Lee, Savory lift UML past Uconn
after two periods.
The 6-foot-4 Lee, who has four goals in his last two games, made it 1-0 at 4:34 when fellow Swede Carl Berglund stole a puck and fed him 20 feet out. Lee redirected the pass under the crossbar past Darion Hanson (21 saves).
Lee wasn’t done. With the River Hawks clinging to a one-goal lead, Brian
Chambers dished to Lee, who went one-on-one with defenseman Roman Kinal. Lee deked to the left faceoff circle and uncorked a wrist shot which sailed into the top right corner at 16:17.
“Lee scored a goal-scorer’s goal,” Uconn head coach Mike Cavanaugh said. “That was the game. He made a pro shot. He’s a really good player.”
“I work on my shot a lot after practice,” said Lee, who has 22 career goals. “I try to fire it as hard as I can. It feels great. We’re a great team. We have a lot of depth on our team. We’re starting to earn the respect that I think we should have had awhile ago.”
Freshman Owen Cole earned his first collegiate point when he set up Reid
Stefanson’s empty-net goal with 1:35 left.
Savory stopped two breakaways. He made a ridiculous sliding save to deny Ryan Tverberg with UML only up 1-0. Savory denied a shot by Kevin O’neil from the bottom of the right faceoff circle. The puck deflected to Tverberg in front. Tverberg had half a net to shoot for, but Savory somehow got a piece of the shot.
“That’s a lot of shots. He’s a good goalie. They have two good goalies. He’s playing with a lot of confidence. He played really well tonight,” Cavanaugh said of Savory.
Savory now sports a 1.13 goals against average and .953 save percentage.
The average size of both teams is 6 feet, 186 pounds. It was a heavyweight battle in the opening period. Both teams threw bone-jarring hits. Neither team was able to score, though Uconn thought it had taken a lead when Jonny Evans popped in a rebound with 3:34 left in the first.
Savory immediately signaled a high stick and the goal was disallowed following a lengthy video review.
Savory made a save seconds earlier on a 4-on-2 Uconn rush.
Savory kept it a scoreless game early in the second with UML on the power play. The puck broke past defenseman Nick Austin at the blue line, allowing Tverberg to skate in all alone. Tverberg tried to send a wrist shot into the UML cage, but Savory calmly turned it aside.
“They’re difference maker plays. He was key. If your goalie makes some key saves, that gives you a chance to catch your breath on the bench,” Bazin said of Savory.
The River Hawks started to generate better chances late in the middle period. Defenseman Jon Mcdonald snuck behind the Huskies’ defense, but the senior was denied on the doorstep by a sliding Hanson.
All six of Uconn’s top six forwards have been drafted by National Hockey League teams, including secondround pick Vladislav Firstov. Holding them without a goal was an impressive effort.
Uconn hosts the rematch this afternoon (3:30 p.m.) in Hartford.