University of Connecticut Athletics
Men's Hockey Heads Out On Three-Game Road Stretch
1/21/2010 12:00:00 AM | Men's Ice Hockey
Jan. 21, 2010
STORRS, Conn. - The University of Connecticut men's hockey team embarks on a three-game road trip that will take them to West Point, N.Y. for a weekend series with Army and Princeton, N.J. where they will play against Princeton for the first time in the 50-year history of the men's hockey program.
The Black Knights enter this game with a 7-11-4 overall record, 6-7-3 in conference play.
The Huskies are coming off of a weekend split with RIT where the Huskies ended the Tigers' 13-game AHA unbeaten streak in a Saturday night 2-1 thriller.
UConn is led by freshmen Sean Ambrosie and Alex Gerke and junior assistant captain Andrew Olson. Ambrosie is the first Husky to crack 10 points on the season on four goals and six assists while defenseman Gerke has eight points on four goals and four assists and Olson also has eight points on a team-leading five goals and three assists.
FOLLOW THE GAME: Gametracker will be available for both of the games this weekend and fans that are unable to attend can view the games on the B2Networks.
SCOUTING ARMY: The Black Knights enter the weekend with a 7-11-4 overall mark and a 6-7-3 conference record. Army is coming off of a four-game road trip with two games at Sacred Heart and Canisius and is seeking its first wins in January.
Army started the year off on a 0-4-2 winless streak before earning their first victory of the year at RPI on Halloween. In the month of November, the Black Knights fell twice to RIT, split with AIC and Bentley and took two wins from Canisius on their home ice. They won their only two games of December ending the first half of their season on a four-game win streak before heading to break.
The second half has not opened well for Army as they lost to Union at home on Jan. 2, tied and lost at Sacred Heart and tied and lost at Canisius.
SERIES PAST: UConn and Army have met 50 times since the 1968-69 season with the Black Knights holding the 25-18-7 overall advantage and 14-6-6 advantage on their home ice.
Since both teams joined the Atlantic Hockey Association in the 2003-04 season, the regular season series is knotted up at 9-9-2 (Army holds just a slight advantage with a 3-1 postseason victory).
Last season, the Huskies swept the Black Knights for the first time in the history of the program. The two wins came in their first home weekend of play on Oct. 24 and 25. UConn took the first game 4-3 and the second 6-3 en route to a handful of weekly awards. Then-freshman Marcello Ranallo earned the AHA Rookie of the Week award while then-sophomore Andrew Olson was named the AHA, Inside College Hockey and New England Hockey Journal Player of the Week honors.
SCOUTING PRINCETON: Princeton is the third ECAC team that the Huskies will face this season after taking on Brown and Union earlier in the season. The Tigers are 6-10-2 on the season and 3-8-1 in conference play.
Princeton was back-and-forth at the beginning of the season earning a 4-3-1 record before the middle of November where they went on a six-game losing streak. In their final game before breaking for exams, the Tigers turned things around to split with UMass-Lowell and have gone 2-2-1 in the second half of their season.
SERIES PAST: This is the first time that these two teams will face each other in the 50-year history of UConn hockey.
HUSKIES LAST TIME OUT: The Huskies returned home to take on RIT who was on a 12-game AHA unbeaten streak entering the series.
On Friday night, RIT came out strong scoring just a couple of minutes into the game and adding at least one goal in each of the three periods, including an empty netter, to take the 4-0 victory.
On Saturday night, however, the tables were turned as the Huskies were the team to come out firing scoring their first goal of the night just 4:17 into the game when freshman Tom Janosz (Elma, N.Y.) netted the first goal of his collegiate career with some help from sophomore Daniel Naurato (Livonia, Mich.) and Chris Waterstradt (Tulsa, Okla.). The Huskies hung on to their lead adding a second goal to the total in the second period as sophomore Josh Bernard recorded his first goal of the season, also aided by Naurato and freshman James Gallagher (Marquette, Mich.). RIT cut into the lead in the third period but the Huskies were able to hang on as freshman Garrett Bartus (St. Charles, Ill.) recorded his first career win making 30 saves in the process. With the victory, the Huskies ended RIT's 13-game AHA unbeaten streak.
STREAK ENDERS: With their third victory of the season on Saturday, January 16, the Huskies put to an end RIT's 13-game AHA unbeaten streak. During that time, the Tigers were 12-0-1 in a streak that ironically began against the Huskies on October 30.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU: When the Huskies take to the ice against Army this weekend, junior Brian Regan will be celebrating his 23rd birthday. Reagan was born January 22, 1987. Also celebrating his birthday this week was fellow junior Matt Pedemonti who's birthday fell on January 19!
A WEEKEND OF FIRSTS: In the weekend series with RIT on January 15 and 16, the Huskies recorded a number of firsts - Freshman Tom Janosz recorded his first goal of his collegiate career - Sophomore Josh Bernard knocked in his first goal of the season - Sophomore Daniel Naurato had his first multi-point effort of the season with two assists - UConn earned their first win since Nov. 7, 2009
THREE AWAY FROM 300: Head Coach Bruce Marshall, in his 22nd year at the helm of the UConn Hockey program is closing in on winning his 300th game. Marshall currently holds a 297-325-60 record, 65-94-18 in Atlantic Hockey play.
