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UConn 7, UNH 4
A week ago,
New Hampshire had announced itself in both the Hockey East playoff race and the Pairwise after taking three points from Massachusetts.
The Wildcats were hot. They'd began 2020 beginning to demonstrate that coach Mike Souza's rebuild would be a successful one.
That's all still true, but a rebuilding team still has some valleys with which to contend. UNH hit one this weekend.
Connecticut handed the Wildcats a second straight loss, turning an early 2-1 deficit into a comfortable 7-4 win.
UConn's win moved it into fourth place in Hockey East, tied with three other teams. UNH's loss dropped it to ninth place. After last weekend's high, the Wildcats are back out of a Hockey East playoff spot and saw any hopes of an at-large dwindle.
"It was disappointing," UNH coach Mike Souza said. "Credit it to UConn. They wanted it more than we did this weekend. It was an unacceptable defensive performance on our part.
"We beat ourselves in a lot of ways. Not to take anything away from Connecticut because they're skilled, and they made plays. We typically don't give up a lot of shots. That's been our identity the last few weeks. We gave up 37 tonight."
UConn recovered from its disappointment at the first Connecticut Ice tournament to take down UNH twice. The goals came from everywhere all weekend.
“We get scoring from all four lines,” UConn coach Mike Cavanaugh said. “That’s a great recipe for success, when you have all four lines chipping in and it’s hard for the other team to just focus on one and shut one line down. I told the kids after last week that if you keep getting pucks to the net, keep having multiple shot shifts — if it’s not just one shot and out — if we keep multiple shot shifts, you will wear teams down and you will score.
"It was an emphasis this week to shoot off the pass, one-time pucks and you saw a couple go in.”
The Huskies are off next weekend before beginning their Hockey East stretch run with a trip to Maine. UNH hosts Vermont for two.<<
