CANTLON: (SAT) BOSTON COLLEGE WHACKS UCONN 5-1 

BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings

HARTFORD, CT – Aapeli Räsänen had four points, including a hat trick, paced the Boston College Eagles to a 5-1 victory over UConn at the XL Center on Saturday afternoon. BC swept the weekend’s home-and-home series.

Boston College dominated the game in every aspect, conversely, UConn’s play demonstrated, even after six years of trying to get there, just how far away, the program is from cracking the top four spots. It was that kind of a loss.

BC was in total control of the contest with the exception of about a five-minute stretch late in the second period. From the drop of the puck until the final horn, BC manhandled and mauled the Huskies in front of the XL Center crowd of 5,112.

UConn’s record drops to 2-5-1 overall, (1-3-0 HEA) while Boston College improved to 5-4-0 overall (3-2-0 HEA).

UConn was simply no match for the Eagles. Rarely did the home team even have the puck, spending most of the afternoon chasing BC like it was a game of, “Keep-Away.”

“We certainly have a long way to go as a team,” a sullen Connecticut head coach, Mike Cavanaugh remarked. “It’s only November, tonight and last night. It’s not gonna get any easier with Lowell coming in next week. We were outmatched in all facets this weekend.”

Räsänen scored a goal in each period. His third goal came after one of many UConn turnovers found its way into the back of their net. The Eagles’ Mike Hardman tallied his second assist with a sterling cross-ice feed to Räsänen, who one-timed a shot to the top-shelf on inside of the near right post as he was losing his edge. He scored the goal at 13:15, the last tally in the 5-1 final score.

The second period was no better than the first for the Huskies. They had a three-on-two break-in and wound up without even a shot on goal. The Eagles in turn, went back up the ice on the counterattack and eventually scored.

BC’s left point blast was stopped by sophomore goalie, Tomas Vomacka, but the rebound went right to Räsänen and his right-handed shot from the left side found pay-dirt for his second of the afternoon at 6:19.

Finally, in the last five minutes, UConn was able to play some time in the BC end of the ice. One of the few miscues by BC allowed the Huskies to score and end Spencer Knight’s shutout bid for a second straight game.

Alexander Firstov snagged a BC clearing attempt at the top of the right-wing circle and moved in ten feet to his left and zipped his second goal of the season to Knight’s far side to make it 3-1.

And with that, ended the night for the UConn offense.

As they had all afternoon, BC was able to take a UConn golden chance as they marched up ice.

After a golden chance by Ruslan Iskharov, Knight made the stop and the Eagles soared up ice and restored the three-goal lead.

At 18:46, Alex Newhook received a perfect lead pass from Hardman and headed down the right-wing side. He got around the UConn defenseman only to have his shot was stopped. Hardman, however, chipped at the puck and got it to trickle over the goal line despite a valiant effort by Adam Karaschik’s (Ridgefield) to swipe it back.

The first ten minutes of the game resembled a scrimmage as BC spent most of the period in the UConn end while racking up 10-0 shot advantage.

Cavanaugh was caught off guard by his team’s passivity at the start of the game. especially coming off a 6-0 shutout. “That surprised me. I was hoping it would be like last night where we were good the first ten minutes until they got their first goal.  I’m concerned a little bit,” He said with his eyes looking downward trying to hide the more than just casual concern he verbalized.

After the Huskies got their first two shots on goal at 11:22 the Eagles grabbed a loose puck and gained an easy entrance into the UConn end of the ice. They weren’t met with much resistance and scored the game’s first goal.

BC’s Jack McBain was on an odd-man rush. He fired a hard shot that Vomacka stopped, but Räsänen was following up the play, and scooped up the rebound for his first goal of the game.

The BC onslaught continued as two players, David Cotton (a Carolina Hurricanes draftee) and Logan Hutsko each had five shots that accounted for half the Eagles shots on goal. For the game, the BC first line had 18 of their 46 shots.

“They broke us down pretty well, and I think that a lot of that had to do with us turning the puck over.  We were discombobulated coming back into our zone.

“We didn’t force them (to change direction) and were able to enter the zone pretty freely and not have to dump pucks and go get them.

“It was tough for our defense to play against that speed, and we didn’t get enough pucks behind them at all,” Cavanaugh stated.

BC made it a 2-0 lead after a clean face-off win by Julius Mattila who got it to defenseman Ben Finkelstein at the right point. Finkelstein used Kyle Howarth as a screen as the puck sailed past Vomacka at 16:04.

It was one of the most lopsided periods UConn has faced since entering Hockey East.

NOTES:

To add insult to injury, literally, UConn lost Jonny Evans to a broken finger and will be out until likely after the new year.

Hutsko had nine shots on goal. Cotton had seven.

BC featured several sons of NHL’ers led by Graham McPhee, the son on of ex-New Haven Nighthawk, and New York Ranger, George McPhee, who is the current president of the Las Vegas Golden Knights. Also on the roster is Jack McBain, the son of former New Haven Senator, Andrew McBain, and Luke McInnis, the son of Marty McInnis.

Starting in net was Spencer Knight (Darien/Avon Old Farms).

Former UConn Husky (AHA years), Brant Harris, has signed with Mora IK (Sweden Allsvenskan).

BC’s legendary head coach, Jerry York, will be inducted in the Hockey Hall of Fame next weekend in Toronto.

An excellent rendition of the National Anthem before the game began by Sergeant Major Frank May.