Ryan Tattle, fully rested, continues to star in CT Ice

Last year at the Connecticut Ice tournament, Ryan Tattle landed in New York at 7 a.m. on the day of UConn’s first round showdown with Quinnipiac after returning home to Vancouver earlier in the week to deal with a family matter. Fighting off jet lag and sleep deprivation from the redeye flight, Tattle scored a game-winning goal with 0.5 seconds left in regulation to lift the Huskies past the Bobcats.

This time around, Tattle was far more rested for UConn’s opening game of the tournament. The senior made it his New Year’s resolution to get better sleep, so he invested in a WHOOP tracker and aims to get to bed at the same time each night.

“The big [thing] is consistent bedtimes and consistent wake up times,” Tattle explained. “If you're going to bed at 12:30 one night and 10:30 the next, it's not really great for your sleep schedule. I try to get to sleep before 11:30 every night. It’s a small thing but I think, for me, it helps.”

The improved sleep made a difference for Tattle on Friday night. The senior finished with three points — a goal and two assists — to help the Huskies advance to their fifth-straight CT Ice final with a 5-2 win over Yale.

“Yeah, I got way better sleep tonight (compared to last year),” he laughed.

Tattle helped UConn get out to a lightning-quick start. Just over a minute in, he skated up the boards and threw a pass towards the goal that bounced around in the crease. It eventually hit off Joey Muldowney and went in to put the Huskies up 1-0.

UConn eventually increased its lead to two, only to take a nap and allow Yale to respond with two unanswered goals to tie it. Once again, Tattle broke the deadlock.

On the Huskies’ first power play of the day, Tattle initially skated in to take the face-off but got kicked out of the circle after an infraction by Muldowney on the wing. He swapped with Ethan Whitcomb and lined up at left defense.

Whitcomb won the draw back to Trey Scott, who then dished it low to Jake Richard. At the same time, Tattle drifted to the far side, then crashed towards net. Richard found him with a perfect back-door pass and Tattle blasted home the one-timer to re-take the lead, 3-2. UConn’s power play needed just five seconds to convert.

In the end, it worked out that Tattle couldn’t take the face-off.

“I told Whitcomb I did it on purpose,” he joked.

The senior wasn’t done, though. Later in the second period, the Huskies got their second man-advantage of the night and while they didn’t work quite as quick as the first time, the end result was the same. Tattle sent the puck back high to Scott, who then fed Richard for a one-timer on the far side. Richard didn’t miss and UConn extended the gap back to two.

With three points in the win, Tattle became Connecticut Ice’s all-time points leader with seven, surpassing five others with six — including UConn’s own Chase Bradley and Hudson Schandor.

Tattle had little interest in taking credit for the individual accolade, though.

“Our team makes a lot of great plays and I'm fortunate to be on the stat sheet for it. But yeah, it's a team game,” he said.

Between his buzzer-beating goal in 2025 and his record-setting performance on Friday night against Yale, few players have starred in Connecticut Ice quite like Tattle. Now, the Huskies will hope his performance in the victory can wake them up from a slow start to the new year.

They closed 2025 with three of their best performances of the season — a sweep of Merrimack and a dominant victory against LIU — but haven’t looked all that great in the five games since.

With Quinnipiac looming in the final on Saturday, UConn will need to be at its best.

“It'll be the toughest test we've faced to this point. No question about it,” head coach Mike Cavanaugh said.

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