The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Yale able to skate past UConn in Hartford
Bulldogs now 12-0 all-time against Huskies
HARTFORD >> UConn has never beaten Yale in men’s hockey, a streak that dates back to one game in 1971 with the rest taking place since 2000.
It’s clear the Huskies are a vastly improved program since the last meeting with Yale two seasons ago. They’ve upgraded conferences and the quality of recruits. In the past couple of days two current UConn players, Orange’s Tage Thompson and goalie Adam Huska of Slovakia, returned from the World Junior Championships, a tournament for the world’s top players under age 20.
But on a snowy Saturday afternoon at the XL Center, UConn looked more like an Atlantic Hockey program. Yale thoroughly dominated for 60 minutes in a 4-2 nonleague victory — running its all-time record against the Huskies to 12-0 — before a crowd 4,909 that braved treacherous roads to get to the arena.
Yale (6-6-2) has won successive games against Hockey East opponents coming out of the three-week holiday break, with another tough test in Providence waiting on Tuesday night at Ingalls Rink.
The forward lines clicked and created, while the Bulldog forecheck kept the puck in UConn’s end for extended stretches. Yale didn’t allow a shot on its own goal until the game was 11 minutes old. When it was all over, it held
a 41-15 advantage in shots on goal.
UConn (8-7-6) hadn’t lost since Nov. 26, a span of five games that included wins over then-No. 4 UMass Lowell and the Desert Hockey Classic tournament title.
“Our body of work up to this point, we’ve shown we can play with anyone in the country,” UConn coach Mike Cavanaugh said. “We didn’t play well tonight. What we have to do is flush it and learn from it.”
Yale seems to have found line combinations that will stick for a while. Freshman Robbie DeMontis, who scored his first two collegiate points with assists against Northeastern earlier this week, was bumped from the fourth line to the second, centering seniors John Hayden and Frankie DiChiara.
Freshmen twins Mitchell and Evan Smith are together again after being split up for several games. DeMontis had an assist; Evan Smith got the gamewinning goal.
The top line of Joe Snively, Ryan Hitchcock and Mike Doherty was a thorn in the opponent’s side for a second successive game.
“A lot of our younger guys stepped up in a big way tonight,” Hitchcock said. “That’s encouraging moving forward. We went into the break knowing we needed to make a change and I think everyone has bought in. It goes to show in the third period. Everyone bought in; no one was out there with their own agenda, trying to get goals. We really locked it down.”
Though Yale took the game’s first 12 shots and led 1-0 on Snively’s wraparound goal, things were still in doubt until a costly UConn penalty turned the tide.
The Huskies had broken a 1-1 tie when Spencer Naas scored a power-play goal with 8:32 left in the second.
But a 5-minute major penalty and game misconduct issued to Justin Howell, issued after he sent Adam Larkin head-first into the boards, led to two Bulldog goals. Snively’s backhanded feed set up Hitchcock’s goal to tie the score at 2-2, just 22 seconds before Evan Smith redirected Henry Hart’s shot from the point past Huska.
DiChiara sealed the victory, walking through UConn’s defense early in the third period and drilling a hard wrist shot.
UConn played all three Division I opponents in Connecticut this season, losing to all three. But Cavanaugh says he’ll continue to schedule them as often as possible. He particularly admires Yale.
The programs won’t play next season, but have two possible meetings in 201819, one at Ingalls Rink and another in Northern Ireland, where both will participate in the Friendship Four in Belfast with Boston University and Union. More will be on the docket. Allain’s son, Nik, a junior at the Taft School, has committed to UConn and is expected to enroll in 2019 or 2020.
“I think the world of Keith, I do,” Cavanaugh said. “He’s created an incredible program at Yale. In the last nine seasons, they had one .500 season. Every other season is above .500. He’s gone to six NCAA (tournaments); he’s won a national championship. It’s where our program aspires to get to. I believe we will get there, and I’d love to play them every year.”