Huskies Set for Series with Merrimack

Friday, January 29

North Andover, MA

3:00 PM

University of Connecticut

Merrimack

Photo by: Stephen Slade

1/28/2021 11:38:00 AM | Men's Ice Hockey

Game Notes

Media Coverage

Video Stream: CollegeSportsLive.com/HockeyEast | (pxp) Randy Brochu (Sat.)

Radio (Sat.): UConn Sports Network from Learfield IMG College - ESPN 97-9 FM | (pxp) Bob Joyce; (color) Adam Giardino

Audio Stream (Sat.): TuneIn.com

Live Stats: MerrimackAthletics.com (Fri.) UConnHuskies.com (Sat.)

Twitter: @UConnMHOC

Game Notes: UConn Merrimack

Ice Chips…

The UConn Huskies will take on Merrimack this weekend in a home-and-home Hockey East series. The Huskies will head to Merrimack on Friday afternoon for a 3 pm match-up at Lawler Rink and play host to the Warriors on Saturday afternoon at Freitas Ice Forum at 3 pm.
Last season, Merrimack took two of three meetings with the Huskies winning twice at the XL Center. Since joining Hockey East in 2014-15, the Huskies are 3-6-5 against the Warriors
The Huskies are coming off a two-point weekend against the No. 1 ranked Boston College Eagles. UConn battled back to grab a tie and shootout win at BC and lost to the Eagles at home, 4-2. In their four meetings with the top-ranked Eagles this season, the Huskies have taken six of a possible 12 points.
UConn enters the weekend in fifth place in the Hockey East standings with 20 points over 13 games played. Merrimack comes in with 8 point in 10 games played.
Merimack is coming off a four-point weekend against New Hampshire where they posted a 5-2 win on the road and tied and lost in a shootout at home.
In last Friday's 3-3 tie at Boston College, the Huskies went into the third period trailing 2-0 but rallied for three in the final stanza to force the overtime. Sophomore Yan Kuznetsov got his first goal on the season and junior Marc Gatcomb and Jonny Evans both scored in the final 3:01 to tie the game and force overtime. The Huskies notched their second shootout win on the season as sophomore Vladislav Firstov and Evans scored in the first two rounds to clinch the extra point.
In Saturday's home loss to the Eagles, UConn junior Carter Turnbull scored his sixth goal on the season and sophomore defenseman Jake Flynn got his first of the season in the 4-2 loss. Freshman Artem Shlaine and sophomore defenseman Carter Berger each collected assists in both games over the weekend. Shlaine has had four assists in his last three games while Berger has picked-up an assist in each of his last four games.
UConn head coach Mike Cavanaugh is closing in on 100 career victories, heading into the weekend at 98 wins over his eight seasons with the Huskies.
On the season, Evans has scored a point in 10 of the Huskies 13 games this season and leads the team in scoring with 14 points and in goals with seven. He is tied for third in the league in goals scored and points.
The UConn power play opened the season just 3-for-42 (.071) through the season's first nine games but has scored a goal in four of the last five games heading into this weekend. The Huskies broke out for six power play goals in the two-game set with New Hampshire two weeks ago. In the 8-3 road win, UConn scored four power play goals for the first time since a 5-2 win over Boston University in 2015-16.
Junior Jachym Kondelik picked-up his 12th assist on the season against BC last weekend and had a five-assist weekend against UNH. He is second in Hockey East in assists and averaging 0.92 assists per game.
UConn rookie defenseman John Spetz is leading Hockey East in blocked shots this season, stopping 31 shots over 12 games. On the offensive end, he has five points on the season coming on three goals and two assists.
Junior goaltender Tomas Vomacka has made a league-high 389 saves this season and ranks fifth in save percentage at .913. He is fifth in goals against average at 2.80.
UConn's newest roster addition, freshman Ryan Tverberg made his season debut in the series with UNH two weeks ago. Tverberg scored his first career goal and also had an assist in the 8-3 win on the road at UNH. Tverberg signed an NLI with UConn back in November and enrolled in school for the spring semester.
With the addition of Tverberg, the Husky lineup will feature nine NHL draft picks in 2020-21, a new program-high. That number climbed with the 2020 NHL Draft this fall as sophomore Yan Kuznetsov (Calgary/2nd Rd) and freshmen Artem Shlaine (New Jersey/5th Rd), Nick Capone (Tampa Bay/6th Rd) and Tverberg (Toronto/7th Rd) heard their names called.
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.