UConn men stumble
No. 11 Creighton takes command in second half to beat Huskies.
When the hockey game was over Saturday evening, with the best team in the nation having outlasted one that looked just as good for long stretches, one coaching legend greeted another inside Freitas Ice Forum.
Boston College coach Jerry York had just picked up his 1,100th career victory, with his top-ranked Eagles using an empty-net goal to finish off UConn, 4-2. A few hours earlier and footsteps away at Gampel Pavilion, Geno Auriemma had notched his 1,101st victory, as the UConn women’s basketball team defeated Georgetown.
“Geno in the house,” York said. “Basketball guy. It was neat to talk to him.”
UConn coach Mike Cavanaugh, a BC assistant under York for 18 seasons and a good friend of Auriemma’s, approached.
“It was kind of cool,” Cavanaugh said. “Two guys with 1,100 wins. But I told [York] that I helped him get enough wins. I didn’t need to help him get another one. I wanted to keep him on 1,099.”
The Huskies couldn’t deny York two nights in a row. Twenty-four hours after erasing a 3-1 deficit over the final 3:01 in Chestnut Hill,
Mass., earning a tie that was followed by a shootout victory, the Huskies came up a couple answers short at home.
They didn’t score with an extra skater, as they had Friday on Jonny Evans’ equalizer with 59 seconds remaining. Instead, BC’s Jack St. Ivany flung the puck about 150 feet into a net that UConn goalie Tomas Vomacka had vacated moments earlier.
Here’s the thing, though. Cavanaugh’s team — the Ice Bus, as it’s known — is coming.
It’s coming at the best teams in Hockey East, hot sauce in the fuel tank. It’s coming together in this disjointed season. It’s coming out on top more often than not, of late. It’s coming into conversations that matter.
“A real good win for our club,” said York, 75, in his 27th year at Boston College and 49th as a college coach. “It’s a significant win for our program. I think this is, by far, the best team he’s had here at Connecticut. They’re dangerous. They’ve got some really good players. It’s a great series. It was a split series, back and forth.”
It sure was.
For six periods on Friday and Saturday, UConn (5-6-2) went up and down the ice with BC and if you took off the sweaters you’d be hard pressed to identify which team was favored to win a championship and which has never won a Hockey East tournament game.
Boston College (9-2-1) owned much of the second period and used a shorthanded goal — amazingly, the Eagles’ sixth in 12 games — to lead 3-1 headed into the third. But in four games this season, including a split in December, UConn matched up well and played the type of hockey the program has grown capable of since Cavanaugh took over in 2013.
“If I’m looking at the series, we’ve played Boston College four times,” Cavanaugh said. “They’re the No. 1 team in the country. There are 12 points available. They got six, and we got six. So I’m pretty happy with our effort his weekend, and disappointed we didn’t fare better [Saturday].”
UConn, 3-13-2 all-time against BC, is fast and skilled and tough. The Huskies blocked 10 shots Friday and 16 Saturday. They had more shots on goal than BC both games. They also took too many penalties, hit a lull in the second period Saturday and gave up that deflating shorthanded goal.
It was 2-1. UConn was on the power play for the first time after killing successfully killing four of BC’s. But the puck squirted loose and sent two Eagles down the ice for a goal by Marc McLaughlin.
“A little bit of a turning point,” Cavanaugh said. “We had four guys down by the goal trying to win that puck battle, and in most cases we’re going to win that battle. We didn’t. Their defenseman made a nice play and sprung that 2-on-1 . ... We just need to be a little more patient there, let our three battle their two and keep two guys above the puck. We got antsy.”
BC goalie Spencer Knight, a Florida Panthers prospect from Darien, is amazing. A sophomore, he’s the best goalie in college hockey, 16-0-2 in his past 18 games and 8-0-1 this year. His presence, York said, is why the Eagles take so many chances on the penalty kill and score so many shorthanded goals.
UConn’s Vomacka actually made the more spectacular saves Saturday, including one on Danny Weight in the first period. Weight sent a rebound toward an open net and was celebrating, thinking he had scored, as Vomacka somehow got his glove to the puck. Vomacka had no chance on all three BC goals, which included a put-back by Harrison Roy and a perfectly executed 3-on-1 finished off by Casey Carreau.
Carter Turnbull scored UConn’s first goal, making it 1-1 at 8:00 of the first, and Jake Flynn scored with 4:01 remaining to pull the Huskies, who buzzed around to a 12-5 advantage on shots in the third, within a goal.
The game was playing out similar to Friday’s.
It just ended differently.
“We’ve maybe not always had the best team, but we’ve always had a team that competes for 60 minutes,” Cavanaugh said. “Now we’ve got a team that can go head-to-head with the top team in the country for six periods on a weekend.”
Hockeyisastrangesport,withrecords andrankingssometimesbuiltonthebounce ofapuck.What’simportantisgoinginto everygameknowingyouwon’tbeoverwhelmed.UConnwasnotoverwhelmedby BostonCollege.Theywereafewsequences awayfrommakingYorkwaitonamilestone andleavingAuriemmaastheonlycoachat therinkwith1,100victories.
What took place over these two games is encouraging.