashion as you could imagine, the UCONN Huskies (15-13-4 overall, 12-8-2 HEA) pulled off a stunning, two-goal, late-in-the-game comeback getting the game-winner with 8.9 seconds left to upend the UMASS-Minutemen, 3-2. The Huskies knocked off the #8 ranked team in the country and officially clinched a playoff spot. The win put them in second-place a point ahead of UMASS-Amherst. For the second week in a row, while at home and looking like a defeat was in front of them, the Huskies pulled it from the cliff and turned the XL Center into Mardi Gras and New Year's Eve all rolled into one. With the Huskies buzzing, the rowdy XL Center crowd of 6,666 urged them on with defenseman Wyatt Newpower zipping a pass across to Carter Berger at the left point. Berger launched a shot that went off of several bodies in front likely UMASS defenseman, Colin Felix, who was battling the Huskies Jachym Kondelik in front of the net. UMASS goalie Filip Lundberg was down in his butterfly position not anticipating the shot. Kale Howarth, a big body in front, got a swat at the puck on the backhand and put it in the net for his fourth goal of the season with 8.9 seconds which originally said 7.8 was on the clock. The XL Center exploded in a furious celebration at the turn of events. “We got a great group. We thrive under pressure. We’re showing people we're not a mediocre Hockey East team. We know it,” said Howarth. "Everybody knows over the last three weekends UCONN hockey is for real. The moment was a blur. I blacked out for a few seconds, I was so fired up. The energy was great (the crowd). Everybody brought that energy. That’s what’s been helping us play a full 60.” Improbable as a word doesn't aptly describe it. “Everybody was relaxed, taking (a few) deep breaths. Let’s make our next shift the best shift it can be. Our bench was calm. There wasn’t any panic. Let’s stick to the game plan. It paid off,” said Mike Cavanaugh, UCONN's head coach of those wild few moments leading up to the momentous conclusion. At this point, the team has no fear and there's no wavering under pressure. They EXPECT to win. Doubt doesn’t exist “There is no quit and we play to the buzzer. We had no doubts we're going to win,” said Freeman. The game-tying goal was equally heart-stopping and a thing of beauty. Berger, at center ice and falling down, reached and pushed the puck forward. Marc Gatcomb got the puck from Howarth who lifted the stick of Minutemen defenseman Nik Hildenbrand to maintain possession along the lower right-wing boards. He sent it back to Gatcomb in the faceoff circle and he weaved his magic to the net and tied the game with a perfect far-post backhander that nestled just inside the post at 19:04 for his ninth of the season. For UMASS (19-11-2 overall, 12-8-2 HEA) head coach Greg Carvel the game boiled down to a simple strategy. “Our five guys tried to prevent their five from getting to the net and we failed to execute that over the last two minutes (1:31 of play) and credit UCONN, they earned and deserved it.” The ending seemed to be heading the other way as UMASS scored a powerplay goal midway through the third period to take a 2-1 lead. Replay showed that a questionable call was made on Berger as UMASS’s Reed Lebster lost his edge on his forechecking attempt. UMASS' powerhouse, John Leonard, the nation’s leading scorer, picked off a clearing attempt and used his body to shield the puck and tap dance along the blue line. He accelerated away from Kondelik, who was checking on him. He then went against then grain on the right side, saw he had a screen and fired on net. The puck went in for his second of the night to the stick-side of Tomas Vomacka at 9:03. It was his 26th goal of the season In the second period, the Huskies grabbed the lead. Berger, who has gone 15 games without a goal. He last scored on December 7th against Vermont and has gone exactly two months without a point (since December 28th against St. Lawrence), Kondelik picked up a puck in center ice and circled back into the UCONN zone. He snapped a pass to Berger at center ice. Berger had an open lane to skate into and jumped up the left-wing side as he waited for Minuteman defenseman Matt Kessel to commit going down to the ice. Gatcomb arrived to provide a last-second decoy and Berger fired what became his second goal of the season into the top shelf at 8:32. “(It's) been a while since I chipped in offensively in that sense. (It's) nice to get that one and get the win,” said Berger. UCONN's Brian Rigali was going off for a shift change, but wheeled and fired a chance on net. Lindberg was surprised by the shot but made the save. Alexander Payusov was bearing down on him at the blue line, but John Leonard fired a seemingly harmless shot, but Bobby Trivigno arrived at the net with the Huskies Wyatt Newpower to form a screen and the puck sailed over Vomacka’s glove and at 13:56 It seemed to have been deflected, but Leonard was credited with his 25th of the season. Then Berger made a play that made all the late-game pyrotechnics possible. First, Berger coughed up the biscuit to Trivigno about 35 feet from the net. He fired a quick shot and it was seemed to have been stopped by Vomacka, and Trivigno started to skate away from the play. The puck however was still loose and was skittering from his pads and heading toward the goal. Berger lept back diving ahead of UMASS’S Eric Faith and tucked it back under Vomacka, who still had Kolby Vegara trying whack at it until Newpower neutralized him and Vomacka retained control of the puck. The Huskies were outshot 7-4 and went on a 8-1 run over the final nine minutes. NOTES: Cavanaugh praised the crowds first in his opening comments, “They said there were 6.700 people here. It felt like more. The building was as loud as its been since I’ve been here, when we tied it.” Then two teams meet tomorrow night at the Mullins Center at 8 PM (NESN PLUS) UCONN closes out the regular a season next week against UMASS-Lowell at the Tsongas Arena, Nice request from UCONN Payusov to have the Canadian national anthem played before the game. Former Husky, Spencer Nass, was traded from the Idaho Steelheads (ECHL) to the Kalamazoo K-Wings. Somewhere in Florida after his latest team this year the Newfoundland (St. John’s) Growlers after their game with the Florida Everblades, former Husky captain Miles Gendron could raise a glass to his former teammates for fulfilling on something he said a year ago at the final regular season home game also against UMASS a 4-3 win. “I’m so very proud of these guys. We wanted to be the first group to win a playoff game. We fell short of being the first group to win a playoff game, but tonight was our playoff game and we won it. I have faith in this group they are gonna do it next year.” The Huskies are knocking on the doorstep of doing just that. Read the full article

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CANTLON: UCONN LOSES UGLY TO MERRIMACK

BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings HARTFORD, CT - If there was ever a must win game for the UCONN Huskies this season, this was it. Yet despite knowing they needed a win coming into the contest, the Huskies were out-hustled, out-worked, and out-gunned by the second-to-worst team in the conference, the Merrimack Warriors. The Huskies lost 6-2 on Tuesday night at the XL Center before a hearty crowd of 2,953. The loss, was the Huskies third straight. “It hasn’t been a good week for UCONN hockey," UCONN head coach Mike Cavanaugh said, not sugar coating his team's poor performance. "I apologize to all those fans who came out tonight. They didn’t see a team that we customarily put on the ice. We didn’t compete for sixty minutes. They (Merrimack) were the team that deserved to win. We haven’t played well the last two games.” UCONN’s record drops to 7-9-5 overall, 4-6-2 HEA. Merrimack improves it's record to 5-14-2 overall, 3-6-2 HEA. The schedule is not kind to UCONN. Still to come is a trip to Schneider Arena where they will take on the Providence College Friars who have a high-octane offense. The Friars lead the conference with 73 goals scored as of Saturday at 5 PM. The Friars are the 12th ranked team in the country according to the national polls and presently sit in third place in Hockey East. They are just a point behind UMASS-Lowell and are tied with Northeastern (15 points). The red flags are up and the red lights are flashing for UCONN this season. It started out with so much promise and is presently in peril. “There’s no magic formula here. We have to come out and be ready to play. I thought we were ready to play, I liked our energy. We just didn’t have it on the ice,” Cavanaugh said with a rare level of sarcasm, but the shoe fit. Merrimack reestablished a three-goal lead just 2:09 into the third period and pulled away from the Huskies. Ben Brar got a great feed from Sami Tavernier and snapped off a wrist shot that was blocked. Brar had a second shot at sophomore netminder, Tomas Vomacka, as the puck came right back to him and he didn’t miss, depositing his second goal of the season. Merrimack shut the door for good after UCONN’s most effective offensive zone pressure of the evening led to a goal, the Warriors had some effective zone pressure of their own. Patrick Holway sent a pass across the blue line from the left side to his defense partner at the right point, Liam Dennison. Dennison marched 25-feet in below the face-off dot on the right-wing uncontested and then snapped a wrister with Vomacka screened. His wrist shot sailed past Vomacka to the short-side to put the final nail in the coffin for UCONN. In the second period, things were a little better at the beginning and at a little better at the end of the period for UCONN. In-between however, it was all Merrimack who stretched their lead to three goals. At 46 seconds Logan Drevitch had all sorts of open ice and took a pass from deep on the right-wing side from Chase Gresock. The Warrior then went straight to the net and from twenty-feet out scored his fifth of the season. The play was precisely what the team game plan was looking for. “We attacked very well on that play. We supported each other well tonight. We talked about that before the game, that open space, when you don’t have the puck, play outside the dots. We did a very good job in the game with that and on that goal, the whole play happened between the dots. That was a highlight for the team. We played right down the middle of the ice,” second-year Merrimack head coach, Scott Borek, said. The Huskies answered quickly at 2:12 with one of their few solid efforts as Jordan Timmons made a quick, clean entry in the zone got to the left wing corner. There he sent a pass to Justin Howell in the slot. Howell turned and fired his second goal of the season past Warriors goalie and Finnish freshmen, Jere Huhtama. UCONN then got a fantastic chance to build on the momentum when Zach Uens was nailed for a major penalty and a game misconduct for cross-checking Brian Rigali into the boards in front of the UCONN bench. But the Huskies managed to garner just three shots on goal over four of the five-minutes as a minute was scratched off when the Huskies took a needless penalty of their own. Killing off the major penalty gave Merrimack the emotional boost and swing in momentum. “The (PK) was the biggest part of the game. We got a lot of momentum out of that five-minute major and they lost a lot of momentum from that. Number seven (Uens) plays every situation for us, and (helps) kill a lot of (other teams') power-plays, so it was tough to lose him. Our guys stepped up and lifted our whole bench up. We blocked a couple of shots and they got frustrated a little bit. I can’t say enough about our penalty kill. They did a great job,” said Borek. The Pack's will to win the one-on-one battles and superior puck management was missing in the first to start the game. “It was missing the whole game,” said a dead-panned Cavanaugh. “We're not a very good team if we think skill goes before will, and right now we're relying on a lot more skill than will. We're doing the work it takes to create scoring chances." Merrimack’s Mac Welsher was in front of then et and easily converted a pass from Gresock for his third goal to push the Warrior lead to 3-1 at 9:17. Merrimack made it 4-1 at 15:59 off of one of many odd man rushes. On this rush, a two-on-one, Merrimack's Tyler Irvine raced in off the right-wing and tucked the puck past Vomacka's outstretched left leg for his eighth goal of the season. The Huskies shrunk the lead to 4-2 with 26.6 seconds left in regulation when Marc Gatcomb picked up a Jonny Evans rebound off a semi-busted play. Jachym Kondelik's shot from an off-angle went off a skate over to Wyatt Newpower for a right-point shot that was stopped. The Huskies started the game and picked up where they left off with Northeastern... a lethargic effort and fell behind at 6:01. Regan Kimens was stopped on the first shot by Vomacka seconds earlier, but this time he was on the left-wing, behind the goal line. He sent a pass to a wide-open, Hugo Esselin, who completed the easy redirect past Vomacka for his second of the season. “The last two games started out exactly the same way, and maybe it's confidence, maybe it's not. Instead of playing downhill we're playing uphill all game. One goal is turning into two goals, and then into three goals, and I don’t know if it's confidence, but I know its not the way we want to play,” said a stern speaking Cavanaugh. UCONN was held to just to one shot on goal in the final 10:45 of the period. NOTES: Senior Alexander Payusov and junior Bradley Stone were scratched because of illness. The flu is running through the locker room. Merrimack has several players with CT and NHL ties. Logan and Tyler Drevitch are both the sons of former New Haven Nighthawk, Scott Drevitch. Tyler Heidt is the son of former Nighthawk, Mike Heidt. Jacob Modry is the son of former NHL’er, Jaroslav Modry, who's now an assistant coach with Ontario (AHL). The SNY Connecticut Ice Tournament is two weeks away. The tournament schedule is as follows: Mite jamboree at Noon. That is followed by a high school girls game. It kicks off at 4 PM as Guilford plays Sacred Heart Academy. That will be followed by a HS boys prep school game between Loomis Chaffe (Windsor) vs. Westminster (Simsbury) at 6:15 PM and concludes with a public high school contest between Division One powerhouses, Darien and Notre Dame - West Haven at 8:30 PM. Saturday at 11:00 AM will be a U-10 Boys championship game followed by a girls U-12 championship game. Then the big boys will play. UCONN plays Quinnipiac University at 3:30 PM followed by Sacred Heart University vs. Yale at 7pm. Then Sunday at Noon, there's a U-12 Boys championship game and then the SNY Connecticut Consolation game at 3:30 PM and then to conclude the inaugural event, the trophy championship game will be at 7 PM. Former QU Bobcat, Mike Dalhuisen, was traded from HK Dukla Michalovce (Slovakia-SLEL) to HK Poprad (Slovakia-SLEL). Australia has announced it's full squad for the Division II, Group A, 2020 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship taking place in Zagreb, Croatia from the 19th-25th April 2020. Cheshire's Rob "Bert" Malloy, a dual citizen will represent the Mighty Roos for a fifth time in international competition. He currently plays for the Newcastle Northstars of the Australian Ice Hockey League (AIHL) and the season runs from May until early September. Double good news, Mallloy reports that his family is doing well and found safety from the horrible brush fires in eastern Australia where they reside in NSW (New South Wales). Read the full article

