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The Forecheck: Is the upcoming UMass series the biggest in UConn's history?

The Huskies are in the thick of the Hockey East regular season title race.

February 15, 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.

One big thing

UConn’s series with UMass this weekend is huge. Currently, the Huskies are tied for third place with 35 points while the Minutemen are tied for first place with 37 points. UConn two strong games won’t win the Hockey East regular season title, but the Huskies can certainly play themselves out of the picture with a bad weekend.

With that said, is this the biggest regular season series in program history? Actually, a better question might be: What else even comes close?

Since joining Division I in 1998-99, the Huskies have never come particularly close to winning a conference regular season title. Their highest finish ever is third — which happened in their first year of DI play. Since then, UConn has been fourth six times (2000, 2007, 2013, 2014, 2021) but never made much of a run at the regular season crown in those seasons.

The team’s biggest games during the Hockey East Era have all involved seeding — whether it be the win last season against Providence to clinch fourth, the year prior at UMass Lowell when it lost to finish fifth or the sweep over UNH in 2016 to clinch home ice for the first time.

UConn will pull even on UMass if it can take four of six points (which would require a regulation win and overtime loss, two overtime wins, two shootout wins, or an overtime win and shootout win). If the two teams split with three points each, the Huskies would remain two points back and would have to take more points in their final two series against Northeastern and Vermont than UMass would claim against Vermont and Boston College.

Even if UConn doesn’t win the Hockey East regular season title, a strong weekend against UMass could push the Huskies closer to the NCAA Tournament. Right now, they’re firmly on the bubble as the No. 19 team in Pairwise.

For as much as UConn has underperformed for large chunks of the season, the Huskies can put all that behind them. The opportunity is there to make program history, but to do so, it starts this weekend.

Week in review

News

UConn 6, Boston College 4

Three stars

First star: Jarrod Gourley

On Friday, Gourley single-handedly tripled his season goal total with a pair of scores against Boston College. Both came in impressive fashion as he sniped one from the slot and then blasted a one-timer off a face-off. For his performance, Gourley earned Hockey East Defender of the Week.

Second star: Jachym Kondelik

Kondelik stayed hot by scoring in his third straight game against Boston College and also added an assist on Kevin O’Neil’s score — UConn’s sixth of the game. He made his first goal happen almost completely on his own by forcing a turnover in the face-off circle and dropping the puck to Ryan Tverberg. Kondelik got it right back and sent a pretty wrister past Dop for the score.

Kondelik is now up to 11 goals and 15 assists on the season and has five points over his last three games.

Third star: Carter Turnbull

Speaking of streaks, Turnbull also scored in his third-straight game at BC. He was in the Eagles’ zone to forecheck when the puck fell off Aidan Hreschuk’s stick. Turnbull picked it up right in front of the net and put a nasty deke on BC’s goalie for the score. Like Kondelik, Turnbull also has five points in his last three games. The senior has totaled eight goals and four assists on the season.

Play of the week

Best of social media

Pretty, pretty good:

The offense is hot:

Nice goal from Tage Thompson: