CANTLON: (2/26) HUSKIES LOSE 6-4 TO MAINE 

BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings

STORRS, CT – This loss to the University of Maine hurts UCONN hockey in many ways as they approach the end of the regular season. While a solid effort, overall, it was a bad night for the home team at the Freitas Ice Forum. The visiting University of Maine Black Bears played with passion and rode the strength of a three-goal second period to beat and hand the UCONN Huskies their fourth straight defeat, 6-4 on Friday.

“I give a lot of credit to Maine,” an unhappy UCONN Head Coach, Mike Cavanaugh, said. “They won a lot of key battles when they had to win them. They made saves when they had to make saves. They got some bounce-back goals to tie at two. They had a lot of fight and determination. They outplayed us.”

The UCONN record drops to 8-10-2, and their HEPI index falls to 50.92, dropping them to sixth place.

Maine improves to 3-9-1 and a HEPI Index of 45.97. They remain in ninth place but are gaining on Merrimack.

An eight-minute stretch doomed the Huskies. Maine scored two goals in 25 seconds in the first three minutes. The first goal came at 2:22 with breakdowns all over the ice.

BLACK BEARS SCORE

The Black Bears’ AJ Drobot got to a dumped-in puck ahead of the UCONN defense. Goaltender Tomas Vomacka tried unsuccessfully to handle the puck behind the Huskies net.

Drobot put the puck in front of the net, hoping for a Black Bear or a pair of UCONN skates to put it in, but Vomacka made a fantastic sliding save, but the result was a madhouse scramble in front. The puck found defenseman Dawson Bruneski at the point. He played pitch-and-catch with Brady Gaudette at the right-wing half wall.

Gaudette then spun off the wall unchecked and went into the right-wing circle where he uncorked a wrist shot that Vomacka never saw as he was screened by his defenseman, Ryan Wheeler, as the puck found the inside of the short-side post.

“It started with both defensemen pinching on one guy. Now, we survive it, and Tomas turns it over, and now you’re scrambling. Then you got guys playing goalie and not playing their position, and they capitalized,” an exasperated Cavanaugh said.

On the very next shift, the UCONN defense lapsed again. Maine’s John Mulera took a pass high in his end and turned to see Jack Quinlivan at center ice. He hit him with a tape-to-tape pass sending him off on a clean breakaway,

Husky Brian Rigali raced back in vain to try to catch Quinlivan, who got off, not one but two shots, that were both stopped by Vomacka with his left pad and then with his glove.

The referees called a penalty on Rigali and then also signaled for a penalty shot even though Quinlivan could get off two shots on goal.

PENALTY SHOT?

As Rigali looked on at the UCONN bench from the penalty box, he shrugged his shoulders, not understanding why he was there.

On the penalty shot, Quinlivan, who had no points and was a minus-6 in ten games, went down the left-wing side and whistled his shot over the stick-side past Vomacka at 2:47.

The shot was the second penalty shot of the game.

A frustrated Cavanaugh was going to address the officiating issue.

“I don’t know. I have to see it (again),” was all he would say about it on the post-game, Zoom press conference.

The Huskies almost stemmed the tide at 3:52 as it seemed freshmen Gavin Puskar (Farmington/Hotchkiss Prep), playing in just his third game, had scored on a net-front scramble following a rebound of a Ryan Tverberg backhander was initially by Swedish goalie, freshmen Victor Österman.

After a lengthy video review by the officials, they ruled it as no goal.

With all of the momentum. The Black Bears posted their third goal after Cameron Spicer’s right-point shot was blocked but went to senior JD Greenway. He put home his second of the season at 7:52 from the left point and with it taking all the oxygen out of the arena.

Maine’s strong counter-attacking play left UCONN dazed and confused.

“We were playing very rogue, not systematically sound – those eight minutes were the game,”  Cavanaugh succinctly stated.

ÖSTERMAN

In the third, the Huskies’ leading scorer, Jonny Evans, made things interesting, bagging his 13th of the season at 8:58 to make it 5-3.

Österman suddenly fell in his crease. He could not get back up and stayed on his skates with the Huskies were swarming the Black Bears seeking their fourth goal.

At the next stoppage, Österman was grabbing the back of his left leg. He received some medical assistance but was pulled from the game for sophomore Matt Thiessen, a Vancouver Canucks draftee with 6:28 to go.

Österman left the game after stopping 40 shots, including 13 in the third.

Drobot put Maine’s first shot on net of the period into an empty net for his second of the night after the Huskies had pulled Vomacka with 3:14 to go.

