Sophomore Karl El-Mir (no. 16) skating down the ice in UConn’s game on Friday night, Oct. 21 against AIC. The teams tied 2-2. (Jason Jiang/The Daily Campus)
The UConn men’s hockey team tied American International College 2-2 on Friday night in a game that will leave the Huskies feeling they could’ve done more.
“The story of the game is that we went 0-5 on the powerplay in the third period. We had plenty of chances to bring the game to 3-2 and we just didn’t convert,” said head coach Mike Cavanaugh.
The Huskies were without star forward Max Letunov Friday, as the sophomore was out suspended. Letunov will be back next game when the Huskies take on Notre Dame.
“Max coming back is going to help. He is a very good power play guy,” Cavanaugh said.
UConn went 1-of-9 on the power play on the night. Despite being able to create some good chances the Huskies could not convert.
“We get frustrated but like coach said we need to be mentally tough. We got a lot of shots on net but we need to capitalize,” Karl El-Mir said.
The Huskies scored the first goal of the game in the 10th minute on the power play. Benjamin Freeman found Evan Richardson in the slot and the senior put the puck away for his fourth goal of the year.
Right before the end of the first period the Yellow Jackets tied the game up. Jared Pike carried the puck around the back of Rob Nichols net and placed it in the bottom right corner of the goal.
The game was not tied for long as UConn came right back 30 seconds later with an El-Mir goal. The score was assisted by Richardson and Max Kalter.
“Even when they got their goal scored I loved that bounce back. That bounce back goal from Karl’s line. I thought they came back and put in a great shift.”
The Huskies came out flying in the second period. Three minutes into the period Jesse Schwartz hit the pipe of goalkeeper Zachariah Skog’s goal. Soon after Schwartz had another great chance but was once again rejected by the post.
In the 15th minute of the second period AIC’s Shawn McBride scored on the power play once again tying the game for the Yellow Jackets.
The Huskies played a dominant third period, but could not retake the lead, going 0-5 on the power play in the period.
“We had a chance to break the game open on three breakaways but credit to AIC they hung around. They got an unfortunate goal that went off our guys skating in, but they played really well,” Cavanaugh said.
Antonio Salazar is a staff writer for The Daily Campus. He can be reached via email at antonio.salazr@uconn.edu.