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CANTLON: UCONN FINISHES WEEKEND WITH SWEEP OVER MIAMI (OH)

BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings HARTFORD, CT - The UCONN Huskies battled hard and swept a weekend non-conference series over the visiting Miami (OH) Riverhawks with a 4-3 victory on Saturday at the XL Center before a small crowd of just 2,735. The second period was devoid of real quality scoring chances by either team except for the first six minutes. Miami came out with a fierce forecheck and pinned UCONN in their own end and they were able to tie the game at two. The Redhawks Derek Daschke circled the net and found Monte Graham open in the slot and with traffic in front snapped his third goal past Tomas Vomacka at 1:10 and tied the game at two. UCONN answered back just 1:04 later. Zac Robbins broke in with Brian Rigali. Robbins fed Rigali, who's been snakebitten of late, who, from 30 feet out, whistled a wrist shot over the blocker of Ben Kraws to help the Huskies get back their lead at 3-2. It was one of several turning points for the Huskies. “It was the key to the game. They had just tied it up,” remarked UCONN head coach, Mike Cavanaugh. “They felt good about themselves coming back and scoring on that next shift got the momentum right back for us.” Robbins says the play starts very early in the week. “It starts with practice on Monday. We really skate hard throughout the week and on Saturday we're ready for whatever comes at us. Day-in and day-out, I don’t do anything special. I just try to bring energy every single day, so good things are finally coming.” Robbins has been a strong contributor to the team's turnaround the last month. UCONN got some puck luck helped them extend the lead to two goals. It started with a faceoff win on the power play by Jachym Kondelik and Wyatt Newpower taking the puck and feeding his defensive partner, Yan Kuznetsov at the blue line for a 55-foot blast. The shot just sailed past the left post and hit the backboards. In his backswing, Kraws, while trying to stop the initial shot, caught the puck and put it into his own net at 5:48. “We got lucky on the goal, but good things happen when you shoot the puck. We have been preaching that as of late, and that’s why we're scoring powerplay goals as of late.” UCONN's improved late-game performance goes to the work of the team’s strength and conditioning coach Maureen Butler. “I think we have a great strength and conditioning coach, Mo Butler, who does a phenomenal job with our guys. It just doesn’t start in September, but back in July. She has a good feel in keeping them in good shape conversing with us, how we should skate them on the ice. The reason we're in pretty good shape is primarily because of her.” Miami kept chipping away. Just after a powerplay opportunity, they cashed in to narrow the gap back to one goal. Karch Bachman was at the left point and made a perfect diagonal pass to Chase Pletzke, who in one motion on the right-wing, in one motion, put it back across the crease to John Sladic, who easily put in his second of the game and fourth goal of the season at 12:15. The Huskies were able to handle the last push with the goalie pulled as Ben Freeman won a key late defensive zone draw to stifle the Redhawks. The first half of the second period was a tight defensive battle with the best chance coming with a wide-open Rigali taking a Jordan Timmons pass from behind the net. Kraws stopped his first shot and his follow up a couple of whacks at the rebound trying to jam it past him at 6:38. The second period was like a traffic jam with no room to maneuver. The first opening UCONN took advantage. Freeman made a good short pass to Robbins. He got Redhawks defenseman, Grant Frederic, turned around. Robbins scooted past him and cut across the net and slipped in his first of the season at 16:40. For Robbins, who had battled back injuries over the past year, this was a sweet moment. “I saw the defenseman had a bad gap. I yelled for the puck. Free made a great pass to me, and I was able to beat him wide and was able to get the puck and get it in.” Cavanaugh was effusive about his sophomore winger. “He was our Husky of the Week this week. We give out an award for someone who continually plays the right way not getting all the accolades he deserves. Zac been really solid and was really glad to see him rewarded with that goal tonight.” The rejuvenation of Robbins' play comes down to one word - health. “I’m finally healthy. I’ve had back issues in the past that took a toll on me mentally, but now that I’m healthy, it's helped my game a lot.” Miami’s Phil Knies had two chances. The first on the right-wing and then at the end of his shift both denied by Vomacka. Green smacked one out of the air but missed the shot to the short-side with about 20 seconds left in the period. Despite a strong, effective first half of the game at the start, it was Miami that got the game’s first goal. From the left point, Alec Capstick, with Ryan Savage in front screening Vomacka, saw his linemate John Sladic make a perfect deflection up high for his third goal of the year at 11:27. The Huskies tied the game at one 5:10 later. Kondelik had a right-wing rush and took a backhanded shot that Kraws saw go over and past his left post. Kraws only got a piece of it. Payusov was right there to get a piece of the puck as it went over the goal line at 16:37. “Kondy (Kondelik) made the play getting it to the net. We had been practicing all week getting pucks to the net.” The line has been clicking of late. “We really complement each other. We bring different skills" remarked Payusov. “Gatty (Gatcomb) is such a good skater. Kondy is such a good passer and shoots the puck quickly and it makes it hard to defend against us, and aIso it's fun to play when we're playing like this.” UCONN had the shot advantage of 18-9 with Marc Gatcomb, getting a quality chance, but Payusov and Kondeilk combined for seven of the 18 shots on net. NOTES: The Huskies switched up and played in their blue/gray uniforms. Several other Miami (OH) Redhawks have pro hockey lineage. Carter Johnson’s grandfather, Bob Leiter, played 447 NHL games with Boston, the California Golden Seals, Pittsburgh, and the Atlanta Flames. He ended his career with the WHA Calgary Cowboys. He also spent three years with the AHL Hershey Bears. Grant Frederic’s older brother, Trent Frederic, plays with Providence (AHL). The team also features a player from Tennessee and the Nashville Jr. Predators program in Andrew Sinard, who's a current Hawaii resident born in Arizona in Brian Hawkinson. Read the full article

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CANTLON: HUSKIES OUT SLUG RED HAWKS

BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings HARTFORD, CT - The UCONN Huskies (4-6-3 overall) showed their best attributes and their worst in a 60-minute, wild, action-packed 6-4 non-conference win over the Miami (OH) RedHawks (4-7-3) before a holiday crowd of 3,006 at the XL Center on Friday afternoon. The win was the Huskies first at home this season. The two teams meet again Saturday afternoon at 4 PM. “I was certainly pleased with how we responded after the first period," UCONN head coach Mike Cavanaugh said. "We started out OK, but Miami took it to us the rest of the first period. In the second and third period we skated pretty well.” UCONN came out in the third frame and scored three unanswered goals. The pivotal first one, that knotted the game at four, came early in the period just as the Huskies had done in the second. Marc Gatcomb circled behind the net and chipped the puck in front. Both Jachym Kondelik and Alexander Payusov had whacks at it, but the puck squirted out in front allowing Gatcomb, who was right there, to gather and put in the goal at 1:21. “That was point of emphasis this week. Playing in front of the net, or net-front, whatever you want to call it because Providence (College) owned that on us all last weekend, and it paid off for Marc tonight,” Cavanaugh said speaking of the efforts of the sophomore. The Huskies had a great chance to break the deadlock, but Ruslan Iskharov was denied by Miami goalie, Ryan Larkin, nine minutes in. The Huskies then erupted for two more goals in just 28 seconds, getting the crowd on its feet and taking the win out from beneath the RedHawks. Iskharov came in a rush down the right-wing side and curled and hit the trailer, Alexander Firtsov. He made a patient move, almost too patient, but got Miami defenseman, Rourke Russell, to commit. As he did that, Larkin was semi-screened as Firtsov ripped his fourth goal of the season into the net. It capped Firtsov's first three-point game as a Husky (goal and two assists) and his first game-winner. “Vlad played very well tonight and all four lines gave us great efforts and it's good when you can get four lines rolling like that. It gave us that much more energy and becomes infectious,” said Cavanaugh. UCONNfollowed by executing a perfect three-way play that established a two-goal lead at 6-4 that would hold up as the final score. Zac Robbins made a perfect pass to Brain Rigali. He slipped a beautiful backhanded pass. The righthanded Rigali was on the left-wing side. He sent it to Justin Howell who finished the sequence perfectly for his first of the season at 12:14. “We have been working on that play the last couple of weeks after practice and it worked,” Rigali said with a laugh. Howell then finished the thought, just like he did the shot, “We weren’t linemates then yet. Now coach shuffled the lines around a bit, so it was a pretty neat play and I was just fortunate enough to be right there and finish it off.” With UCONN's play not going as the coach would have liked it to in the first period, there could have been some choice words for the team between the first and second periods, however, Kavanaugh was more professorial than say an Army drill sergeant might have approached it. “The mistakes we're making weren’t effort mistakes, but more self-inflicted. We were making poor decisions,” remarked Cavanaugh. “We turned the puck over, rather than making the right play. Basically, I said to them the effort is there making the right decisions. In the neutral zone turning some pucks over, if we play better puck hockey, putting pucks behind the defenseman, we're going to be OK.” The Huskies came out of the chute in the second period buzzing around the Miami net. Rigali was first and stopped, then a tremendous save on Zac Robbins off a shot from the puck came right to Ben Freeman who buried the shot at 19 seconds, narrowing the lead to 3-2. The fans, who were quiet with the PA announcement at the start of the second, “Here are your UCONN Huskies,” finally had something to cheer for. “Robbins, Rigali, and Freeman gave us a great effort for sixty minutes. It got our bench alive. It was a great way to start the second period,” said Cavanaugh. For Rigali, it was getting back-to-basics. “We just said, 'Stick to our motto... Keep it simple..." I just stayed with our systems the right way and played hard (on that shift) and put the puck in the back of the net. We wanted to set the tone and we took off right from there.” Rigali’s three-assist night was critical in the win, but game-in and game-out consistency were noted by Cavanaugh. “He’ll score on one of those breakaways one of these days. I tell the guys this every day, 'Be the same player every day. You can be great on Friday and not so good on Saturday. It’s a wash. Brian Rigali is the same guy every game, and that what you get from Brian, and the block he made on the penalty kill, that was as good as block your gonna see in a hockey game.” The Huskies evened the game as Rigali sprung Firstov on the right-wing. Firstov made a good move off the right-wing, cut to the middle on RedHawks defender, Derek Daschkle, and snapped a wrist shot across the grain on Larkin over his glove hand at 15:09 and tied the game at three. “We talk about it all the time; skill doesn’t mean anything if the will isn’t there. It has to be will over skill. When the will is there then their skill is gonna shine. If we're gonna rely on skill, we're gonna be in trouble, and we were trying that a bit there in the first period.” UCONN gave away the momentum it had built handing it right back to Miami (OH). They were able to get a three-on-two break as Monte Graham hit Scott Corbett off the right-wing and he hit the trailer Derek Daschkle perfectly with all sorts of free real estate down the middle. He blasted it past Tomas Vomacka for his fourth goal. Iskharov vainly tried to backcheck but was two paces behind. UCONN scored early on a five-on-three with Iskhakov parked at the right side of the net and tallied his third goal of the season at 2:51 converting Firtsov’s pass. The rest of the period was all RedHawks. Penalties were UCONN’s undoing on the first two Miami (OH) goals. Perhaps the effects of an over-indulgence of turkey and the tryptophan it from Thursday's Thanksgiving dinner had the Huskies looking sluggish. The first goal came on the backend of a five-on-three powerplay at 10:43. Karch Bachman perfectly redirected a Russell right point shot for his sixth of the season. UCONN’s penalty penchant created Miami’s second goal. The combo of Casey Gilling and Gordie Green was top on the menu. The RedHawks swarmed around the net as Chase Pietzker's shot from the right point was redirected by Grilling but stopped by Vomacka, but he couldn’t contain the rebound at 16:08. Green was at the left point and slipped a pass at the blue line to Grilling. From the right point, he skated in uncontested to about twenty feet at the top of the right-wing faceoff circle and wired his shot over the left shoulder of a thoroughly screened Vomacka by his own defenseman at 17:26 and a 3-1 Miami of Ohio lead. NOTES: UCONN’S trio of Firtsov, Kondelik, and Gatcomb combined for 19 shots on goal to help UCONN to a season-high 48. Kale Howarth is out of the lineup with a non-sports related spleen injury according to Cavanaugh. “His spleen is enlarged. The good news is that all of his lab results have come back clean at this point. He is skating however in a non-contact jersey until it resolves itself he can’t be in the lineup right now.” Miami (OH)'s Larkin is the younger brother of former Yale player, Adam Larkin (now with Greenville-ECHL) and is the cousin to NHL’er, Dylan Larkin (Detroit). Defenseman Bray Crowder is the son of former NHL’er, Troy Crowder. Ryan Savage is the son of ex-NHL’er, Brian Savage, while Chaz Switzer is the son of former Muskegon Lumberjacks, of the old IHL rearguard, Erle Switzer. Read the full article

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CANTLON: (FRI) HUSKIES AND FRIARS SETTLE FOR A TIE 

BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings HARTFORD, CT - Carter Turnbull scored twice to lead the UCONN Huskies to a 3-3 overtime tie with the Providence College Friars on Friday in a Hockey East matchup at the XL Center. The tie came for the second week in a row for the Huskies. Sophomore Tomas Vomacka was in net for UCONN for the fourth time this season and faced 40 shots and gave the Huskies a chance to win in this game. The two teams will complete the weekend home-and-home Saturday in Providence at the Schneider Arena. The Huskies record now stands at 3-5-3 overall (2-3-2 HEA) while Providence College is 6-4-3 overall (4-3-2 HEA). The Huskies cashed in on a quality chance early in the third to tie the game at three. Turnbull was able to get the edge on Friars' rearguard, Cam McDonald. The right-handed shot was on the left-wing at full throttle and slipped his third goal under the right pad of Friars' goalie, Matt Lackey at 3:39. “We practice that all week, cutting across the net, that was the shot I was looking for,” remarked Turnbull. Each team had golden chances to get the go-ahead tally. Brian Rigali had a breakaway opportunity at 11:28 and couldn’t dent the twine. Particularly over the final six or seven minutes of the game, Vomacka was simply spectacular. Vomacka stoned the Friars' Luke Johnson at 13:15 and 17-seconds later stopped Spencer Young from 20-feet out. Ben Mirageas' one-timer was denied from the right-point and then eight seconds later, Greg Printz came off the half-wall at 14:31 and with traffic in front of the net, he was prevented from turning on the goal light. Printz just shook his head after his backhanded attempt was rejected. It was amazing how Vomacka even found the puck through all the traffic, sticks and legs, that were obstructing his view. “They put a lot of pressure on me in front, and that’s my job; to find the puck, and I was able to do that a couple of times,” Vomacka, a Czech native said. Huskies Head coach, Mike Cavanaugh, was battling a persistent cough and a cold, was effusive in his praise of him. “He made some great saves. That’s his job,” Cavanaugh said with a smile. “That’s what he is supposed to do. Their kid was good too. He stopped two breakaways on us.” The power play couldn’t provide a game-winner while operating in overtime. The team was just too stationary and only managed to put two shots on net. The Huskies were down one player, an important one at that. Second-line center, Kale Howarth, was injured, forcing the Huskies into playing mostly three lines while the Friars had lots of horses to wear UCONN down. Jachym Kondelik picked up a lot of the work down the middle. At 4:45, of the second period, after Ben Freeman broke in, but was in too tight as his backhand-to-forehand just went wide. He was in too tight for the big man with a shortage of space to be flexible enough to slip it on to the net. UCONN had another solid chance when Jordan Timmons stole the puck from twenty feet out and was in all alone, but he also lost control of the puck at the last second. Providence scored twice in the second period to take a 3-2 lead on very quirky plays. At 9:23, Colin O’Neil went for a wraparound. Carter Berger lost his edge and slid past him. The wraparound attempt went off Vomacka’s right pads and in just before a Friars player slid into the net and knocked the net off. It as O’Neil’s fourth goal. The video review confirmed the goal was a good tally. Three minutes later, at 12:22, Berger grabbed the rebound of Printz’s tip-in shot, turned to clear it and his shot went off of his teammate. Jack Dugan, the leading scorer in Hockey East, grabbed the loose biscuit and whacked the rolling puck off the inside of Vomacka’s pad for his sixth of the year. “We were down a bit after those two lucky goals,“ said Turnbull. “Tomas is playing great and he gave us the energy. He’s a gamer. He works hard. It’s not a secret. He practices the same way every day so it's no secret why he's so successful. Timmons and Turnbull had quality chances turned aside as Vomacka worked his magic in goal for UCONN, keeping the Friars at bay, including his stop of a Parker Ford point-blank shot. With 3:33, the Huskies' Sasha Payusov cut across from the left-wing side couldn’t get it past Lackey. Then UCONN’s Marc Gatcomb had a quality chance just before the period expired. It didn’t take long for the Friars to get on the board in the first period. Max Crozier retrieved the puck off the right-wing boards sent the shot toward the net. Then Tyce Thompson sliced through Payusov and Ryan Wheeler, a New Jersey Devils draftee, found the rebound and backhanded in his tenth of the season at 3:38. He's in a three-way conference tie for second place in goals scored. The Huskies tied the game at one with a solid offensive zone cycle. Timmons, playing on the fourth-line for the game, was in the lower, left-wing, circle chipped the puck back to Yan Kuznetsov at the left point as he headed off at the end of his shift. Kuznetsov was patient with the puck. He put an accurate, low shot, toward the net.  Freeman used his 6’6 frame and perfectly boxed out defenseman Cam MacDonald and screened Lackey perfectly for his first of the season. UCONN made it 2-1 when Turnbull scored his first of the night, second of the season, on a superb wrist shot that sailed past the unprepared Friars goalie for the UCONN lead at 17:59. Kale Howarth got the whole play started by winning the offensive zone draw. NOTES: Cavanaugh had no update on Howarth's condition except to say that he was taken to a local hospital to be evaluated. Providence has a few CT hockey connections on its roster. Senior Vimal Sukhamen, (Salisbury Prep), Greg Printz, (Select Academy at South Kent Prep), Ben Mirageas (Avon Old Farms) and of course sophomore right-wing Tyce Thompson (Milford/Salisbury Prep), who's the brother of former UCONN star, Tage Thompson, who's currently with the Buffalo Sabres.  Of course, as stated, both are sons of current Bridgeport Sound Tigers head coach, Brent Thompson, who also happens to be a former Wolf Pack player. Coincidentally, Bridgeport was in Providence tonight. The elder Thompson would have liked to be there. They got shutout 5-0. The Friars have owned the Huskies since their joining Hockey East. Their record is 8-0-2 and they've have won five of the six meetings in Hartford (4-0-2). UCONN is still without a home win (0-4-2). They play five of their next six in the supposed to be friendly confines of the XL Center before the holiday break. Wyatt Newpower (goal and two assists) earned Hockey East Player of the Week. The Huskies dormant powerplay awoke to reverse a 1-22 trend tallying twice at key points of both games. The Hartford Wolf Pack were shutout for the first time this season in Rochester 4-0. Goalie Igor Shesterkin played his first back to back games gave up the first goal 22 seconds into the game. Former UCONN defenseman Joseph Masonius signed a deal with Norfolk (ECHL). Read the full article

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CANTLON: (FRI) RIVERHAWKS AND UCONN BATTLE TO A TIE

BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings HARTFORD, CT - A far better effort than a week ago and the chances to gain a victory where there, but UCONN hockey had to settle for a 3-3 overtime tie against the UMASS-Lowell Riverhawks Friday night at the XL Center. The Huskies record advances to 2-5-2 overall (1-3-1 HEA) and the Riverhawks record becomes 7-2-4 overall (4-0-3 HEA). The Riverhawks are the top team in Hockey East. The two teams play Saturday night in Lowell at the Tsongas Center. The overtime session saw the Huskies have three of the best chances between the two schools. A clean breakaway by Brian Rigali went forehand on the Riverhawks Tyler Wall, but the big netminder’s left pad stopped the bid at 1:53 of the extra session. After a wraparound attempt by Sasha Payusov sailed in front, Jachym Kondelik came charging down the middle and fired a chance just wide. Carter Turnbull, on the entry in the UMASS-Lowell zone, waited for the screen to develop and whistled a wrist shot that Wall closed the door on at 3:49. “I think certainly that was the first time at home we have played to our potential, and it's been a rallying cry all week - Let's play to our potential and wherever the chips may fall, they fall.” Of his assistants, UCONN head coach, Mike Cavanaugh noted one that he had found a quote from baseball coach Jim Penders, about UCONN’s history, that was founded by two farmers. Farmers get up earlier than everybody else and work the hardest, that was the message for the team prior to the contest. No Husky sat on a bale of hay. They were in the game for the full 65-minutes. The net-front presence on defense was notably