Weekly Roundup: UConn comes up just short against No. 11 BU

Welcome to the 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.

Weekend thoughts

• Saturday’s loss to BU has to be UConn’s most painful defeat of the season. The Huskies played extremely well, held a lead for almost the entire game, and then just couldn’t find one last goal to close it out.

• Even with the caveat that UConn didn’t have Vladislav Firstov or Hudson Schandor for this game, I’m concerned about the team’s offense, especially against some of the better teams in Hockey East. Since the Huskies returned from a pause on Jan. 15 (a clear dividing line in terms of the offense), they’ve scored more than two goals against ranked teams just twice — a 3-3 tie with BC and the 4-1 win over Northeastern.

• There’s no denying UConn can play with any team in Hockey East but it struggles to earn results against the better teams, going 3-7-6 against top-20 opponents and 2-6-2 in games decided by one goal or less. That’s not a great sign for a team with NCAA Tournament aspirations and won’t look great to the selection committee.

• The Huskies have also struggled mightily in overtime with a 1-4-2 mark (though 3-on-3 hockey is a poor way to decide a result). UConn has also won both shootouts it’s played, so Mike Cavanaugh’s side has still claimed six of 14 possible points after regulation — which looks a lot better than the record would indicate.

• After watching them for a full game, I still think BU is the best overall team in Hockey East. BC has an edge over them because of Spencer Knight in goal, but the Terriers are the better all-around team in my eyes.

• On to the standings. The Huskies are holding on to fourth place but the margin is thinner. The overtime loss docked them .09 points in the Hockey East Power Index and now Providence is just .34 points behind. For reference, UConn dropped from 53.21 to 52.26 with the loss to the Friars, who rose from 51.04 to 51.80 with the win. For what it’s worth, BU only gained .10 points with the win.

• The battle for fourth place is likely going to come down to UConn and PC. Third-place UMass is more than three points ahead of the Huskies while Northeastern is almost a full point behind Providence.

• Looking ahead, the Friars have played a full home-and-home series with everyone in the conference except UMass Lowell. That makes it a little tougher to predict their final two weekends unlike UConn, who still hasn’t played Maine or Vermont and needs to complete series with BU and Northeastern.

• Since there are only two weekends left in the regular season, Providence will almost certainly play either UMass Lowell or an opponent that also has finished up most or all of its series. A couple of possibilities: BC and UNH, both of whom have just one opponent, respectively, left to complete the round robin.

• There are positives and negatives to every opponent. Providence plays UMass on Tuesday. A loss probably wouldn’t hurt the Friars much in the standings but a win would really boost them. If they played a team near the bottom of the standings, a win might not help a whole lot but a loss could really set them back.

• Realistically, UConn would probably benefit a lot more if its last two series were against BU and Northeastern rather than Maine and UVM. Not only is the reward far higher than the risk, but the Huskies would also be better prepared for the conference tournament by playing quality opponents instead of skating past bad teams — even if they slip out of fourth.

• Finishing in at least the top five is crucial for the conference tournament since those teams receive a bye into the quarterfinals. That said, being in fourth place could be the difference between receiving an at-large bid and needing to earn the automatic bid to get into the NCAA Tournament. These next two series are shaping to be some of the biggest in UConn's history.

Links

Last newsletter: A weekend of disappointments

Episode 12: UConn Hockey Hub Podcast

Notebook: UConn men’s hockey likely without two top forwards this weekend

Preview: UConn vs. No. 11 BU

Video: Mike Cavanaugh pregame availability (BU)

UConn falls to No. 11 BU in overtime, 3-2

Video: Mike Cavanaugh postgame press conference

Three stars

Each week, we’ll highlight UConn’s top performers from the weekend.

First star: Adam Karashik

The senior captain set the tone with a big hit in the opening 10 seconds and played a strong game overall. Karashik helped UConn hold a high-powered BU offense to just two goals in regulation and moved up the puck up the ice well throughout the game.

Second star: Carter Turnbull

Technically, Turnbull didn’t score during the game — he wasn’t credited with the Huskies’ first goal until after the game had ended. Even still, Turnbull was UConn’s most dangerous offensive player against the Terriers and thrived on the left side in Firstov’s vacated spot. He’s up to nine goals this season — three less than his total from last year despite playing in 12 fewer games.

Third star: Cassidy Bowes and Eric Linell

Bowes and Linell filled in for Firstov and Hudson Schandor and while neither recorded a point, Cavanaugh did say prior to the game he was thrilled with their progress in practice recently, which he expanded on postgame:

“I think Eric's compete level — he's so much stronger on the puck than he was a year ago. I think that's an area that he continues to work on and excel at,” Cavanaugh said. “Cassidy’s played some games for us early on in the year. I think it was just a matter of we’ve got a lot of good players and he's been playing well. He's been doing a lot of the little things he needs to do to stay in the lineup. When we're healthy we'll have some hard decisions.”

In last week’s newsletter, we laid out the argument for putting Bowes in the lineup over Zac Robbins. After hearing Cavanaugh’s comments, I feel even more strongly that such a change needs to be made once everyone is healthy.

Scoreboard

Friday, Jan. 19

Men’s:UNH 3(2), Merrimack 3(0) OT/shootoutUMass Lowell 4, Northeastern 1BC 4, Maine 2

Women’s:BU 3, BC 2Holy Cross 2, Maine 1Northeastern 3, Vermont 1

Saturday, Jan. 20

Men’s:Merrimack 6, UNH 2BC 3, Maine 0UMass Lowell 4, Northeastern 0

Women’s:BC 2, BU 0Maine 1(2), Holy Cross 1(1) OT/shootoutNortheastern 4, Vermont 1

The women’s Hockey East Playoffs will begin on Wednesday. Seventh-seed UConn will play last-place Merrimack in the opening round.