The Huskies won 4-1 against UMaine this Saturday, after tying in the first third, and pulling away in the second. Their next home game is on Nov. 16 against Boston College (Eric Wang/The Daily Campus)
The UConn women’s hockey team is set for their final weekend before the winter break, with two games against Providence on the horizon.
The Huskies (7-8-1, 3-6-1 Hockey East) are looking to shoot their way out of a scoring funk, having recorded just three goals over the past four games en route to a 1-3 record.
“We’re outplaying teams,” said head coach Chris McKenzie. “We’ve just gotta find a way to score a little bit more and obviously keep the puck out of our net.”
UConn is coming off a 1-0 victory over Yale in the consolation game of the 2018 Nutmeg Classic. Freshman forward Viki Harkness scored the team’s lone goal and fellow freshman Samantha Carpentier-Yelle recorded the first shutout of her collegiate career.
Meanwhile, Providence is currently riding an eight-game win streak that includes a pair of 2-1 victories over Yale and Quinnipiac to take home the 2018 Nutmeg Classic crown.
The Friars (12-2, 7-1 Hockey East) are currently the eighth ranked team in the country by USCHO.com and are in third place in the Hockey East, behind Northeastern and Boston College.
Providence is led by sophomore forward Maureen Murphy, whose 24 points (12 goals and 12 assists) are almost double the next ranking player on the team. In fact, Murphy’s 1.71 points per game rank fourth in the country out of all players who have played in at least 10 games. Murphy is also No.1 in the nation for game winning goals, as her six are two more than anyone else.
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“We’ve just gotta find a way to score a little bit more and obviously keep the puck out of our net”
It will be a tough task for the Huskies to break out of their scoring funk, as Providence goalie Madison Myers ranks third in the country in average goals against, 1.167, and fourth in the country in save percentage, .947.
Providence also ranks ninth in the country as a team in scoring margin, recording an average of 1.36 goals more than their opponent per game.
The Huskies and Friars match up very well in power-play percentage, as they each score about 21.7 percent of the time.
“It won’t take much for us to get up for Providence,” coach McKenzie said. “We respect them. They’re a good team.”
Jorge Eckardt is a staff writer for The Daily Campus. He can be reached via email at jorge.eckardt@uconn.edu.
