The UConn men’s hockey team is set for the second weekend of their season against Holy Cross. They will start on the road at Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass. on Friday, Oct. 11 with puck drop set for 7:00 p.m. They will then travel back home to finish off the series in Hartford at the XL Center at 3:30 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 12.
UConn is coming off a 2-0 weekend to start the season against Colgate. The Huskies saw a lot of success on all three zones on the ice and look to build on that this weekend against the Crusaders.
“I thought that we played well in all three zones on the weekend, and this week is going to be a whole different challenge – we had a lot of trouble with Holy Cross last year. We’re going to have our hands full that’s for sure,” said the Huskies’ head coach, Mike Cavanaugh.
The all-time record between UConn and Holy Cross is 12-10 with the Huskies at the deficit. The last home-and-home series did not end in UConn’s favor as they dropped both games to Holy Cross. They fell to the Crusaders 2-1 on Oct. 13, 2023 in Massachusetts and they lost again with a score of 2-0 on Oct. 14, 2023 in Storrs, Conn. The Huskies are aware of their history with Holy Cross and are looking to flip the script on those patterns this weekend.
In their first series of the season last weekend, the Huskies scored ten goals in a 2-game span last weekend against Colgate. Junior Jake Percival led the offense with three goals on the weekend along with sophomore Jake Richard with two, junior Tabor Heaslip with one, junior Ryan Tattle with one, sophomore Oliver Flynn with one, freshman Ethan Gardula with one and freshman Kaden Shahan with one.
The Huskies also saw success in their four newly developed lines and Cavanaugh was very pleased with their performance in the first weekend.
“I thought that line was very, very good with Whitcomb, Richard and Muldowney,” said Cavanaugh. “They have a mix of everything. Muldowney’s kind of a burner, he can really fly and skate. Richard is excellent with the puck, and as you said, Jake knows what he wants to do with the puck before he gets it, which is a skill that is really hard to teach. I thought Ethan did a nice job at center and he was distributing pucks and he can also finish too and shoot it. He had some good chances as well. It was great chemistry between all three and I’d like to see them build on that this week.”
“I thought all four lines gave us something on the weekend. You know Schandor’s line created a lot of offense – they created a lot and played with a ton of speed. I thought Tattle’s was where they excelled – we played them a lot after goals were scored or when we got scored on and they gave us great shift after goals and swing shifts, I thought Tattle’s line was excellent all weekend long,” he continued.
There’s a ton that this year’s Ice Bus will have a chance to build on this weekend in its two-game series against Holy Cross.