University of Connecticut Athletics
Huskies To Play At Bentley In AHA First Round
3/2/2010 12:00:00 AM | Men's Ice Hockey
March 2, 2010
STORRS, Conn. - The University of Connecticut men's hockey team heads out to Bentley University for their Atlantic Hockey First Round Playoff game on Saturday, March 6 at 7:05 p.m.
This is the second-straight season that they Huskies have had to play in the play-in game, last year they took on Sacred Heart on the road, falling 4-2.
The Huskies enter this game coming off of a huge 3-2 comeback and overtime victory on Senior Night against Mercyhurst which handed Head Coach Bruce Marshall his 300th victory as the coach of the Huskies. Jason Krispel (Cypress, Calif.) notched two, gamechanging goals on the night, tying the game up with 35 seconds remaining in regulation and notching the gamewinner 42 seconds into overtime.
Six Huskies have reached double figures on the year for points recorded, led by Sean Ambrosie (Moorhead, Minn.) who has recorded 17 points on the season via six goals and 11 assists. He is followed right behind by Andrew Olson (Alexandria, Minn.) with 16 points on seven goals and nine assists and Jason Krispel who has 13 points on three goals and 10 assists.
In net for the Huskies is Garrett Bartus, who joined the team halfway through the season. Bartus has compiled a 3.34 GAA, already making an unbelievable 441 saves in 17 games for a save percentage of .895.
Bentley is led by senior Marc Menzione, junior Bobby Preece and freshman Joe Campanelli. Menzione and Preece were named to the Toyota UConn Classic All-Tournament Team earlier in the season. Menzione leads the team with 29 points on 11 goals and 18 assists on the season, six of his goals are of the power play variety. Preece, a defenseman, is tied for second on the team in points racking up 25 on the year on eight goals and 17 assists. Campanelli also has 25 points on the season coming on 10 goals and 15 assists.
Between the pipes, Kyle Rank has has shared time with Joe Calvi. Rank has played the majority of the minutes seeing time in 1,291 minutes of play recording a 3.39 GAA with a 8-11-3 record. Rank was also named to the All-Tournament team in December. Calvi has played close to 764 minutes with a 3.54 GAA and a 4-7-1 record.
FOLLOW THE GAME: Live Stats for the game will be available via the Bentley Athletics website and fans that are unable to attend can view the game on the B2Networks.
SCOUTING BENTLEY: After starting off the season The Falcons have skidded towards the end of the season. Entering 2010, Bentley was 8-7-3 and coming off of a Toyota UConn Classic Championship. Since the beginning of 2010, the Falcons have gone 4-11-1 including a five-game losing streak dropping series' to Holy Cross and AIC and splitting with the Huskies.
Bentley finished the year off with a 1-1 tie against Holy Cross on Senior Night and a 12-18-4 record, 10-15-3 in conference play.
SERIES PAST: UConn and Bentley's series only began during the 1999-2000 season but they have already met 36 times. UConn holds the series lead 20-13-3 and was undefeated in their first 13 games against the Falcons.
UConn was on a three-game undefeated streak against Bentley entering the 2009-10 season, going 2-0-1 in the final three games played against Bentley last season, but the Falcons won both games in the 2009 half of the season. Their first win came at the Ryan Skating center on October 23 as they edged the Huskies 4-3. Their second victory came at the Freitas Ice Forum in the Toyota UConn Classic as they moved onto the Championship game with a 4-1 victory over UConn.
The Huskies earned their first victory of the 2009-10 season against Bentley on Feb. 19, a 4-1 thrashing of the Falcons where three different players recorded a multi-point effort via a goal and an assist in game one of a home-and-home series. The Huskies dropped the road game the following night 4-2 in a nailbiter.
HUSKIES LAST TIME OUT: The Huskies finished out their regular season with a bang in a series with Mercyhurst. After falling 5-1 on Friday, UConn rebounded on Saturday night in a 3-2 comeback overtime victory handing Head Coach Bruce Marshall his 300th victory as the coach of the UConn Huskies.
