Dom Amore: Despite recent struggles, No. 10 UConn men’s hockey in position to reach for all its goals
It’s easy to fall victim to “recency bias.” Sure, the UConn men’s hockey team had a strong start, reaching new levels of national relevance, but as the season halts for a long break, three losses in the last four games aren’t sitting well with coach Mike Cavanaugh.
“I’m certainly happy with the way the season went in one aspect,” Cavanaugh said. “We’re 11-5-3, but in another aspect, four games ago we were 10-2-3, and I feel like the break is coming at a good time for us. We haven’t been as sharp and dialed in as we need to be.”
The Huskies lost a tough one to Boston University, 3-2, at the XL Center on Sunday, and dropped from No. 8 to 10 in the USCHO poll this week.
They were as high as No. 6 before their 6-0 loss to Cornell at Madison Square Garden on Nov. 26. But there is more to feel good about than bad, and ample reason to anticipate a memorable second half.
“[Longtime Boston College coach] Jerry York used to always say to me, ‘You play the first half of the season to put yourself in contention to win trophies,’” Cavanaugh said. “Then come Jan. 1, the second half of the season, that’s when the ‘men’s league’ starts, the games become a lot more intense and there’s a lot more riding on it. We’ve played well enough to put ourselves in contention to win every trophy available to us.”
UConn has already played 11 games against ranked teams, including seven of the last eight. The need to play “grown-up” hockey, especially avoiding unnecessary penalties, a cause of recent losses, will become even bigger.
“We didn’t lose Sunday because we were tired,” Cavanaugh said. “We lost because we took unnecessary penalties and we lacked discipline. That’s something we need to clean up.”
When the Huskies get back to action Dec. 29, they’ll play a home-and-home series against LIU, a nonconference opponent they cannot look past.
In January, more people, locally and nationally, figure to be paying attention as the Huskies play Northeastern at Fenway Park on Jan. 7. They then open the new arena, the Toscano Family Forum, on campus against Northeastern on Jan. 14.
The Connecticut Ice tournament is Jan. 27-28, and will begin rotating at campus sites, this time at Quinnipiac. If the Huskies and Bobcats, currently No. 2, hold onto their rankings and meet on Day Two, that will be an exciting showcase for the state’s brand of hockey. It’s one of those available trophies, also.
“There’s certainly some big games on there,” Cavanaugh said. “But it starts with Long Island, and I told the kids, stay in shape because we’ve got three practices before we play them.”
The Hockey East regular-season title, the conference tournament and the national championship are the goals in sight. The Huskies are No. 7 in the PairWise ratings, a key metric in tournament selection like the basketball Net Rankings. They are tied with Merrimack (27 points) atop the conference standings, and due to Hockey East’s strong out-of-conference performance, there are six teams in contention for NCAA bids. UConn’s 4-1 out-of-conference record, with wins over Ohio State and Union, figures to have value in March.
The Huskies have gotten strong play from veterans like Ryan Tverberg, who leads the team with 10 goals and eight assists, and freshmen like Matthew Wood, who is second with 15 points. Goaltenders Logan Terness (2.32 goals against) and Arsenii Sergeev (2.57), both of whom having virtually no college experience before the season, have held their own.
“I don’t have many guys who have underachieved,” Cavanaugh said. “What’s nice is, I can go up and down our lineup and say [Hudson] Schandor, Tverberg have been pretty good, and [Justin] Pearson has come in from Yale and given us a good lift. Ty Amonte’s come in and been an inspiration and played hard, Nick Capone and Chase Bradley have given us a lot.
“Up and down the lineup you’re getting solid efforts from a lot of guys. Jake Percival is a kid who has played really, really well as a freshman. Tom Messineo has played well as a freshman on defense. Matty Wood was a heralded guy, a big name coming to us, but you’ve got to remember he’s 17 years old. Arsenii has played well and Logan has been solid in net. If you told me they’d have the numbers they have, I’d be like, ‘All right, that’s pretty darn good.’”
On a campus with the men’s basketball team unbeaten and ranked third, and the women’s basketball team No. 9 despite a long list of injured stars, the men’s hockey team, and the women’s hockey team, No. 14, are part of a unique achievement. UConn is the only school with ranked teams in all four sports, plus a bowl-bound football team.
“It’s a great source of pride for UConn, that’s for sure.” Cavanaugh said. “We have to take care of business in the second half. We can control our own destiny for the most part.”
Dom Amore can be reached at damore@courant.com
