Huskies Set for Series with No. 2 Boston College

Friday, December 11

Chestnut Hill, MA

6:00 PM

University of Connecticut

Boston College

Photo by: Stephen Slade

12/10/2020 9:45:00 AM | Men's Ice Hockey

Game Notes vs. Boston College

Media Coverage

TV: NESN (Friday) / CW20 (Saturday)

Video Stream: (Friday) NESN.com / CollegeSportsLive.com (Outside New England) / (Saturday) CollegeSportsLive.com

Radio: UConn Sports Network from Learfield IMG College - ESPN 97-9 FM

Audio Stream: TuneIn.com

Live Stats: BCEagles.com (Friday) / UConnHuskies.com (Saturday)

Twitter: @UConnMHOC

Game Notes: UConn Boston College

Ice Chips

UConn returns to the ice this weekend for a home-and-home series against the No.2 nationally ranked Boston College Eagles. On Friday night, UConn will head to BC for a 6 pm match-up live on NESN and return home to the Freitas Ice Forum on Saturday to host the Eagles at 3:30 pm live throughout Connecticut on CW20.
The Huskies have not played since their Nov. 20-21 series against UMass with their last two weekends called off due to Covid-19 issues with both Maine and Boston University.
After seeing their scheduled season opening series at Vermont wiped out due to the pandemic, the Huskies opened their season with a home-and-home against then No. 7 ranked UMass. The Huskies fell 5-1 in the opener in Amherst and posted a 2-2 tie in their return to the Freitas Ice Forum. UConn scored twice in the third period and then earned the first league shoot-out win of the season, 2-1 in four rounds. The games for now are recorded as non-conference match-ups but can become league results if originally scheduled games against UMass in January are changed or not played.
Freshman Cassidy Bowes had an assist in each of the Huskies' first two games and picked up the first Pro Ambitions Rookie of the Week award handed out by Hockey East this season.
Junior Carter Turnbull, who led the team with 12 goals last season, got his first on the season in the Huskies' 2-2 tie with the Minutemen. Senior Brian Rigali notched his first of the season to tie the game up, scoring shorthanded, the fourth shorty of his career.
In the opening loss at UMass, junior Kale Howarth scored the season's first goal and the Huskies' lone goal on the night. He came back on Saturday and gave the Huskies the shoot-out win, scoring the decider in the fourth round.
UConn will be without a pair of key sophomores this weekend in forward Vladislav Firstov and defenseman Yan Kuznetsov who are currently at the Team Russia training camp ahead of the 2021 IIHF World Junior Championships being held in Edmonton, Alberta, Dec. 25 through Jan. 5. If the either or both makes the team, they will be the first Russian born NCAA student-athletes to make Russia's national team for the annual event. The Huskies have had three players appear in the prestigious international tournament under head coach Mike Cavanaugh (Tage Thompson - Team USA/2017*; Adam Huska - Team Slovakia/2016&2017; Jachym Kondelik - Team Czech Republic/2019). *-Won the gold medal
The Huskies are back on campus for the first time since the 2013-14 season as they will play all their home games at the Mark Edward Freitas Ice Forum in Storrs. UConn has called the XL Center in Hartford home since joining Hockey East in 2014-15. Only two Hockey East schools have played games at Freitas in UMass Lowell and Merrimack.
In the 2020-21 HEA Preseason Coaches' Poll, the Huskies were picked to finish seventh in this year's polling of the league's head coaches. This will be the Huskies seventh season of play in Hockey East and in five of their first six seasons in the league, the Huskies have outplayed their preseason prediction.
The Husky lineup will feature eight NHL draft picks in 2020-21, a new program-high. That number climbed by three last month as sophomore Yan Kuznetsov (Calgary/2nd Rd) and freshmen Artem Shlaine (New Jersey/5th Rd) and Nick Capone (Tampa Bay/6th Rd) heard their names called in the 2020 NHL Entry Draft.
The Huskies bring back 20 players from last year's team that finished 12-10-3 in the league. UConn tied their best-finish in the standings coming in fifth and posted new program highs in conference wins (12) and points (26).
UConn returns six of its top-10 point producers from last season and top-goal scorers in junior Carter Turnbull and sophomore Vladislav Firstov, who had 12 and 10 goals, respectively. UConn had their best offensive production in Hockey East last season, averaging 3.00 goals per game, tied for fourth in the league. The Huskies were also third in the league in generating shots on goal at 32.35 per game.
Turnbull is coming off a break-out offensive season where he put up 24 points (12g/12a) in the, jumping up from his two goal, seven assist freshmen season. Firstov became the third Husky in program history to earn Hockey East All-Rookie honors last year after posting 11 goals and 12 assists. He ended the year tied for seventh among league rookies with 23 points on 11 goals and 12 assists.
Over the past two seasons, junior Jachym Kondelik has been the Huskies top-point producer, piling up 49 points (12g/37a) in 67 games played. The tallest Husky on the roster, the 6-5 Kondelik doubled his goal output last year, finishing with eight goals.
Junior Jonny Evans enters his third season in Storrs as the Huskies leading career goal scorer having potted 17 in 49 career games.