University of Connecticut Athletics
Huskies Ready To Build On Record-Setting Season
2/28/2024 3:58:00 PM | Women's Ice Hockey
STORRS – When the UConn women's ice hockey team opened its Hockey East conference schedule with three consecutive losses, it would have been easy to panic.
Instead, Coach Chris MacKenzie chose to fix the problem.
"In the three losses, we played better, we just couldn't score," he explained. "So after those three, we basically switched up the lines and they were almost a mirror image of what they are now. We switched up the lines, found some offense, kind of rolled with it and that combination is what we've stuck with after those losses."
Safe to say, it worked.
Immediately after the 0-3 start, the Huskies went on a remarkable 21-game unbeaten streak in the conference, including separate winning streaks of nine straight and five straight. The result has been a conference-best 19-4-4 record (22-7-5 overall) and UConn's first Hockey East regular season championship. The title gives the Huskies the No. 1 seed in the upcoming Hockey East Tournament and home games throughout at Toscano Family Ice Forum. The tournament champion receives an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament, which would be a first for the UConn program.
"We have program goals that we talk about," MacKenzie said, "but it's more process-driven – what are we doing to get to that next game, to do that next thing. Obviously, hockey's regular season and playoff champion is one of them, and NCAA Tournament is there. We've measured our progress toward those, so this is clearly a year where we've made some progress, so we're happy."
MacKenzie is quick to point out that the Huskies' success this season stems from their consistent effort throughout the season and that comes from the players themselves and the exceptional leadership of the team veterans.
"It's been player-led," MacKenzie said. "As a coach, I didn't have to talk about accountability or standards, the players led the way on that. All the credit to them. We've had contributions from everybody. We don't have a superstar that we have to lean on all the time, it's more of a group of players that have come together. It's somebody new that steps up every week."
Defenseman Cam Wong has been part of the UConn program since 2018 and is finally able to celebrate a regular season title.
"It's huge for us," she said. "It's kind of emotional. There's a lot of people who came before us … I have to give credit to the people here now, but I think it's everyone in the past, too. The program has been growing more and more every day."
Wong has been part of UConn's past success, including three berths in the conference championship game, but is confident that this is the Huskies' breakthrough year to the tournament title.
"There's just something different about this group," the grad student said. "Like Coach said, it's player-led group, and that's a big thing for us this year. In the past, I think we've always been a cohesive group, but there's something special about this group -- the way we're able to do things independently, but also come together when we need to. Knowing your role and playing to your strengths and weaknesses, that's something we've been able to do really well."
"I've got to give credit to all the upperclassmen," Wong added. "It's one cohesive group. We try to stay close together and on the same page. With the upperclassmen's experience and the freshmen energy, everybody meshes really well together."
As the top seed in the conference tourney, UConn will await the lowest surviving seed from among the first-round games between No. 7 Boston University vs. No. 10 Holy Cross or No. 8 Maine vs. No. 9 Merrimack. UConn's quarterfinal match is set for Saturday, March 2, at 1 p.m. at Toscano.
It's a position the Huskies do not take lightly.
"It's just the culmination of a lot of work," MacKenzie said. "A lot of players and coaches have come through even before myself ... we've steadily elevated the program and this is the summation of it all. We're really excited to continue our season. We'll probably reflect a lot more on it at the end of the year, but now there's a conference tournament here. There's always another standard, another level to reach and that's what we're striving for the next couple of weeks."
