University of Connecticut Athletics
Huskies To Face Cross-State Rival Sacred Heart
1/28/2010 12:00:00 AM | Men's Ice Hockey
Jan. 28, 2010
STORRS, Conn. - The University of Connecticut men's hockey team will take on cross-state rival Sacred Heart when they return to the Mark Edward Freitas Ice Forum on Friday and Saturday, January 29 and 30. The Huskies are coming off of a 1-2-0 road trip where they earned their first road victory of the season at Army.
Friday night's game will begin at the normal time of 7:05 p.m. but Saturday's game will begin a half an hour later with the puck to drop at 7:35 p.m.
The Pioneers enter this game with a 11-9-4 overall record, 9-6-3 in conference play and are currently on a 10-game unbeaten streak, longest in the nation.
The Huskies have already competed this week when they traveled to Princeton, N.J. where they took on the Tigers for the first time in the 50 year history of the program. Princeton came out with a 8-1 victory.
UConn is led by freshmen Sean Ambrosie and Alex Gerke and junior assistant captain Andrew Olson. Ambrosie is the first Husky to crack double digits on the season on four goals and seven assists while defenseman Gerke has eight points on four goals and four assists and Olson also has nine points on a team-leading five goals and four 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 SACRED HEART: The Pioneers are currently on a ten game unbeaten streak which ranks first in the nation and is SHU's longest streak in program history. SHU has outsocred opponents 45-19 during this stretch. The Pioneers concluded their longest homestand of the season last weekend with a 6-0-2 mark.
The series with UConn will be a part of a three game road stretch that takes the Pioneers to AIC (W, 6-1) and Storrs.
Sacred Heart finished the first half of their season with a 4-10-2 record but since the new year has began, a new look has arrived to the team as they have currently posted a 7-0-2 record going undefeated in the month of January.
SERIES PAST: The Huskies and the Pioneers series' is completely knotted up at 21-21-3, but Sacred Heart winning nine of the last 10 meetings between the two teams and all three last season. UConn's last win against Sacred Heart came on the road in the 2007-08 season as a part of the three-game playoff series between the two teams where the Huskies' won in overtime.
The last seven meetings between these two teams have come on the road at the Milford Ice Pavillion. At home, the Huskies hold a huge advantage as they have recorded a 14-5-1 record and a 13-5-1 series lead since the opening of the Mark Edward Freitas Ice Forum.
HUSKIES LAST TIME OUT: This weekend the Huskies headed out to West Point, N.Y. where they took on Army in their lone weekend series of the year. On Friday night, Army was the first to get on the board and never backed down as the Huskies dropped a 5-0 decision to the Black Knights with five different Army hockey players scoring goals.
On Saturday night, however, it was the Huskies to strike first. Freshman Sean Ambrosie tallied his fifth goal of the season aided by junior Brian Regan and sophomore Marcello Ranallo. The assist was the first point of the season for Regan while it was Ranallo's third on the year. With just minutes remaining in the game, Army took advantage of a power play opportunity to even things up at one-all, but the Huskies responded with a power play goal of their own to seal the victory. Junior Justin Hernandez recorded the game-winner, his second goal of the season, aided by junior Andrew Olson and sophomore Daniel Naurato. The assist was the fourth of the year for Olson and the fifth for Naurato who has had an assist in UConn's last two victories.
On Monday night, UConn faced off against Princeton in what would be a 8-1 loss for the Huskies against their third ECAC opponent of the season. Dan Naurato recorded the Huskies' lone goal of the night and was aided by Sean Ambrosie.
HELPING TO WIN: Sophomore Dan Naurato has recorded an assist in the Huskies' last two victories on the game-winning goal. In the win over RIT, Naurato had two assists in the game including the game-winning assist. In UConn's win at Army, Naurato notched his lone assist of the game on the game-winner.
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.
ROAD VICTORY: With its win at Army on January 23, the UConn men's hockey team earned its first road victory of the season. The Huskies earned their three other victories at home against AIC and RIT.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU: When the Huskies take to the ice against Sacred Heart this weekend, senior Brendan Olinyk will be just about ready to celebrate his 24th birthday. Olinyk was born on January 31, 1986.
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
TWO 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 298-326-60 record, 66-95-18 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 127 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 - 98 career games
- Jason Krispel - 92 career games
- Jeff Sapieha - 92 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 (4-0-1).
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 consistently. [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 12 (five goals, seven 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 25 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 16 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 43rd in Atlantic Hockey. All five of his goals have come in AHA play which ranks 32nd 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 five goals and seven assists on the year.
BEYOND THE BLUE LINE: Freshman Alex Gerke (Tomah, Wisc.) ranks third 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 two of the Huskies' three 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.
Daniel Naurato notched the other shorthander for the Huskies this year at Princeton.
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.