The Huskies added a fourth goal to closed out the games’ scoring as Eric Linnell redirected Marc Gatcomb’s shot for his first of the season at 19:04.

The Huskies had a nearly three-to-one shot advantage (52-19) and an incredible 23-2 total in shots in the third period. Maine has now surrendered 111 shots (Österman has stopped 103)  on goal over their last six periods of hockey, but Cavanaugh surprisingly expressed frustration with the Huskys’ offense shot output.

“We need to get more traffic to the net. I still think we’re passing up too many shots. When we have chances to shoot the puck, we’re passing the puck at the net. We have to get more volume.”

FIRST PERIOD

With the score tied at one, UCONN was awarded a penalty shot late in the first period.

Hudson Schandor returned to the lineup after being injured, came off the right-wing, went to the forehand, and held the puck while sweeping around Österman to make it 2-1.

Maine answered right back with an uncontested breakout by the Huskies.

Maine’s Adrian Bisson took the feed from the Black Bears JD Greenway end came up the left-wing. He sent a cross-ice pass to Ben Poisson, who wired a wrist shot from the right-wing circle just above Vomacka’s left shoulder to even the game at one.

The Huskies’ first goal was a shorthanded tally that came after a poor decision by Maine’s Veli-Mat Tiuraniemi. He tried to slip past Marc Gatcomb at the right side of the net. Gatcomb snatched the puck away and shoveled his fifth of the season past a shocked  Österman at 12:57.

Maine answered back with a stretch pass from Czech defender Jakub Sirota that caught Drobet in full stride down the middle of the ice for a breakaway going from backhand-to-forehand and beating Vomacka to tie the game at one at 11:53.

UCONN LINES

Carter Turnbull-Jachym Kondelik-Jonny Evans
Gavin Puskar-Hudson Schandor- Ryan Tverberg
Marc Gatcomb-Artem Shlaine-Nick Capone
Zac Robbins-Brian Rigali-Eric Linnell

Yan Kuznetsov-Adam Karashik
Carter Berger-John Spetz
Ryan Wheeler-Jake Flynn
Harrison Rees

INJURED

D Roman Kinal (knee)
Vladislav Firstov (lower-body injury).

SUSPENDED

Kale Howarth – one game

NOTES

It was the first time three years UCONN had a penalty shot since Ben Freeman against UMASS-Lowell. The last opponent to have a penalty shot was last season in John Leonard of UMASS-Amherst.

The Hockey Commissioners Association (HCA) has announced the finalists for this year’s Mike Richter Award, given annually to the top goalie in men’s NCAA Division I hockey since 2014. A panel of voters singled out nine goaltenders from a “Watch List” of 35 from across the hockey community.

Vomacka didn’t make the final cut.

Seven of the nine finalists are U.S. natives, with one from Canada and one from Latvia. Three are sophomores, three are juniors, and three are seniors.

The winner of this year’s Mike Richter Award will be announced in April during the NCAA Frozen Four.

Past Richter Award Recipients: 2014 – Connor Hellebuyck (Winnipeg), UMass Lowell; 2015 – Zane McIntyre, North Dakota; 2016 – Thatcher Demko (Vancouver), Boston College; 2017 – Tanner Jaillet, Denver; 2018 – Cale Morris, Notre Dame; 2019 – Cayden Primeau, Northeastern; 2020 – Jeremy Swayman, Maine.

Mike Richter Award Finalists

Finalists for the 2021 Mike Richter Award and several have CT connections are;

Spencer Knight, Boston College (HE) (SO – Darien/Avon Old Farms)

Strauss Mann, Michigan (Big 10) (JR – Greenwich/Brunswick School)

Dryden McKay, Minnesota State (NCHC) (JR – Downers Grove, IL) – the son of former Hartford Whaler goalie, Ross McKay

Keith Petruzzelli, Quinnipiac University (ECACHL) (SR – Wilbraham, MA)

Jaxson Stauber, Providence College (HE) (SO – Plymouth, MN), son of former Hartford Wolf Pack and New Haven Nighthawks goalie Robb Stauber is the only goalie to win the Hobey Baker Award in 1988 with Minnesota.

The other finalists are:

Jack LaFontaine, Minnesota (SR – Mississauga, ONT)
Mareks Mitens, Lake Superior (WCHA) (SR – Ventspils, Latvia)
Blake Pietila, Michigan Tech (WCHA) (SO – Howell, MI)
Adam Scheel, North Dakota (NCHC) (JR – Lakewood, OH)

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