UConn not worried about a letdown after historic season: 'We're a lot hungrier'

Despite coming off the best season in program history, UConn men’s hockey isn’t worried about a letdown ahead of the 2025-26 campaign. While the Huskies set a program record with 23 wins and made their first NCAA Tournament, the year ended in heartbreak with an overtime loss to Penn State in the Allentown Regional Final.

That’s on their minds right now more than the success they had last season.

“We're a lot hungrier,” Joey Muldowney said. “After last season, we just have this bad taste in our mouth that you can't really describe. It just doesn't sit well after what happened in Allentown.”

Of course, UConn has to go out and prove that to be true once the games begin. But if their work in the offseason and through the first few weeks of the preseason are any indication, the Huskies have warded off complacency to this point.

“After finishing the way we did last year, I think there's a lot of excitement in the room, and I feel like there's probably some unfinished business. But the one thing that we've been able to do is turn the page,” head coach Mike Cavanaugh said.

“I think the fact that we have seven seniors and they've been through a lot of wars. They've been good, down, good,” he continued. “I think they also understand that rankings and where people predict you to be is not an indicator of your success. It's how hard you're going to work every day in practice.”

UConn should understand better than anyone that the previous season has no bearing on the current one. In 2022-23, the Huskies were better-than-expected and seemed prime to take a leap the following season. Instead, the worst campaign in Cavanaugh’s tenure followed. After that, UConn responded to put together its best season ever.

As if that’s not enough proof, Cavanaugh pointed to a recent example in Hockey East. In 2022-23, Merrimack made the NCAA Tournament then returned practically its entire roster. The result? A 13-21-1 record and 10th-place finish in Hockey East.

“[Last season] has no bearing on what we're going to do,” Cavanaugh said. “It just matters whether that team in there is going to gel and play connected and play for each other and rise to the occasion in this league. You gotta be comfortable playing in one-goal games or tight games in the third period, and find a way to win them.”

While UConn is saying and doing all the right things at this point in the calendar, some questions can’t be answered until the games start. Specifically, Cavanaugh is anxious to see how this year’s group responds to adversity.

“What did Mike Tyson say? ‘Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.’ Then we'll see what happens. We haven't played a game yet. We haven't got punched in the mouth. So I don't know how this team is going to respond,” he said. “Last year when we got swept by Merrimack, we responded in a great fashion. I don't know how this team is going to respond when, if that happens.”

Talent shouldn’t be an issue for UConn. The Huskies return a significant chunk of their core from last season — led by Muldowney, who set Division I Era program records with 29 goals and 47 points. Jake Richard (15 goals, 28 assists) is back as well, as are 10 of the team’s next 11 top scorers from last season along with two-thirds of its defensive core and a starting goaltender in Tyler Muszelik.

UConn isn’t just running it back, though. There are some significant changes, particularly in the leadership department.

Hudson Schandor and John Spetz, the drivers of the program’s turnaround last season, are gone. Tabor Heaslip will wear the “C” on his sweater while Muldowney and Ryan Tattle are both alternate captains. Another will be voted in at the conclusion of training camp.

The new group acknowledged that while Schandor and Spetz helped shape their respective leadership styles, they aren’t trying to be carbon copies of those two. They understand the importance of finding their own voice and figuring out how they want to lead.

“A lot of it's learning and observing,” Muldowney said. “I think last year I did a lot of observing on Hudson and John, just nitpicking what parts of their leadership I wanted to portray and what I had the ability to portray out to everybody. Not everybody could have that psycho mentality like John Spetz brought to the locker room, which was awesome.”

For as special as UConn’s 2024-25 season was, the team only won a single trophy — Connecticut Ice. The Huskies fell in the final of the Holiday Face-Off, Hockey East Tournament and Allentown Regional. Progress was measured by milestones, not hardware.

UConn still has more to aim for.

“The next step for us is let's get in the top three (in Hockey East). Let's get in the top one. Let's win a conference championship,” Cavanaugh. “Those are all things that now we're aspiring to do.”

Since Cavanaugh took over the program in 2013, the Huskies have consistently been on an upward trajectory. In their 11 seasons in Hockey East, there have only been three times in which they finished lower in the standings compared to the previous season.

Once UConn reaches a certain threshold of success, it typically maintains it. Now, the goal will be to do the same with the NCAA Tournament.

“Everybody seems to think, ‘Wow, what a season came from out of nowhere.’ Not really,” he said. “Six of the last eight years, we finished in the top five in this league. Three of the last four, we've had 20-win seasons and finished in the top four. So to me, that wasn't a one-off. We've been building to get there for a long time. That’s what I envisioned for this program.”

“We're happy making the tournament and making a little bit of history,” Tattle said. “But moving forward, that's now the standard. It's something that we expect and hopefully can build off on.”

Fitzgerald returns

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