University of Connecticut Athletics
University of Connecticut
Massachusetts
UConn Faces No. 10 UMass Wednesday on NESN
12/22/2020 7:31:00 PM | Men's Ice Hockey
Media Coverage
TV: NESN
Video Stream: NESN.com (Outside New England - CollegeSportsLive.com)
Radio: UConn Sports Network from Learfield IMG College - ESPN 97-9 FM (pxp) Bob Joyce; (color) Adam Giardino
Audio Stream: TuneIn.com
Live Stats: UMassAthletics.com
Twitter: @UConnMHOC
Ice Chips
- The Huskies are on the road Wednesday afternoon and headed up I-91 to take on the No 10 nationally ranked Massachusetts Minutemen for the third time this season. Opening face-off is scheduled for 3:30 pm and will be available live on NESN.
- UConn and UMass played a two-game home-and-home series to kick-off the season on November 20 and 21. The series was added after both teams saw their opening match-ups with UConn at Vermont and UMass at Maine postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
- The Minutemen posted a 5-1 series opening win on their home ice in Amherst and the Huskies battled back from a two-goal third period deficit to earn a 2-2 tie before notching their first Hockey East shootout win, 2-1, in four rounds.
- UConn is coming off a tough 2-1 loss at home to the No. 17 UMass Lowell River Hawks on Monday night. The Huskies and River Hawks were tied at 1-1 late into the third period before a Zach Kaiser goal with 2:50 left to play sealed the UML win.
- UConn junior Carter Turnbull scored his second goal of the season, and his first on the power play, in the loss. Both teams were 1-for-4 on the power play while UConn held a 32-26 edge on shots.
- The Huskies come off a series with Boston College where they took four-of-six points from the No. 2 ranked Eagles. In the opener at BC, the Huskies came back from two goals down in the third to force overtime and grab a point before falling 4-3.
- UConn got their first win on the season over a weekend series with No. 2 ranked Boston College where they took four of six points from the Eagles. The Huskies snapped a six-game BC win streak in the all-time series thanks to a 3-1 win at home to wrap the weekend.
- Junior Jonny Evans has tallied at least a point in three-straight games (1g/3a) and has a had a point in four of the five games this year to lead the team in scoring with five points (1g/4a). Evans came into the season as the Huskies leading career goal scorer and now has 18 goals in 54 career games.
- Junior Carter Turnbull has a pair of goals and a pair of assists in the early going while classmates Marc Gatcomb and Kale Howarth also have scored twice this season.
- Sophomore defenseman Roman Kinal matched his career-high with a pair of assists in the 3-1 win over BC. Kinal returned to the Husky lineup after missing all of 2019-20 with an injury. During his freshman season, he was the only UConn rookie to play in all 34 games and finished with seven points (1g/6a).
- Junior goaltender Tomas Vomacka was named the Hockey Defensive Player of the Week after making 59 saves on 64 shots to earn four out of six points from No. 2/2 Boston College. The junior stopped 32 shots, including all 19 he saw in the first period, as the Huskies lost, 4-3, in overtime at Boston College. He came back and kicked out 27 shots and kept BC off the scoreboard for the first two periods in a 3-1 win over the Eagles.
- UConn will be without a pair of sophomores in forward Vladislav Firstov and defenseman Yan Kuznetsov who are currently with Team Russia at the 2021 IIHF World Junior Championships being held in Edmonton, Alberta, Dec. 25 through Jan. 5. Both Firstov and Kuznetsov were named to the final roster making history as the first Russian born NCAA student-athletes to make Russia's national team for the annual event. The Huskies previously 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.
This Season vs. UMass
November 20, 2020 - L, 5-1 @ Mullins Center
- The Huskies opened their season at Massachusetts falling to the No. 7 nationally ranked Minutemen, 5-1 at the Mullins Center.
- UMass got goals from five different players and outshot the Huskies 46-22 on the night.
- The Minutemen killed off all five UConn power plays and were two-of-six with the extra skater.
- Oliver Chau had a goal and an assist while Bobby Trivigno and Aaron Bohlinger each had a pair of assists on the night.
- Goaltender Matt Murray made 21 saves to earn the win in net.
- For UConn, junior Kale Howarth scored the Huskies lone goal while junior goaltender Tomas Vomacka stopped 41 shots, 21 in the first period, in taking the loss.
November 21, 2020 - T, 2-2 (UConn won shoot out, 2-1) @ Freitas
- UConn rallied for a pair of goals in the third period to come away with a 2-2 tie with the Minutemen at the Freitas Ice Forum in Storrs. - After the newly adopted 3-on-3 overtime ended scoreless, the Huskies won a four-round shoot out with Howarth scoring the winner.
- The Minutemen jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first period, scoring quickly on the power play on a Matthew Kessel goal just 3:25 in. Philip Lagunov made it 2-0 at the 12:40 mark but that would close out the UMass scoring for the night.
- UConn surged back for a pair in the third to force the overtime. Junior Carter Turnbull notched his first on the season at the 9:53 mark to pull within 2-1. The Huskies were able to tie the game up with a shorthanded Brian Rigali goal with just 2:00 left in regulation.
- In the overtime, UMass looked like they had a game-winner as Connor Felix put a rebound in but the goal was waved off after review for too many men on the ice.
-The Huskies held a 37-36 edge on the shot chart but were 0-for-7 on the power play.
- Vomacka had 34 saves while UMass netminder Filip Lindberg stopped 35 shots.
