With surge in national polls, UConn hockey can expect ‘A’ games from opponents like Maine, at XL Center this weekend
Long-range goals and national rankings have never been taboo subjects in coach Mike Cavanaugh’s dressing room. Now that the UConn men’s hockey team has reached No. 8 in the national poll, and received a first-place vote for the first time, there is no fear of speaking too soon.
“It’s not something we’re going to shy away from,” Cavanaugh said. “We’re excited to be a Top 10 team, we want to be a Top 5 team, it’s a goal to be No. 1 in the country. I don’t think you can ever hide from that or be afraid to talk about it. It’s what our aspirations are. We want to win Hockey East championships, compete for national championships. All of those things we talk about all the time, but we also understand that seven wins are not going to get us in the national tournament.”
In other words, there is much left to do for the Huskies (7-1-1), and opponents like Hockey East’s Maine, which comes to the XL Center Friday and Saturday, will be more and more bent on keeping them from doing it.
“In the past, when we’d be a lower-ranked team, we’d get pretty amped up for the big games,” said senior defenseman Jake Flynn, one of UConn’s captains. “Now, we’re a team that’s up there, teams are going to come and they want to beat us and it’s fun, because we’ve got to bring our ‘A’ game every game as well.”
UConn fell just short of the NCAA Tournament a year ago, losing the Hockey East final in overtime, coming up a win or two short in the nonconference schedule. With higher-than-ever ambitions coming into this season, the Huskies have faced down a tough early season schedule, getting a win and a tie against Ohio State, a split at Boston University and a resounding win over Boston College last week.
At 4-1 in the conference, UConn can expect a physical challenge from Maine, which is 2-4-1, but had a split against No.7 Quinnipiac, a tie against No. 15 Northeastern and a competitive 3-1 loss to second-ranked Denver during October.
“Those games are always tight when we play them,” Cavanaugh said. “They’ve got some really talented kids up front. They’re goaltenders are big, take up a lot of the net. Like everyone else in this league, I know Maine is going to bring a lot of energy and physicality and we’ve got to be extremely diligent in our own zone. We’ve got to be able to have more multiple-shot shifts.”
UConn plays Maine Friday at 7:05 p.m. and Saturday at 4:05. The Huskies then have a home-and-home with Providence, and a home-and-home vs. UMass-Lowell before playing Cornell at Madison Square Garden on Nov. 26.
“It gets brought up and it gets mentioned, it’s good to see our program’s rising,” said Flynn, who has two goals and an assist and is plus-8 on the ice. “At the same time, it’s hard to stay there. It’s easy to fall down and drop in the rankings, but it’s hard to stay up there and keep winning hockey games. We have to keep playing our brand of hockey and do what we do best to stay up high.”
Dom Amore can be reached at damore@courant.com
