'We completely self-destructed': Mike Cavanaugh calls out team after ugly loss to Merrimack

UConn head coach Mike Cavanaugh didn’t hold back on his team after a 6-3 loss to Merrimack on Friday night. The Huskies trailed 4-3 entering the third period but then committed five penalties in the final frame — including two in the last five minutes with the game still within reach.

“First and foremost, I'd like to apologize to the fans that came out here tonight because we completely self-destructed and that's on me,” Cavanaugh said. “I've got to coach a team that's disciplined, mentally strong — and not self-destruct at the end of a game. That's exactly what we did tonight and that won't happen again.”

With 7:54 left to go, Tristan Fraser picked up a five-minute major and game misconduct for kneeing. Even in the best-case scenario where UConn killed the penalty without allowing a goal, it would’ve had about three minutes to tie the game.

That’s not what infuriated the coach, though.

“Tristan’s [penalty] was probably poor technique going into that. He got himself in a bad position and he was trying to finish his check,” Cavanaugh said. “But you can't be reckless finishing your checks.”

That was only the beginning of the Huskies’ downfall.

With less than a minute remaining on the major penalty, Merrimack finally broke through when Alex Jefferies finished off a hat-trick to push the gap to 5-3.

As Jefferies’ teammates skated over to celebrate, UConn captain Hudson Schandor tripped one and got sent to the box for unsportsmanlike conduct. That put the Warriors on a 5-on-3 advantage.

A few minutes later, Chase Bradley joined Schandor when he tackled a Merrimack player in frustration. With 2:40 remaining, the Huskies’ last hopes to mount a comeback died.

“Even when they score that goal, it's still (4-2) — we scored three goals in 38 seconds last week. There's still three and a half minutes left in that game,” Cavanaugh said. “There's plenty of time to get back in that game. But it's not when you take a penalty right after the goal and then take another one and have to finish the game 5-on-3.”

So how does UConn fix that?

“Very easily,” Cavanaugh said. “If you're gonna put your own selfish needs above the team, then you just won't play. I control ice time. I can't play the game, but I do control their ice time and if we have guys that can't control their actions, (they won’t play).”

Exactly what that means is unclear, though. Controlling a player’s time on ice is one thing, but benching is another. Schandor and Bradley were the culprits on Friday night, but they’re also two of the best and most important players on the team.

Cavanaugh said he hasn’t made a decision on their status for the second game of the series on Saturday.

“I'll have to sleep on it,” he said. “I don't know if I've seen this type of self-destruction from this group since I've had them. So I don't know. I'm gonna sleep on that one.”

Even though UConn committed eight penalties and Merrimack didn’t go to the box once, Cavanaugh wanted to make clear that his anger was directed at his team, not the officials.

“I have no issue with the referees tonight,” he said. “Zero.”

With the loss, the Huskies’ season appears to be on the brink. They are 4-6-1 (2-3-0 in Hockey East play), haven’t won back-to-back games all year, sit in eighth place in the league standings and are 48th out of 64 teams in Pairwise.

For a UConn team that came in with high expectations, Cavanaugh sent a clear message.

“If we have aspirations to compete for a league title and play in the national tournament, it's not going to happen anymore,” he said.

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