UConn suffered their first shutout this season in their Friday road game against No. 16 Providence where the home side managed to get four points at the Schneider Arena.
About three and a half minutes into the match, UConn (8-8-2) were the first to get on the power play after Providence (9-6-4)’s Parker Ford was penalized for boarding. During the two-minute power play, the Huskies only managed to get four shots; two of which went wide. Over a minute after the Friars got back to full strength, forward Tyce Thompson scored the first goal of the match with Brett Berard and Nick Poisson aiding in the build-up.
UConn put the pressure on and kept taking their shots more than the home side at first, but they couldn’t get the puck past Providence goaltender Jaxson Stauber; even when they got on the power play again by the midpoint in the opening 20 minutes. Finding the right moment to counter, the Friars increased their lead with five minutes left in the first period thanks to forward Patrick Moynihan scoring a rebound off of senior forward Greg Printz’s initial shot.
While the second period resulted in a scoreless 20 minutes, both sides were level in the number of shots on target at this point (17-17). The Huskies got on the power play again but, like the previous times, they couldn’t make anything out of it. Providence also got on the power play at the death of the second period after Jonny Evans was sent to the penalty box for hooking but had to wait for the final period to start for it to take effect.
Both teams got another power play before the Friars scored their third on the night. At the 4:24 mark, Ryan Tverberg was penalized for cross-checking; and before the advantage was gone, Ford increased the score deficit at 6:14 and scored his third of the season. Toward the end of the match, the home side put the game to rest after they scored on an empty UConn net.
“I thought our effort was pretty good tonight, but I thought they were tougher around the net …,” head coach Mike Cavanaugh said. “They won the special teams game. Our special teams need to be better. If we’re gonna win some games, they need to be better.”
UConn were supposed to host the Friars on Saturday, but due to COVID-19 protocols, the game had to be postponed.
