BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings
HARTFORD, CT - For the UCONN Huskies it was like a “playoff game” as their hockey ended their season with a wild 4-3 win over the number two nationally ranked UMASS Minuteman before a boisterous and exceptionally loud crowd of 5,035 that rocked the XL Center Friday night.
UCONN finishes with an overall record of 12-20-2 and 7-15-2 in Hockey East. The Minutemen, the regular season conference champion, finishes their regular season record of 26-8-0 and 18-6-0 in Hockey East. They will host the ninth-ranked University of New Hampshire in the first round of the playoffs next weekend.
“Sometimes it takes a bit longer to finds your rhythm and competitiveness. I was reading about that with (coach) Brad Stevens of the Celtics. I feel if the season was a month longer, we would be playing in the Hockey East playoffs for sure. Overall, I was so happy for our seniors, Miles (Gendron), Max (Kalter), AND Karl (El-Mir) for everything we stand for, to have them graduate, make them better men, and we wanted to compete for trophies.
"I was impressed by how they brought this group along very easy. When you have 12 younger guys it can go sideways and be a train wreck. What they did to keep this group competitive the last month of the season, we finished 5-3. I can’t say enough about their leadership. They got a well-deserved win tonight,” remarked head coach Mike Cavanaugh.
Beating UMASS, who eliminated them from playoff contention two weeks ago, was icing on the cake for UCONN in a season that saw some successes and some failures.
“That was very special for all us seniors. We love it. They're a great team over there. To beat the number two team in the nation was unimaginable two months ago. I’m so proud of everybody how we held together.” senior Max Kalter said with an enormous smile.
The game-winning tally came against the third Minuteman goalie of the night for UMASS, Brad Avanaitas.
UMASS pulled Avanaitas for the sixth attacker with 1:38 left, but UCONN's team defense held the fort allowing the team to end their season on a winning note.
In the final five minutes, the UCONN team defense had two key shot blocks. The first was by Ruslan Iskharov on the goal line and Miles Gendron. Then add in Kale Howarth’s tight checking of the ever-dangerous, Cale Makar, that forced him to dish off the puck. Tomas Vomacka made an amazing lateral save on Brett Boeing’s bid to tie the game kept UMASS at bay and secured a win.
“Ruslan made a block. Adam (Karaschik) had a block. Kale's check on Makar forced him to chip it out to the neutral zone. We also did a good job clearing out any rebounds. It was a very good defensive effort,” remarked Cavanaugh.
One of the seniors he referenced, Kalter, was pumped about that sequence of play by his team.
“That what it takes to win,” Kalter said. “We have gotten better each year here, and over the last month the program has been stepping up every year, and I think this group (2019-20 edition) is going to go far, so there will be more great things for this program.”
Kalter hopes to continue to go forward to pro hockey and could likely see him debut in the ECHL in the very near future.
For Gendron, taking off his UCONN white home jersey was not going to be easy. His sweater has a "C" stitched on in the upper left corner. It meant more than people could realize on the surface.
“It’s really special the guys voted me for this,” said an emotional Gendron. “It just wasn’t handed to me and that means everything. I’m so very proud of these guys. We wanted to be the first group to win a playoff game. We fell short, but tonight this was our playoff game and we won it.
"I have faith in this group. They are going to do it next year, and the crowd, that was amazing. To come here and cheer for us when we have nothing to play for…. It makes me realize even more I made the right choice to come here.”
The win, coming through a very emotional and entertaining game, showed how UMASS will be such a post-season force. They picked up right where they left off in the second period scoring at 45 seconds in.
Mitchell Chaffee took the pass from Mario Ferraro in the left wing corner. He was able to curl away from Ben Freeman, zip across the crease and stuffed his second straight goal (17th) into the net.
UMASS head coach Greg Carvel didn’t let his team off the hook.
“Congratulations to the UCONN seniors in winning their last game. For my team, it was a very uneven game. We didn’t come out to play in the first, and we finally wanted to play (late in the second). I sat down a few kids who didn’t want to play. We tied it up in the third, but that next shot right after that was a backbreaker. We couldn’t find a way to win the rest of the third. It was very disconcerting to me as a coach that on March 8th we can’t find a way to be excited to play a game.”
UCONN answered back 36 seconds after UMASS tallied as Freeman came across the Minuteman blue line. He sent a high wrist shot that went off Filip Lundeberg’s glove and into the net to give the Huskies back. It would be a 4-3 lead that they never relinquished.
“They score late in the second with point two seconds to go and score on the first shift in the third, everything was going their way, but we were able to flip the script and get the momentum back and got the victory,” said Cavanaugh.
UMASS tried to switch their fortunes by putting Filip Lundberg in the net to start the second period. It didn’t faze the Huskies.
UMASS put on strong pressure with three solid scoring chances in the first two minutes as Boening, Maker, and Chaffe was each denied.
The Huskies struck for their third goal and a highly unlikely 3-0 lead.
