Notebook: Former UConn assistant Mike Souza enjoying breakout season at UNH

Since UConn men’s hockey joined Hockey East in 2014, New Hampshire has been a non-factor in the league. The Wildcats haven’t had a winning season or finished higher than eighth in that span. They’ve largely been irrelevant in an era where historic powers Boston College and Boston University fell off the pedestal for a bit while the likes of UMass, Merrimack and UConn lifted themselves out of the league’s cellar.

That all seems to be changing this season. UNH is 11-6-1 on the year — already matching its win total from last year — which is good for seventh place in the league (despite playing at least two games and as many as five games fewer than every other team in Hockey East). The Wildcats are also 13th in Pairwise, which means they’re in position to make their first NCAA Tournament since 2013.

This breakthrough season is the product of an impressive turnaround by head coach Mike Souza, who spent two years as an assistant at UConn from 2013-15. Now in his sixth season at his alma mater, Souza has New Hampshire among the top teams in Hockey East — an impressive accomplishment considering how good the league is top-to-bottom this year.

Head coach Mike Cavanaugh has enjoyed seeing the Wildcats make the leap.

“I'm happy for him and it doesn't surprise me. He's a great hockey mind. He was an excellent player at UNH, [and] had a terrific work ethic as a coach when I had him here. He was awesome,” Cavanaugh said about Souza. “I'm really happy that he's turned that program around.”

While New Hampshire’s breakout appeared to come out of nowhere, there were signs late last season. The Wildcats started 0-11-1 in conference play before finally getting on the board with a road win over Providence. That sparked them to a 6-5-2 finish — which included a home sweep over UConn in February.

“I thought they were starting to turn the corner last year. I mean, we went up there last year and had our hands full with them,” Cavanaugh said.

It’s taken some time for Souza to put his stamp on the program.

“I just think he's slowly starting to get the type of player he wants in there. They play fast, they're quick,” Cavanaugh said. “He's getting great goaltending this year. The transfer from North Dakota stepped in I think he's got an under 2.00 goals against (average) and he's really solidified that position for him.”

Souza also needed time to mature as a head coach. He spent two years at Brown, two years at UConn, and then three years at UNH as the associate head coach before taking over the top job. Cavanaugh had 20 years of experience as an assistant before becoming the Huskies’ head coach and even that required an adjustment period.

“You think you know a lot going in and you think you can handle a position and then all of a sudden, there's little intricacies and nuances throughout the day, the week, the year that you really didn't account for. You have to sometimes learn on the fly,” Cavanaugh explained. “I think now that he's been able to probably wrap his head around all of that, he's now focusing on being the great coach that he is.”

It’s been a good season for Cavanaugh’s coaching tree. UNH is the only one with a head coach who worked as an assistant at UConn, but Joe Pereira (who spent 2013-2022 in Storrs) is the associate head coach and a top recruiter for talent-laden BU, which is currently first in the Hockey East standings. In second place is Boston College, where the associate head coach is Brendan Buckley (who was with Cavanaugh from 2015-18).

In years past, weekends against UNH have usually been a break from the meat grinder that is the Hockey East schedule for the Huskies (last season notwithstanding). That won’t be the case this year with the way Souza has started to turn the Wildcats into a winner.

“Mike's done an excellent job building that team,” Cavanaugh said.

Injury report

Two key UConn players are questionable for the weekend. Jake Flynn (lower body) and Hudson Schandor (upper body) both missed Saturday’s win after getting hurt the night before, but their status remains up in the air for this weekend.

“I think those are gonna be more Friday decisions,” Cavanaugh said on Wednesday. “I'm not trying to be coy, they just haven't practiced yet. They skated a little bit today. We had a morning skate and they skated a little bit today, but I think tomorrow will tell more how they go through practice.”

Flynn took an awkward hit to the legs and went into the locker room after coming off the ice. He went back out for a shift but quickly returned to the bench and didn’t play again. As for Schandor, he took a big hit in the first period of Friday’s game and although he finished the contest, he couldn’t push through the next day.

Those are the only injury questions for the Huskies heading into the UNH series.

Travel plans

With the atypical Friday-Sunday weekend, UConn will take its time getting up to Durham. The Huskies will travel on Saturday and stay over in Portsmouth ahead of their 4 p.m. ET contest at UNH on Sunday.

“If it was a seven o'clock game — which I'm glad it's not on a Sunday — we might have just driven up that day,” Cavanaugh said. “It's right on the cusp of like 2:15 (the driving time) that it’s close to whether you stay or not. Because it's a 4:00 game, Saturday we'll practice here at UConn and then drive up.”