Huskies Beat No.11 Vermont for 2nd Hockey East Win
Photo credit: Ian Bethune – SOX & Dawgs
Earlier tonight, the UConn men’s hockey team took on their fifth ranked team of the season, hosting No. 11 Vermont at the XL Center in front of a late arriving 5,072, coming away with a 2-1 victory.
The win improves the Huskies to 3-1-1 against ranked opponents on the season and is their second in-conference victory as a member of Hockey East. It is also their fifth win against a ranked team in the last two seasons, since head coach Mike Cavanaugh arrived in Storrs.
Spencer Naas and Johnny Austin, two friends from Minnesota, who came to UConn together, paced the Huskies with a goal each.
“I was really proud of our club tonight,” Cavanaugh said following the win. “I thought we had a good first period and we were rewarded with a 1-0 lead. The 2nd period they took it to us a little bit and they got the goal to tie the game up, but right after that, we responded really well. We had some great chances, Spencer [Naas] scored to make it 2-1 and then we had some unbelievable looks. I really liked the way we responded after they scored the goal.”
Goalie Rob Nichols excelled again at the XL Center, stopping all, but one of the 24 shots he faced. Nichols has only given up two goals in the three games the Huskies have played in downtown Hartford, including the shutout of Boston College in their debut.
The fans also showed up, something Cavanaugh talked about after the game.
“I was talking with a coach who I’ll leave nameless, but a friend of mine in the business and he said I was shocked you had 8,000 for the BC game, I was shocked you had 4,000 for RPI,” Cavanaugh said. “He was coming to UConn for awhile and he said ‘the building was never full, I can’t believe you’re getting those crowds.’ It’s clearly an advantage for us playing here. The crowd is into the game, they’re our 7th man on the ice and I’m encouraging them all to keep coming because it’s certainly given us a home ice advantage here at the XL.”
“It doesn’t surprise me,” he continued, “because I’ve watched UConn support their teams over the last 20 years. They get 5,000 for a soccer game and I don’t think anyone else in the country probably gets those numbers. It’s certainly not shocking for me and as long as we keep competing as we have throughout this first half, they’ll keep coming to support us.”
It’s a short turn around for the Huskies, who are back on the ice tomorrow afternoon against No. 3 Boston University.
“We talked about it in the locker room right after the game,” Cavanaugh said. “Normally we have a twenty-four hour rule where you either enjoy the win or you’re upset about your loss and then you move on. Tonight, it’s twenty-four minutes because we have BU coming in here tomorrow at 3:30PM.”
The Huskies didn’t fair well last time they had back-to-back’s at Penn State to open the season.
“We know we have an excellent club in here, maybe the top pick in the NHL draft in Jack Eichel and an outstanding coach in David Quinn,” Cavanaugh added. “I know that they’ll come in here and not take us lightly as we played them well, 4-4 earlier this year at BU. We’ll have our hands full, but I have a lot of confidence in those guys in that room that we’ll come out and compete hard tomorrow.”
Following the game, head on over to Rentschler Field to see the football team take on Cincinnati at 8PM. UConn is running a promotion where a ticket stub from Saturday’s hockey game will get you admission to football for just $5.
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