UConn Huskies End Year With A Loss Against No. 14 Boston College

After almost a 22-day layoff, the UConn men’s hockey team finally got back to the ice against No. 14 Boston College. The results, however, did not favor them as they experienced a beating from the hands of their opponent, 2-0.

UConn head coach Mike Cavanaugh said his team certainly didn’t have the energy that they had before going to the match. Hence, they lost steam and bowed down to the Boston College hockey team. He added that they took too long to get into their game rhythm and he thought that they were too stationary from the beginning to the end. The loss is their third setback of the year.

For UConn junior Maxim Letunov, the long hiatus could have been a factor in the loss against Boston College. He said it’s a little tough to play after the break and his team just did not get enough pucks on the net. As a result, they did not score any goals. He, meanwhile, added that his team will just have to play better next time and be more consistent like the way they were before the long break.

True enough, the Huskies did not have much of an opening as they were halted by their opponent from opportunities to score. They had an opportunity to score during the second period on a 52-second 5-on-3 power play was in effect. The chance, however, was disrupted by BC.

“We waited too long to get into our set. We just kind of moved the puck around and we didn’t make their defenders move. That’s something we were doing pretty well. We scored a big 5-on-3 goal against Colgate the last time out because we had people moving and we got them out of lanes. I thought we just were too stationary for the start of the 5-on-3.”

Before entering the game against BC, UConn’s Jesse Schwartz was the go-to-guy of the team, scoring a point in each of their last six games (7-4—11). Teammate Alexander Payusov (9-5—14) has also gotten on the scoresheet in the last four games he has played in since his comeback after suffering a knee surgery. Goaltender Adam Huska, on the other hand, has been steady in net, but was not able to deliver during the BC game as he allowed two goals.

Per a Hartford Courant report, UConn started day six in the Hockey East standings carrying 11 points while having only played at least three more games than every team it was ahead of. Their next game is set on Jan. 5 against Merrimack.