UConn men’s hockey team looking to hit its stride with key conference games looming
The UConn men’s hockey team has had 10 days to regroup from a rough weekend series at Ohio State and now looks to play its best hockey.
“We’ve played pretty well,” coach Mike Cavanaugh said. “There hasn’t been a game where we couldn’t have won, hasn’t been a game where it was like, ‘We had no chance no win that game. That team was way better than us.’ So that’s encouraging. … I don’t think, collectively, we’ve played our best yet. We have some guys playing pretty well. We just haven’t put up numbers.”
The Huskies (2-3) entered the season with expectations of being one of the best to take the ice since UConn joined Hockey East. They began with a win over Sacred Heart, then split conference games against Boston University, winning on the road.
At Ohio State on Oct. 15, UConn built a 3-0 lead but let it get away and lost in overtime, then lost 3-0 the next day.
“It was disappointing coming back from Ohio State,” Cavanaugh said. “We played better than our record showed. It was unfortunate to lose the way we did.”
Cavanaugh is not writing the weekend off to facing a hot goalie in the Buckeyes’ Jakob Dobes, who came off the bench with UConn leading 3-0 and stopped all 55 shots he faced over the next two games. UConn has been working on offensive fundamentals.
Meanwhile, the Huskies get back to Hockey East play at No. 20 Northeastern on Tuesday (7 p.m., NESN), followed by a game at Dartmouth on Saturday and conference games at Maine on Nov. 5 and 6. That will make seven road games in a row before they play Boston College at the XL Center on Nov. 12.
“It’s not the worst thing this time of year,” Cavanaugh said. “It gives guys a time to bond, and it will come back around. We’ll have a lot of home games in the second half.”
Vladislav Firstov leads UConn with three goals, and Jachym Kondelik tops the Huskies with six points. Cavanaugh likes the way transfers Kevin O’Neill, a grad student from Yale, and defenseman Jarrod Gourley from Arizona State have fit in. Darion Hansen, transfer from Union, has been in goal all five games and been generally solid with a 2.37 goals-against average and 92.9 save percentage.
“We always try to play to an identity of team that puts a lot of pressure on an opponent with speed or physicality,” Cavanaugh said. “It has been good, but we’re not there yet. We’re a team that likes to thrive on multiple shot shifts on offense, smother a team on defensive zone. We haven’t hit our stride.
“We’ve got to stay away from panicking and trying to cheat to put up numbers and be content with continuing to play really well and be committed to that process because it will, in time, benefit us. It will work out. Play the game the right way, and the hockey gods will take care of you.”
Dom Amore can be reached at damore@courant.com.
