University of Connecticut Athletics
University of Connecticut
Rensselaer
Huskies Head to RPI for Return Match-Up
10/17/2019 11:35:00 AM | Men's Ice Hockey
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| Â AUDIO STREAM | Â TuneIn.com |
| Â VIDEO STREAM | Â RPITV.org |
| Â LIVE STATS | Â RPIAthletics.com |
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|  GAME NOTES |  UConn Notes   RPI Notes |
Ice Chips…
- The UConn Huskies travel up to Rensselaer for a return match-up with the Engineers Friday night at Houston Field House. RPI took the first meeting, beating the Huskies 5-3 last Saturday afternoon at the XL Center.
- This is the fourth match-up between RPI and UConn in the last two seasons. The Huskies posted a 3-1 win over the Engineers in their last trip to Houston Field House early last year.
- Friday night's game is the second of five games against teams from the ECAC this season. The Huskies are 10-10-3 against the conference in seven seasons under head coach Mike Cavanaugh.
- The Huskies close out the month of October this weekend and head into an off weekend. November will be the Huskies busiest month of the season with 10 games on the slate starting with their first Hockey East match-ups in a home and home with Merrimack November 1st and 3rd.
- The Huskies have plenty of youth on their roster in 2019-20 with 18 combined sophomores and freshmen, and that youth has powered the offense in the early going. Of the six goal scorers thus far, five are either a freshmen or sophomore, and the two classes have combined for 15 of the team's 19 points (6g/13a) through three games.
- A pair of freshmen in Vladislav Firstov and Yan Kuznetsov are coming off their first career multi-point games in the loss to RPI last weekend. Both scored their first collegiate goals in the loss and also collected an assist.Â
- Firstov is tied with sophomore Jachym Kondelik for the team lead with three points. Kondelik has scored twice and added an assist through three games. He was the team's top-returning point producer after finishing his rookie season with 26 points (4g/22a), second on the club.
- Sophomore goaltender Tomas Vomacka made a career-high 45 saves in the season opener at Sacred Heart. He made 20 saves in the second period alone, including stopping a penalty shot. Vomacka has started all three games this season and sports a 3.31 goals against and a .902 save percentage.
- Vomacka came on strong in the second half of his rookie season and played his way on to the Hockey East All-Rookie team. Vomacka started 14 of 15 games, had a 2.32 goals against (6th/HEA) and a .922 save percentage (4th/HEA).
Last Meeting with RPI…
The UConn men's hockey team fell behind 5-1 in the third period on the way to a 5-3 loss to Rensselaer last Saturday afternoon at the XL Center. RPI's Chase Zieky, Avon, Connecticut native, scored a pair of goals and collected an assist to lead the Engineers. Both Will Reilly and Simon Kjellberg had a goal and assist while Nick Bowman had three assists. The Huskies took a 1-0 lead into the first intermission thanks to the first collegiate goal from freshmen Yan Kuznetzon. From there, RPI put three on the board in the second and scored twice early in the third to take a commanding 5-1 lead. UConn freshmen Vladislav Firstov and sophomore Jachym Kondelik both scored in the third and tacked on an assist to their game totals. RPI scored on their only power play chance of the day while goaltender Linden Marshall made 31 saves to earn the win. UConn sophomore goaltender Tomas Vomacka stopped 22 shots.
Huskies vs. ECAC Hockey...
- UConn is 23-58-10 all-time against teams from the ECAC. Under head coach Mike Cavanaugh, the Huskies are 10-10-3 against the ECAC.
- In 2018-19, the Huskies were 4-3-0 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), the Bulldogs (6-3) in the Friendship Four, and the Engineers (5-2).
- UConn is scheduled to face off against teams from the ECAC five times this season, facing RPI twice, St. Lawrence and Dartmouth in the Ledyard Classic, and Quinnipiac in the Connecticut Ice Festival. The Huskies could potentially be matched-up with Yale in the second game of the CT Ice event.
- 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 (1-4-3), St. Lawrence (1-0-0), Union (1-7-4) and Yale (0-13-0) from the league.