much better as it was on offense. “We were playing with the puck. We weren’t playing in our defensive zone for most of the game. It's hard to have energy to play offense, so tonight, we were able to play down in their end for long stretches, which makes it a lot easier to play defense,” remarked Cavanaugh. In the third period, each team sought to get the game-winner. Six minutes in, the Riverhawks' Zach Kaiser thought he had it, and then Brian Chambers, but UCONN goalie Tomas Vomacka, who faced his lowest shot total of the season at 15, because of a more solid team approach to defense, earned high praise from his a teammate Kale Howarth. “Tomas has been great this year. He’s been the best player on this team by far. He’s the goalie I want 10-times-out-of-10. He has always had our back, and now (its our turn) to have his back (tonight). Just a great guy to have between the pipes." A wild sequence of plays saw UMASS-Lowell take a 2-1 lead. A puck sent ahead of Howarth slowed down and he and Wall were in a race to get to it first from 35-feet out from the net dead center. They came together at the same time, but the puck popped up in the air and Howarth was able to retrieve at the right-wing goal line. He skated ten-feet curled in the lower right-wing circle, shooting for the open net, but Wall, racing back with Rigali in front, managed to get a piece of it preventing the red light from going on for UCONN. The Riverhawks peeled back up ice and scored taking a 2-1 lead. Colin O’Neil was on the right-wing circle and as a left-handed shot took Connor Sodergren’s pass off the right-wing boards, skated ten-feet into the circle and zipped his fourth of the season through the five-hole at exactly the 10:00 mark. UCONN came right back to even the game at two 54 seconds later. The new defensive pair for UCONN moved the puck quickly. Wyatt Newpower fed Ryan Wheeler at the left point, and Wall made the save, but Marc Gatcomb wrestled himself away from Riverhawks defenseman, Seth Barton, and backhanded the rebound past Wall for his third of the season. The Huskies briefly regained the lead at 3-2 as Ben Freeman deep in the right corner and took a sharp angle shot. Howarth was in front and tipped it over Wall's glove at 18:08 on the power play. “That was a point of emphasis all week, to get pucks deep and get in front of the net. Win those net front battles and it's any good hockey team’s game plan to get to the front of the net.” Just 1:08 later, the Riverhawks' Chase Blackmun, sent a stretch pass off one of the few UCONN miscues of the game to Matt Brown, who slipped behind the UCONN defensive duo of Harrison Rees, and Newpower. Brown went forehand-to-backhand and slipped his fifth goal underneath Vomacka with 44.1 seconds left in the period to tie the game at three. For the Huskies, the first shot on goal by UMASS-Lowell at 12:08 of the first period found its way into the net. The Riverhawks executed a perfect power play goal with Detroit Red Wings draftee Seth Barton at the left point fed Charlie Levesque, a right-handed shot at the goal line. He swiftly sent a cross goal pass to a wide-open Sodergren, who made no mistake burying his first of the season. UCONN used its first power play late to tie the game at one. The Huskies Yan Kuznetsov found Alexander Payusov at the top of the left-wing circle and he one-timed a rocket to the top-shelf under the crossbar with a screen setup in from by Jachym Kondelik. Wall didn’t see anything with the 6’6 sophomore Czech center blocking out the shot and likely the ceiling lights with 59.1 seconds left in the first period. It was Payusov’s first goal of the season and first since he scored against Vermont on March 1st at the end of last season. “We have been telling him to shoot the puck. He has a great shot and tonight he had five shots on goal tonight. That’s the most he has had on net all season. That’s what we need out of Sasha, he shoots the puck. We gotta keep him shooting (every game).” The Huskies held a distinct shot advantage at 11-3 a big change from a week ago against BC. The first 6:53 UCONN played it tight and solid defensively not allowing a shot on goal and getting a quality left point shot by Kuznetsov. At the 10:22 mark UML was still without a shot and UCONN’s Kondelik turnaround show saw a left pad save by Wall. NOTES: Cavanaugh changed all his line combinations in part of the injury to Jonny Evans (broken finger) and of course to get the team to play better. Payusov and freshmen Alexander Firtsov went to the first line with Kondelik. Created a whole new second line with Ruslan Iskharov-Cale Howarth and Carter Turnbull and a third line of Justin Howell at center flanked by Zac Robbins and Rigali. Then dropped Freeman and Marc Gatcomb to fourth line with Eric Linell (Choate Rosemary Hall). On defense, Kuznetsoc and Rees went from the third unit to the first pair and put Wheeler in for Ryan Flynn with Newpower as his second pair and dropped Cater Berger and Adam Karaschik to the third pair. The 12th ranked nationally red-hot Riverhawks lead the series at 6-4-2 and had won four straight against UCONN. Standing in the Huskies way was Wall, another Rangers draft choice who has been lights out early in college hockey season. He has played 11 of their 12 games has a .949 save percentage and a GAA equally as impressive at 1.59 coming into the game. He has just two regulation losses 3-2 to Colgate in OT and 2-1 to the defending national champion. University Minnesota-Duluth plus two overtime ties to go with his seven wins. UCONN has its next seven games at home as part of a 10 game stretch. Huskies are still winless at home so far this season (0-4-1). UCONN announced earlier in the day the formal national letter of intent was signed by East Haven native Nick Capone who originally two years ago committed to Maine. He went Salisbury prep school for two years and presently is play with the Tri-City Storm (USHL) where he has six points in 14 games so far in his first full season of junior hockey. Capone will matriculate at UCONN next season 2020-21. Read the full article

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CANTLON: ARMY INVADES UCONN ON HOME OPENER AND WINS 2-1

BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings HARTFORD, CT - A timely goal midway through the second period along with strong goaltending from junior Trevin Kozlowski and a strong defense allowed Army to upend UCONN 2-1 Friday in their home opener. The loss leaves the Huskies without a win while Army remains undefeated before 2,029, the lowest home-opening crowd since UCONN began playing home games at the XL Center. UCONN drops to (0-1-1 overall, 0-0-0 HEA) and Army goes to (2-0-0 overall, 0-0-0 AHA). The Huskies play Saturday afternoon in another non-conference game beginning at 3:30 pm against RPI (ECACHL). The Army hockey team is off until next weekend when they host Robert Morris in their home and conference opening game. The early part of the third period belonged to Kozlowski who stoned Ruslan Ishkarov on a break in taking Kyle Howarth’s pass before going forehand-to-backhand, but the 6’4 netminder stretched his left leg out as far as it could go and kept he puck from crossing the goal line at 1:45. “I thought we played a decent game for two periods. We didn’t bury our chances. You gotta bury them,” remarked UCONN head coach, Mike Cavanaugh. “Their goaltender played well. I give him credit. They played hard and it was a good hockey game. I thought in the third period we tilted the ice, but I think in this game when you get the chances, you have to bury them.” At 3:52, Russian freshmen, Alexander Firstov, made a great move in the left-wing circle to get around a defenseman, and fired a shot to the short-side, but the goal post was in the way. The Huskies bad puck-luck continued midway through the third period. The