Ridgefield’s Karashik scores first goal for UConn since 2018

As a freshman on UConn’s men’s hockey team three years ago, Ridgefield’s Adam Karashik scored four goals, including two in a game on Jan. 27, 2018. The defenseman hadn’t scored a goal since on his way to becoming UConn’s captain this season as a senior.

On Monday, the Huskies’ “heart and soul,” as his coach called him, found the net for the first time in 80 games. Karashik opened the scoring in UConn’s 2-0 win over No. 15 Providence at Freitas Ice Forum.

“It felt good to get the monkey off the back,” Karashik said after the game. “Definitely, coming off the win felt a whole lot better than scoring a goal.”

Karashik took the puck off the boards at the right point, carried it a few feet to the middle and wristed a shot that caromed in off a defender 2:01 into the second period.

“He’s a gritty player, plays a lot of minutes,” UConn coach Mike Cavanaugh said.

“He’s been working on getting pucks down to the net. ... He put a lot on that. I thought it hit something, I’m not sure, but he found a way to get it by that first layer (of defenders).”

That’s why Karashik said he didn’t see the puck go in.

“It got around a guy through a screen. I saw the guys put their arms up,” he said.

“It definitely felt good. As a little kid, you want to score goals playing hockey. It absolutely felt good, but like I said before, I’m just so excited we got a good bounce-back win, an inconference Hockey East win.”

The Huskies had lost two in a row, including a 6-2 loss at UMass in their previous game, since upsetting No. 2 Boston College at home on Dec. 12. They are 2-4-1 heading into a weekend homeand-home with New Hampshire.

“As I just said to the team,” Cavanaugh said about the win, “I don’t think it was pretty, but I think it was gutsy.”