The No. 6 UConn women’s hockey team (19-7-2, 12-5-1) will look to rebound from a tough three-week stretch, as they play a pair of Hockey East opponents while looking to remain in striking distance of the No. 1 seed in the Hockey East.
The Huskies will travel to Providence College (9-17-2, 6-10-2) on Friday night to take on the Friars before returning home on Saturday afternoon to face No. 24 Boston College (12-15-1, 10-7-1).
Currently sitting second in the Hockey East standings, a pair of wins this weekend would go a long way towards keeping the Huskies in the race for first place against No. 5 Northeastern University. With three weeks and six games left in the regular season, UConn find themselves 13 points and four wins behind their fellow Huskies. The two teams will face off once more during the final weekend of the regular season, though that game will lose much of its intrigue if Northeastern pulls away before then.
UConn should have a chance to sweep this weekend against a duo of lesser opponents.
Providence currently sits ninth in the Hockey East and dropped a weekend series to UConn in early January. UConn outscored the Friars 9-1 over the two-game series.
While Providence has historically dominated UConn (42-29-12 since 2002), UConn has won eight of the last ten matchups.
The Friars have struggled to score consistently on the season. Their offense has been shut out six times. Compared to UConn’s 77 goals, Providence has scored just 52 times and is 39th in the country in scoring.
While BC is currently in fourth place in the Hockey East, they have struggled against the top of the Hockey East. The Eagles are a combined 2-5 against Northeastern, UConn and Holy Cross. The Huskies split a pair of games with BC in November.
Providence’s biggest offensive threat is forward Reichen Kirchmair. The senior leads the team in goals and is the only Friar who has reached 20 points this season.
Kiara Kraft also had a nice performance last weekend, scoring a goal and assisting two in game one of a two-game sweep of the University of Vermont. That sweep put an end to a seven-game slide for the Friars that started with the January series against UConn.
For BC, forward Ava Thomas leads all Hockey East players in total points and is tied for third in goals. The freshman is among the top 20 in the country in goals scored. Most recently, she had a goal and three assists across two games against Maine last weekend.
Thomas was named Hockey East Freshman of the Month for January after winning both a Player of the Week and Rookie of the Week award over the course of the month.
Forward Sammy Taber and defender Madelyn Murphy have also crossed the 20-point threshold for the season.
UConn goalie Tia Chan will be tasked with stopping Thomas and company while also playing for a chance at history. The graduate student enters the weekend with 2249 career saves. That leaves her just 23 saves behind Shannon Murphy for the fifth most saves in team history and 60 behind Alexandra Garcia for fourth.
Chan has eclipsed 20 saves in 24 out 26 games played this season. While the fifth-year Husky will probably have to wait another weekend to pass Garcia, it’s almost inevitable that she shoots past Murphy.
The Canada-native is currently third in saves, second in save percentage and second in average goals against in the Hockey East. One of the favorites for Hockey East Goaltender of the Year after winning it a season ago, another pair of shutdown performances would go a long way towards securing a sweep this weekend.
Puck drop for Friday’s game is scheduled for 6 p.m. at Schneider Arena in Providence, R.I. Saturday’s home game will commence at 3 p.m. at the Toscano Family Ice Forum in Storrs. Husky fans can tune in to both matchups on ESPN+.