Again all three forwards were in on the goal like the Huskies second goal.
Kalter sent the puck to an open Jonny Evans on the left wing. He made a gorgeous, blind pitchfork backhanded pass to Iskharov who then fired his sixth goal over Lundberg's glove hand at 8:08.
They seemingly had UMASS in a vise grip.
UMASS is not number two in the nation by accident. In the final two minutes of the period, the team tallied twice narrowing the gap to one goal.
After a ticky-tacky holding call from the ref who was at center ice, Thomas Fryer, the Minutemen’s Hobey Baker candidate, and Makar, a Colorado Avalanche draft pick, displayed why he is so highly regarded. He had a discussion prior to a face-off with Bobby Trivigno.
UMASS won the draw and began a perfect cycle. Makar got the puck at the left point and fed Trivigno at the right point. They then switched positions and as he was transitioning, Makar passed the puck to Jacob Pritchard at the right side of the net. The left-handed shooter was left unchecked and wired a pass to Trivigno who came in through the back door on the left side and made a perfect open-blade redirect at 18:48 for his ninth goal and got UMASS on the scoreboard but trailing 3-1.
UMASS kept the pressure on UCONN and scored in the waning seconds with Makar again involved,
Makar sent a pass to Marc Del Gaizo at the left. With a perfect screen by Chaffee in front on starter Tomas Vomacka, deflected the 55-foot shot past Vomacka with just .02 seconds left in the period to make it a 3-2 game with what could have been a dagger to UCONN’s valiant game long effort.
“That is the mark of a good program. No matter what score the score is, and what period it is, we stuck to the game plan and kept competing,” said Cavanaugh.
The Huskies struck first against the second best team in the nation as all three forwards on the line touched the puck in the red zone.
Brian Rigali made a strong move on the left wing and got around his check. He swung to the right wing side and his shot was stopped by Matt Murray. The puck hit the back of his skate, and the Huskies' Kale Howarth had a crack at it. Then Brian Freeman was able to chip the puck into the net for his sixth goal at 8:24.
The Huskies kept pace with the swift-skating Minutemen getting back pressure support and not allowing for second and third chances.
“It was a point of emphasis this week that we were back pressuring them and we didn’t give up many odd-man rushes and not slowing them to enter the (offensive) zone uncontested,” Cavanaugh said in speaking of their game plan of trying to lasso the high-end and fast skating UMASS squad that operates so effectively as five-man units.
When UMASS broke Vomacka, a Czech freshman who was making his seventh start in the last nine UCONN games, was there to make the save. For Vomacka it was his 14th UCONN game of the season.
The Huskies were able to extend their lead to 2-0 before the end of the period.
Rigali scored with Iskharov on a shorthanded two-on-one. He was able to settle down a bouncing puck and got around a sliding Del Gaizo and zipped his fifth goal through the five-hole at 17:51.
NOTES:
Huska's leaving UCONN made him the sixth netminder this year for the Hartford Wolf Pack. Huska was the New York Rangers' 7th round pick (184th overall) in the 2015 NHL draft. He played junior hockey for the Green Bay Gamblers (USHL).
Huska played just two games for UCONN over the final six weeks of the season because of Vomacka's hot play. He last played against Providence College on February 26th. His stats for the season are deceiving. Huska posted a 5-13-2 record with a 3.34 GAA and .896 save percentage in 1,202:44 minutes of action. He was playing behind a very young team composed of 12 freshmen.
One his highlight starts came against Yale on New Year’s Eve Day where he made 39 saves including a spectacular skate blade save with pads stacked on a two-on-one on the Bulldogs' Mitchell Smith.
Huska career includes 69 career games, a 2.90 GAA, a career record 20-38-8 and just under 4,000 minutes played. He also had two career shutouts.
A Nashville organizational source told Cantlon’s Corner that neither pair of freshmen Predators draftees, goalie Tomas Vomacka, or center Jacym Kondelik will not be offered pro contracts this spring.
“While we like their progress, they have room for a lot of growth,“ remarked the source. They requested anonymity, “Vomack, we like his play very much, however, a goalie always need playing time and Kondelik has to work on his skating and has to get more physical despite being a 6’6 forward. Neither is ready for the AHL right now.”
Now that they have Brian Boyle in Nashville, he's the prototype for what they want out of Kondelik.
Gendron said he will take a few days to rest and talk with his agent as to what the Ottawa Senators, who drafted him, might want to do. Most likely, the Sens might sign him to an ATO with Belleville (AHL), “I know the team is in a playoff push, and even if it's just to go to learn and practice with the team, I’m open to what they have to offer.”
Since firing head coach Guy Boucher last week, they're still in organizational transition.
A note for the new Governor, and his Chief of Staff... When UCONN hockey is home in their regular season and home finale, you should be there not at a Yale-RPI game. The Bulldogs are in the ECACHL playoffs that they could see next week. They should have been at the XL Center with this great crowd.
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