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The Forecheck: Despite loss, CT Ice leaves UConn with something to build on

The Huskies played some of their best hockey over the weekend. Now, they'll try to keep it going.

February 02, 2022

Welcome to the revamped UConn Hockey Hub newsletter, which catches you up on all the stories, trends, and anything else you might have missed, along with some quick takes and leftover notes from the weekend.

Despite loss, CT Ice leaves UConn with something to build on

It’s hard to walk out of a championship game without a trophy and feel satisfied. UConn couldn’t pull off the upset of No. 2 Quinnipiac in the final of Connecticut Ice and had to watch as the Bobcats hoisted the hardware at Webster Bank Arena on Sunday.

The defeat will be tough to swallow, especially with how significant a win would’ve been for the Huskies’ program. But the weekend still represented a major step forward for this year’s team and is something it can build on going forward.

All season long, UConn has been firmly good enough. It’s mostly won the games it should, doesn’t have any bad losses and have claimed a few good wins. But the Huskies hadn’t played to their full potential and each game — even the victories — left more to be desired. At least one thing went wrong every single time out.

That trend continued into CT Ice when Yale scored first on Saturday. For the seventh time in eight second half games, UConn gave up the opening goal.

Then, a switch flipped. Over the next 58 minutes, the Huskies dominated, scoring five unanswered goals and out-shooting the Bulldogs 37-28. They left zero doubt about who the better team was.

The next day, UConn gave No. 2 Quinnipiac its best shot. The Huskies put together their best performance of the season with a full 60-minute effort and although they came up short, there was little — if anything — to criticize about the way they played.

The Bobcats made the game-winning play that UConn couldn’t find — which is what will happen more times than not against the second-ranked team in the country who has lost just two games all season and is on pace to be the greatest defense in NCAA history. The Huskies did as much as could be reasonably asked of them.

Now, UConn knows what its ceiling is. The Huskies aren’t a top-five team but they can still be really good if they play like they did on Sunday every time out.

Whether or not UConn can conjure that type of performance on a consistent will be tested over the next few weeks. The Huskies face a gauntlet over the next few weeks with Providence and UNH this weekend, Merrimack and Boston College the week after, followed by home-and-home series with UMass and Northeastern.

The stretch run has officially arrived. There are five weeks and 10 games left in the regular season. An NCAA Tournament auto-bid is likely out of reach — if UConn won out, it would only rise to No. 13 in Pairwise, according to College Hockey News — but the Huskies could still earn home ice in the Hockey East Playoffs with a strong finish.

UConn currently sits in seventh place with 23 points in 14 games. It plays all but one team above itself in the standings and have at least a game in hand on each one. The Huskies are just six points out of third place but have played four fewer games than Boston University, who holds that spot at the moment. They’re 11 points out of first with three games in hand on UMass Lowell.

After toiling through three months of relative underperformance, UConn finally unlocked the blueprint for how to reach its full potential this past weekend at CT Ice. Now, it’s a question of whether or not they can actually execute it.

Week in review

News

UConn 5, Yale 1

Quinnipiac 2, UConn 0

Three stars

First star: Darion Hanson

Hanson was UConn’s best player in both games this past weekend and came up big time after time against Quinnipiac to keep the game scoreless for the first 47 minutes. Across both games, Hanson controlled rebounds, moved well from side-to-side and made tough saves look easy. For his efforts, Hanson was named Hockey East Goaltender of the Week.

Second star: Vladislav Firstov

Firstov had been playing well for a few games prior to CT Ice but finally snapped his 12-game scoring drought with a two-goal game against Yale. He slipped the first one under the goaltender from point-blank range and then blasted a one-timer off a deflection for his second. Firstov also added an assist to record his first three-goal game of the season.

Third star: Kevin O’Neil

O’Neil seems to be getting better with each passing game. He got the primary assist on Firstov’s two goals and then found the back of the net himself courtesy of a generous bounce off the back boards. With his two helpers, O’Neil became UConn’s second player with double-digit assists this season, joining Jachym Kondelik, and has eight points in the second half.

Play of the week