University of Connecticut Athletics
University of Connecticut
Rensselaer
Huskies Back Home to Host RPI Wednesday Night
1/15/2019 4:05:00 PM | Men's Ice Hockey
Video: Huskies All-Access
Live Stats: UConnHuskies.com
Ice Chips
- The Huskies return home to the XL Center for the first time since December 6 when they play host to the Rensselaer Engineers in a non-conference match-up Wednesday night. The Huskies and Engineers met earlier this season with UConn posting a 3-1 win at RPI's Houston Field House back on October 20.
- UConn will set up shop at the XL Center for 10 of their final 13 games in the regular season. The Huskies will return to Hockey East play next weekend with a home-and-home against New Hampshire. UConn is currently ninth in the Hockey East standings.
- Wednesday's match-up with the Engineers will be the Huskies seventh game this season against the ECAC. The Huskies are 4-2-0 this season against the league with wins over RPI, Brown, Yale and St. Lawrence on the ledger.
- The Huskies are coming off a 5-2 loss on Friday night at Merrimack in a Hockey East affair. The Huskies fell behind 4-0 before senior Karl El-Mir and freshman Jachym Kondelik scored in the third period to close the gap.Â
- Senior Karl El-Mir extended his career-best point streak to five-straight games with a goal at Merrimack. He has scored three goals with four assists on this current streak. El-Mir has taken over the team lead with 19 points and shared the team-lead in goals with junior Alexander Payusov, both at 11. He is tied for ninth in the league in scoring and tied for third in goals.Â
- El-Mir has six power play goals this season, tied for first in Hockey East and fifth in the NCAA. Five of El-Mir's power play scores have come with freshman Jachym Kondelik and sophomore Evan Wisocky picking up the assist..
- Freshman Jachym Kondelik has a four-game point streak (2g/3a) heading into Wednesday's game after recording his fourth multi-point game of the season with a goal and an assist at Merrimack.
- Kondelik is second among Hockey East rookies and tied for fifth in the NCAA in scoring with 18 points on three goals and 15 assists. The UConn freshmen class as a whole leads the team with 53 points (15g/38a) this season.
- Sophomore Evan Wisocky has piled up 10 assists on the season, second only to Kondelik. He has played a key role on the UConn power play all year with eight of his 10 assists coming with the man advantage.
Last Meeting vs. RPI
October 20, 2018
In their first meeting this season, the Huskies picked-up their first-ever win over the Engineers with a 3-1 win at Houston Field House with all four of the games goals coming in the third period. The Huskies needed just 37 seconds into the final 20 minutes of play to take a 1-0 lead as Alexander Payusov took the puck from Corson Green and fired from above the left circle, weaving one through traffic past Linden Marshall. The Engineers answered back at 4:32 tying the game, 1-1 on a Will Reilly goal. UConn's Max Kalter provided the game winner at the 9:26 mark and Payusov closed out the scoring with an empty netter in the final minutes for his second on the night. UConn rookie goaltender Tomas Vomacka made his first collegiate start in goal and made 23 saves to earn his first career victory. The Huskies finished with a 32-24 edge on shots but were 0-3 on the power play. RPI's Marshall made 29 saves in taking the loss.
Scouting the Engineers
Rensselaer is 2-2-0 since the start of the new year and 6-15-0 overall. The Engineers split road games last weekend at St. Lawrence (W, 6-5) and at Clarkson (L, 5-2), putting them ninth in the ECAC standings. Freshman goaltender Owen Savory is fourth among all ECAC netminders with a .924 save percentage and also holds a 2.81 goals against average. Junior forward Jacob Hayhurst is the team's leading point scorer with 21 on three goals and 18 assists. His 18 helpers puts him first in the ECAC. Junior forward Patrick Polino has a team-leading seven goals on the season for the Engineers.Â
Huskies vs. ECAC
- UConn is 23-56-10 all-time against teams from the ECAC. Under head coach Mike Cavanaugh, the Huskies are 10-8-3 against the ECAC.
- This season, the Huskies are 4-2-0 against teams from the ECAC, beating St. Lawrence (6-3), Yale (3-1), RPI (2-1) and Brown (3-1) while falling to Quinnipiac (4-2) and the Bulldogs (6-3) in the Friendship Four.
- The Huskies have faced Brown (5-5-1), Colgate (3-5-0), Dartmouth (0-2-0), Princeton (0-3-0), Quinnipiac (11-19-2), Rensselaer (1-2-3), St. Lawrence (1-0-0), Union (1-7-4) and Yale (0-13-0) from the league.