Huskies, Marc Gatcomb, took a long shot into the zone that came off the backboards and came back right through Kozlowski’s legs. Gatcomb then managed to get between two Army defensemen while falling down to fire the puck that went off the inside of the post to the Huskies dismay. The subsequent review confirmed it. Firstov put his team-high fourth shot on net, but Kozlowski denied him. On the other side, UCONN sophomore Tomas Vomacka stopped Tucker DeYoung’s fifth shot on net with 7:31 left that Vomacka kept from going to the back of the net on a sharp angle shot from the right-wing boards. The Huskies had their chances late with Jachym Kondelik getting two of them. The first was in the right-wing circle. He missed the net. The second one on the left-wing and was stopped by Kozlowski. The third came off a clean win off the draw to Kale Howarth with 2.4 seconds left. It was blocked by the Army defense to end the game. “We were trying to be cute, make that extra move. When you're going to the net, you gotta not be so concerned about (how you shoot it), but get it off quick and shoot it hard, rather than being concerned about being cute and putting it in a certain spot and we hit a couple of posts. That will happen in this game, but if you put performances like we did in the third period, those will eventually go your way,” Cavanaugh said while speaking philosophically on his team’s offense game posture. The first period had a dearth of quality scoring chances while the second period saw two goals scored in a 31-second span. The Army Black Knights Dominic Franco won a draw from Ben Freeman and got the puck back to John Zimmerman (Arlington, TX). The right-handed shot at the left point launched a shot that found its way past Vomacka at 3:17. “It was a knuckleball that kinda fooled Tomas,” said Cavanaugh. UCONN wasted little time in answering back. This time the shot from the left point and came from the Huskies highly-regarded freshmen rearguard, Carter Berger. He sent a hard, low shot on net. It redirected by Brian Rigali in front of the net to tie the game at one. “We got a good entry into the zone on that. I actually fell down and worked my way back to the front of the net. I got lucky it was a nice shot (by Berger),” said Rigali. Army operated like a platoon getting territorial shots on net, spaced apart. Puck possession allowed the Black Knights to take the lead at 2-1. Defenseman Marshall Plunkett zipped down the left-wing boards and went around the back of the UCONN net. He put a pass in front sending it to the hard-charging, Mason Krueger. Husky, Carter Turnbull, had his back turned and didn’t know where the puck, or Krueger, was. So, Krueger pushed it over to a wide-open Daniel Haider on the left-wing and he put it in at 15:50 for a 2-1 Army lead that sustained them the rest of the game. The first period looked like it was being coached by Jacques Lemaire. UCONN and Army combined for just 12 shots between them, and the quality chances few and far between. The lone solo rush by either school came as Konedlik, a 6’6, Czech, drove wide on the left got to the front of the net, but Kozlowski shut the open five-hole and rejected the bid with 2.3 seconds left in the period. Army had just had its best quality at the other end as Vomackarejected senior Dominic Franco (Portsmouth, RI) as he tried to nail the shot far side. Kozlowski had two other quality stopping Firstov on a redirect in front at 10:12 and then at 12:38 he stopped Turnbull. NOTES: UCONN won last year’s meeting with Army 5-2 at West Point. Army won its opening game 2-1 over Union College Kozlowski played three seasons of prep school hockey at Gunnery Prep (Washington, CT) and was the team captain his senior season. Senior Bryan Gerstenfeld (Fairfield, CT) did not play public or prep school hockey in Connecticut. Alex Wilkinson of the Black Knights played his junior hockey with the CT (Norwalk) Oilers (EHL). First major Hockey East injury, Ty Amonte, the son former NHL’er Tony Amonte, was announced by Boston University that he would miss the entire season with an upper-body injury. The Hockey East portion of the Huskies schedule starts November 3rd against Merrimack at 2:05 pm Saturday's game will be a dedication to the 2000 MAAC championship UCONN team which was their first foray in Division I hockey. The trophy will be on display on the concourse and other celebratory displays are planned. Read the full article

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CANTLON: HUSKIES WIN HOME AND SEASON FINALE 4-3 OVER UMASS

BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings HARTFORD, CT - For the UCONN Huskies it was like a “playoff game” as their hockey ended their season with a wild 4-3 win over the number two nationally ranked UMASS Minuteman before a boisterous and exceptionally loud crowd of 5,035 that rocked the XL Center Friday night. UCONN finishes with an overall record of 12-20-2 and 7-15-2 in Hockey East. The Minutemen, the regular season conference champion, finishes their regular season record of 26-8-0 and 18-6-0 in Hockey East. They will host the ninth-ranked University of New Hampshire in the first round of the playoffs next weekend. “Sometimes it takes a bit longer to finds your rhythm and competitiveness. I was reading about that with (coach) Brad Stevens of the Celtics. I feel if the season was a month longer, we would be playing in the Hockey East playoffs for sure.  Overall, I was so happy for our seniors, Miles (Gendron), Max (Kalter), AND Karl (El-Mir) for everything we stand for, to have them graduate, make them better men, and we wanted to compete for trophies. "I was impressed by how they brought this group along very easy. When you have 12 younger guys it can go sideways and be a train wreck. What they did to keep this group competitive the last month of the season, we finished 5-3. I can’t say enough about their leadership. They got a well-deserved win tonight,” remarked head coach Mike Cavanaugh. Beating UMASS, who eliminated them from playoff contention two weeks ago, was icing on the cake for UCONN in a season that saw some successes and some failures. “That was very special for all us seniors. We love it. They're a great team over there. To beat the number two team in the nation was unimaginable two months ago. I’m so proud of everybody how we held together.” senior Max Kalter said with an enormous smile. The game-winning tally came against the third Minuteman goalie of the night for UMASS, Brad Avanaitas. UMASS pulled Avanaitas for the sixth attacker with 1:38 left, but UCONN's team defense held the fort allowing the team to end their season on a winning note. In the final five minutes, the UCONN team defense had two key shot blocks. The first was by Ruslan Iskharov on the goal line and Miles Gendron. Then add in Kale Howarth’s tight checking of the ever-dangerous, Cale Makar, that forced him to dish off the puck. Tomas Vomacka made an amazing lateral save on Brett Boeing’s bid to tie the game kept UMASS at bay and secured a win. “Ruslan made a block. Adam (Karaschik) had a block. Kale's check on Makar forced him to chip it out to the neutral zone. We also did a good job clearing out any rebounds. It was a very good defensive effort,” remarked Cavanaugh. One of the seniors he referenced, Kalter, was pumped about that sequence of play by his team. “That what it takes to win,” Kalter said. “We have gotten better each year here, and over the last month the program has been stepping up every year, and I think this group (2019-20 edition) is going to go far, so there will be more great things for this program.” Kalter hopes to continue to go forward to pro hockey and could likely see him debut in the ECHL in the very near future. For Gendron, taking off his UCONN white home jersey was not going to be easy. His sweater has a "C" stitched