After Mercyhurst got out to a two goal lead in the second period, the Huskies entered the final period of play with a mission -- to get a win on senior night for the fifth-straight year. Chris Waterstradt (Tulsa, Okla.) got UConn on the board with a power play goal five minutes into the period to cut the Lakers' lead to one. With the time ticking down and the net empty, the Huskies had one last chance to score to tie the game up at two and Jason Krispel (Cypress, Calif.) was just the man for the job recording the game-tying extra man goal with just 35 seconds remaining in the game to force an overtime period. Just 42 seconds into overtime, Krispel notched the gamewinner for the Huskies helping Marshall to his 300th win as a head coach in 22 years of coaching the Huskies. Krispel was aided by Olson on both gamechanging goals.
The Huskies finished the regular season with a 6-25-3 record, 6-19-3 in Atlantic Hockey.
300!: Head Coach Bruce Marshall, in his 22nd year at the helm of the UConn Hockey program earned his 300th career victory on February 27, 2010. Marshall is the 43rd Division I Men's Hockey Coach to reach the 300 wins plateau and the 62nd NCAA hockey coach to do so. Marshall is the only coach to reach the milestone, so far, during the 2009-10 season.
Marshall currently holds a 300-334-60 record, 68-103-18 in Atlantic Hockey play. He currently ranks 11th on the Winningest Active Coaches by Victory List behind Don Cahoon (UMass).
HELPING TO WIN: Sophomore Dan Naurato has recorded an assist in three of the Huskies' last four victories, twice 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 while against Bentley, Naurato aided on a shorthanded goal, his second shorthanded point of the year.
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 and only road victory of the season. The Huskies earned their five other victories at home against AIC, RIT, Bentley and Mercyhurst.
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
SPREAD OFFENSE: This season, 23 different Huskies have already tallied a point, 19 of those players have scored a goal and 20 players have tacked on an assist.
Of the 23 point-getters, 17 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 137 games in his career ranking fourth all-time among UConn hockey players. Andrew Olson played in his 100th career game on Saturday, Jan. 30 against Sacred Heart and the duo of Jason Krispel and Jeff Sapieha joined Olson and Coppola on Feb. 27 playing in their 100th career game against Mercyhurst.
TO BE IN THE LEAD: When UConn is in the lead after the second period, they have not lost a game this season (5-0-1).
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 1-24-2 on the year earning their first victory of this variety against Mercyhurst on Feb. 27.
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 17 (six goals, 11 assists) followed by defenseman Alex Gerke who has 10 points on the year (four goals, six assists.) Forward Jim Gallagher has eight points on the year coming on two goals and six assists.
Tom Janosz, a defenseman, has played in all 34 games on the season recording a goal and four assists while forward Evan Carriere has seen his share of time on the front line playing in 25 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.
KRISPEL ASSISTS: Jason Krispel is quickly working his way up the UConn Record Books on the Division I Career Assists list. After a successful 2008-09 campaign where he registered 25 assists (2nd all time UConn DI Single Season Assists), Krispel has added 10 to his total this year totaling 42 for his career, currently ninth on the All-Time List. All 10 of his assists have come in Atlantic Hockey play, which ranks 43rd in the conference.
OLSON's OFFENSE: Junior assistant captain Andrew Olson (Alexandria, Minn.) is back at it as one of the Atlantic Hockey's top scorers. Through all regular season games, Olson had notched seven goals which ranks 49th in Atlantic Hockey. All seven of his goals have come in AHA play which ranks 40th in the league.
RECORD GOAL SCORER: Olson has already netted his way into the UConn record books in just his junior season. The assistant captain ranks seventh overall on the Division I Career Goals List with 33 goals registered in just under three years of play.
ALL-AROUND AMBROSIE: Freshman Sean Ambrosie (Moorhead, Minn.) is a leader on both the UConn hockey team and in the rankings. Ambrosie has recorded six goals and 11 assists on the year.
BEYOND THE BLUE LINE: Freshman Alex Gerke (Tomah, Wisc.) ranks second among freshmen on the team in points scored this season with 10; Gerke is also a top-defenseman on the team. He has tallied four goals and six 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 and sophomore Dan Naurato have taken advantage of UConn's man-down opportunities this season taking part in all of the Huskies' four 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 and aided on Waterstradt's SH goal against Bentley (Feb. 19).
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: The Huskies posted a 2-4-2 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.
The Huskies had their best win percentage of the year in the month of November coming in with a .375 win percentage. The month of January was second best for the Huskies who opened their second half of the season with a .278 win percentage.
