To conclude the first half of the 25-26 season, the UConn men’s hockey team will play a home and home series against Hockey East foe Merrimack.
The two-game series will begin with the Huskies traveling to North Andover, Mass., to open up the series on Friday, Dec. 5. They will then come back to Storrs for a quick turnaround to close the series at Toscano Family Ice Forum on Saturday, Dec. 6 in the afternoon.
“We certainly have a tall task on our hands I believe this Friday night against Merrimack,” said head coach Mike Cavanaugh on the matchup. “I believe, if I’m correct, they are 5-2 at home. They have wins over Quinnipiac, BU, I know New Hampshire, Providence. It’s a tough place to play, Lawler Arena.”
UConn will enter into this series with a 7-5-3 overall record and 5-3-1 in conference action following three games last week before the holiday against New Hampshire and Stonehill.
The Huskies are coming off a 3-3 tie against Stonehill last Tuesday. In the tie, freshman Carlin Dezainde scored two goals, including the game-tying goal while sophomore Kaden Shahan scored his third goal in the last four games for the Huskies. Shahan has found his offensive stride, now tied for the team lead with 10 points on the season. He has four goals and six assists for 10 points, while freshman Alexandre Blais and sophomore Mike Murtagh both have three goals and seven assists to total 10 points. One of the strongest lines for UConn has been Blais, Dezainde and Shahan as they have recently accounted for six total points against Stonehill (three goals and three assists).
Spreading the point love this season, the Huskies have three players tied for the team high in points with ten, four players tied with nine points, two players tied with eight points and two players with seven points. The well-rounded Huskies have 19 players who have registered at least a single point this season. Of the 19, 10 are either freshman or sophomores.
“I like our compete and I like our balance,” said Cavanaugh on the positives from the first half of the schedule. “We have four lines that can score. Any one of our lines can score – I like that, I like our competitiveness. I think Tyler Muzselik’s been very solid in goal and I think overall our defensive cores played pretty solid as well.”
“I think one area we have to clean up is defensive zone faceoffs,” said Cavanaugh on areas where he would like the team to improve. “We’re giving up too many shots off our defensive zone faceoffs. I believe we have to clean up our odd man rushes again – that’s an area we have to manage better.”
The Warriors are coming into this conference series with a 5-8-0 overall record and 3-5-0 in Hockey East play. Sophomore Nick Pierre ended the month of November leading the team in goals with seven and in shots with 44 thus far. Sophomore Trevor Hoskin is another weapon on offense for Merrimack as he’s had three multi-point games, leading the team in points with 14 (eighth in Hockey East). The Merrimack power play has been on a roll in the last six games, as they’ve struck on the man advantage nine times in that span, including four straight games of scoring twice in power play citations. In the Hockey East conference, the Warriors currently sit in third place with a powerplay percentage of 23.2. Freshman Justin Gill and Pierre are tied for the most goals with three on the power play. On defense, Max Lundgren has started in goal for every game this season for the Warriors. The junior netminder has played the fourth most minutes in the conference with 770:43 with the seventh best GAA (2.57) and the fifth best save percentage (.916).
In all-time matchups, Merrimack has the edge over UConn with an 11-14-4 record. The teams’ last meeting came not too long ago at the beginning of November, where the Huskies took the 5-1 victory over the Warriors after scoring four goals in the third period. Last season’s home and home series between the two Hockey East opponents resulted in a 1-1 split in Storrs and North Andover last November.
The Huskies final series of the first half will commence with the Huskies traveling up to Merrimack this Friday, Dec. 5. Puck drop is set for 7 p.m. at the Lawler Arena in North Andover, Mass. UConn will then wrap up the series back at home on Saturday, Dec. 6 at Toscano Family Ice Forum in Storrs. Puck drop is set for 4 p.m. Both games are available to stream on ESPN+.