on in the upper left corner. It meant more than people could realize on the surface. “It’s really special the guys voted me for this,” said an emotional Gendron. “It just wasn’t handed to me and that means everything. I’m so very proud of these guys. We wanted to be the first group to win a playoff game. We fell short, but tonight this was our playoff game and we won it. "I have faith in this group. They are going to do it next year, and the crowd, that was amazing. To come here and cheer for us when we have nothing to play for…. It makes me realize even more I made the right choice to come here.” The win, coming through a very emotional and entertaining game, showed how UMASS will be such a post-season force. They picked up right where they left off in the second period scoring at 45 seconds in. Mitchell Chaffee took the pass from Mario Ferraro in the left wing corner. He was able to curl away from Ben Freeman, zip across the crease and stuffed his second straight goal (17th) into the net. UMASS head coach Greg Carvel didn’t let his team off the hook. “Congratulations to the UCONN seniors in winning their last game. For my team, it was a very uneven game. We didn’t come out to play in the first, and we finally wanted to play (late in the second). I sat down a few kids who didn’t want to play. We tied it up in the third, but that next shot right after that was a backbreaker. We couldn’t find a way to win the rest of the third. It was very disconcerting to me as a coach that on March 8th we can’t find a way to be excited to play a game.” UCONN answered back 36 seconds after UMASS tallied as Freeman came across the Minuteman blue line. He sent a high wrist shot that went off Filip Lundeberg’s glove and into the net to give the Huskies back. It would be a 4-3 lead that they never relinquished. “They score late in the second with point two seconds to go and score on the first shift in the third, everything was going their way, but we were able to flip the script and get the momentum back and got the victory,” said Cavanaugh. UMASS tried to switch their fortunes by putting Filip Lundberg in the net to start the second period. It didn’t faze the Huskies. UMASS put on strong pressure with three solid scoring chances in the first two minutes as Boening, Maker, and Chaffe was each denied. The Huskies struck for their third goal and a highly unlikely 3-0 lead. Again all three forwards were in on the goal like the Huskies second goal. Kalter sent the puck to an open Jonny Evans on the left wing. He made a gorgeous, blind pitchfork backhanded pass to Iskharov who then fired his sixth goal over Lundberg's glove hand at 8:08. They seemingly had UMASS in a vise grip. UMASS is not number two in the nation by accident. In the final two minutes of the period, the team tallied twice narrowing the gap to one goal. After a ticky-tacky holding call from the ref who was at center ice, Thomas Fryer, the Minutemen’s Hobey Baker candidate, and Makar, a Colorado Avalanche draft pick, displayed why he is so highly regarded. He had a discussion prior to a face-off with Bobby Trivigno. UMASS won the draw and began a perfect cycle. Makar got the puck at the left point and fed Trivigno at the right point. They then switched positions and as he was transitioning, Makar passed the puck to Jacob Pritchard at the right side of the net. The left-handed shooter was left unchecked and wired a pass to Trivigno who came in through the back door on the left side and made a perfect open-blade redirect at 18:48 for his ninth goal and got UMASS on the scoreboard but trailing 3-1. UMASS kept the pressure on UCONN and scored in the waning seconds with Makar again involved, Makar sent a pass to Marc Del Gaizo at the left. With a perfect screen by Chaffee in front on starter Tomas Vomacka, deflected the 55-foot shot past Vomacka with just .02 seconds left in the period to make it a 3-2 game with what could have been a dagger to UCONN’s valiant game long effort. “That is the mark of a good program. No matter what score the score is, and what period it is, we stuck to the game plan and kept competing,” said Cavanaugh. The Huskies struck first against the second best team in the nation as all three forwards on the line touched the puck in the red zone. Brian Rigali made a strong move on the left wing and got around his check. He swung to the right wing side and his shot was stopped by Matt Murray. The puck hit the back of his skate, and the Huskies' Kale Howarth had a crack at it. Then Brian Freeman was able to chip the puck into the net for his sixth goal at 8:24. The Huskies kept pace with the swift-skating Minutemen getting back pressure support and not allowing for second and third chances. “It was a point of emphasis this week that we were back pressuring them and we didn’t give up many odd-man rushes and not slowing them to enter the (offensive) zone uncontested,” Cavanaugh said in speaking of their game plan of trying to lasso the high-end and fast skating UMASS squad that operates so effectively as five-man units. When UMASS broke Vomacka, a Czech freshman who was making his seventh start in the last nine UCONN games, was there to make the save. For Vomacka it was his 14th UCONN game of the season. The Huskies were able to extend their lead to 2-0 before the end of the period. Rigali scored with Iskharov on a shorthanded two-on-one. He was able to settle down a bouncing puck and got around a sliding Del Gaizo and zipped his fifth goal through the five-hole at 17:51. NOTES: Huska's leaving UCONN made him the sixth netminder this year for the Hartford Wolf Pack. Huska was the New York Rangers' 7th round pick (184th overall) in the 2015 NHL draft. He played junior hockey for the Green Bay Gamblers (USHL). Huska played just two games for UCONN over the final six weeks of the season because of Vomacka's hot play. He last played against Providence College on February 26th. His stats for the season are deceiving. Huska posted a 5-13-2 record with a 3.34 GAA and .896 save percentage in 1,202:44 minutes of action. He was playing behind a very young team composed of 12 freshmen. One his highlight starts came against Yale on New Year’s Eve Day where he made 39 saves including a spectacular skate blade save with pads stacked on a two-on-one on the Bulldogs' Mitchell Smith. Huska career includes 69 career games, a 2.90 GAA, a career record 20-38-8 and just under 4,000 minutes played. He also had two career shutouts. A Nashville organizational source told Cantlon’s Corner that neither pair of freshmen Predators draftees, goalie Tomas Vomacka, or center Jacym Kondelik will not be offered pro contracts this spring. “While we like their progress, they have room for a lot of growth,“ remarked the source. They requested anonymity, “Vomack, we like his play very much, however, a goalie always need playing time and Kondelik has to work on his skating and has to get more physical despite being a 6’6 forward. Neither is ready for the AHL right now.” Now that they have Brian Boyle in Nashville, he's the prototype for what they want out of Kondelik. Gendron said he will take a few days to rest and talk with his agent as to what the Ottawa Senators, who drafted him, might want to do. Most likely, the Sens might sign him to an ATO with Belleville  (AHL), “I know the team is in a playoff push, and even if it's just to go to learn and practice with the team, I’m open to what they have to offer.” Since firing head coach Guy Boucher last week, they're still in organizational transition. A note for the new Governor, and his Chief of Staff... When UCONN hockey is home in their regular season and home finale, you should be there not at a Yale-RPI game. The Bulldogs are in the ECACHL playoffs that they could see next week. They should have been at the XL Center with this great crowd. Read the full article