SPREAD OFFENSE: This season, 22 different Huskies have already tallied a point, 17 of those players have scored a goal and 17 players have tacked on an assist.
Of the 22 point-getters, 15 have recorded multiple points this season.
CENTURY MARK: Senior Michael Coppola is the lone Husky to enter the 2009-10 season having played in over 100 games. Currently Coppola has played in 125 games in his career and if he participates in each of the next 12 regular season games will third all-time among UConn hockey players. Potentially joining Coppola as athletes to hit the century mark this season will be: - Andrew Olson - 95 career games - Jason Krispel - 92 career games - Jeff Sapieha - 89 career games
TO BE IN THE LEAD: When UConn is in the lead after the second period, they have not lost a game this season.
The Huskies were up after the middle period in all three victories this season.
When UConn trails, or is tied, after the second period they are 0-16-2 on the year.
THE CLASS OF 2009: Of the 10 freshman that joined the Huskies this season, seven of them have played consistanly. [Miles Winter is sitting out the season after transferring from Quinnipiac, while Matt Grogan will be joining him.]
Forward Sean Ambrosie leads the team in points recorded this season with ten (four goals, six assists) followed by defenseman Alex Gerke who has eight points on the year (four goals, four assists.) Forward Jim Gallagher has six points on the year coming on two goals and four assists.
Tom Janosz, a defenseman, has played in all 22 games on the season recording a goal and an assist while forward Evan Carriere has seen his share of time on the front line playing in 14 games this year, recording two assists.
In goal, Jeff Larson played in 15 games turning in a 2-9-2 record and making 397 saves on the season for a 3.46 GAA before leaving the team for personal reasons.
Garrett Bartus has taken over for Larson in the second half of the season and has already filled in nicely between the pipes setting a new UConn Division I Single Game Saves Record making 57 saves against Air Force on January 9.
OLSON's OFFENSE: Junior assistant captain Andrew Olson (Alexandria, Minn.) is back at it as one of the Atlantic Hockey's top scorers. Through 22 games this season Olson had notched five goals which ranks 38th in Atlantic Hockey. All five of his goals have come in AHA play which ranks 22nd in the league.
ALL-AROUND AMBROSIE: Freshman Sean Ambrosie (Moorhead, Minn.) is a leader on both the UConn hockey team and in the rankings. Ambrosie has recorded four goals and six assists on the year.
BEYOND THE BLUE LINE: Freshman Alex Gerke (Tomah, Wisc.) ranks second on the team in points scored this season with eight, Gerke is also a top-defenseman on the team. He has tallied four goals and four assists this season which puts him among the leagues best as one of the top scoring defensemen in the league and one of the top scoring freshman as well.
SETTING RECORDS: In just his third game in a UConn uniform, freshman Garrett Bartus (St. Charles, Ill.) set the new UConn Division I Single Game Saves Record making 57 saves in 59 chances in a game at Air Force on Jan. 9, 2010.
TAKING ADVANTAGE: Senior Michael Coppola has taken advantage of UConn's man-down opportunities this season taking part in both of the Huskies shorthanded goals in 2009-10.
Coppola scored UConn's first shorthanded goal of the year against Canisius on Nov. 14 and dished out an assist on Brad Cooper's shorthanded goal against Air Force on Jan. 8.
SAVE MACHINE: Rookie Jeff Larson set a career high on Friday, November 20 against Air Force. The Falcons took 51 shots on goal on the night and Larson allowed just two to get by him for making 49 saves which is good enough for fifth on the UConn All-Time Division I Single Game Saves List. He ended the game with a save percentage of .960.
Larson made 397 saves this season in just 15 games averaging just over 26 saves per game before leaving the team for personal reasons. The amount of saves that Larson made in his 15-game career was one of the highest in Atlantic Hockey as-well-as the country.
ROOKIE OF THE WEEK (PART II): For the second time this season, a UConn freshman has earned Rookie of the Week honors. This time it was goaltender Larson who was honored after earning the first two wins of his collegiate career against American International.
Larson allowed just two goals on the weekend for an outstanding 1.00 GAA. He played all 120 minutes between the pipes making 48 saves for a career best .960 save percentage.
ROOKIE OF THE WEEK: After his performance against Ferris State, University of Connecticut freshman Sean Ambrosie (Moorhead, Minn.) earned AHA Rookie of the week honors.
Ambrosie recorded two points on the weekend tallying his first collegiate goal and assist in the series against Ferris State. Ambrosie earned his first assist of the season on Daniel Naurato's goal in game one that gave the Huskies a 1-0 advantage over their CCHA opponent. He notched the first goal of his career in game two. His goal was the only one of the game for the Huskies and came in the second period.
HUSKIES IN NOVEMBER/AT HOME: The Huskies posted a 2-6-2 record in November. The series' with AIC and Air Force were the lone home games of the fall season for the Huskies.
UConn won both of their games against AIC earning their first victories of the season to begin the 11th month of the year earning a 0-1-1 record against Air Force to have a 2-1-1 record at home during the fall season.
