Huskies’ Late Lead Slips Away In Hockey East

HARTFORD – The UConn men’s hockey team led 2-0 heading into the third period, stood 20 minutes away from a two-game sweep of Maine and its second Hockey East victory on the season.

Instead, a late defensive collapse and a scoreless overtime saw the Huskies end their home opening weekend with a 2-2 tie against the Black Bears.

UConn fell to 3-2-1, 1-1-1 in Hockey East play. Maine’s record improved to 2-3-1, 0-1-1.

The Huskies took a 2-0 lead into the third period but couldn’t hold on. Maine scored its first goal at the 13:00 mark in the third period. Chase Pearson sniped a shot over the left shoulder of Adam Huska, off of an assist from Rob Michel.

Just over five minutes later, Jacob Schmidt-Svejstrup put another one past Huska to tie the score and send the game into overtime.

“I thought we got away from what was making us successful,” UConn coach Mike Cavanaugh said. “All of a sudden, we’re trying to beat guys oneon-one in the neutral zone, and we stopped finishing some checks on the forecheck, and we started cheating a bit, trying to pick off passes, trying to make it 3-0, instead of just staying with simple.”

Pearson’s goal re-energized the Black Bears. They skated faster, chased the puck harder and ultimately fought off enough UConn puck clearings to send it into overtime. UConn held Maine to just five shots on goal in the first and second periods.

In the third period? 17. “They played desperate hockey, and they started throwing pucks at the net,” Cavanaugh said.

Just six games into the season, however, UConn men’s hockey is quickly learning the keys to its offense.

Need a goal? Find Alexander Payusov.

The junior scored both of UConn’s goals Saturday, his sixth and seventh scores of the season. Payusov leads the conference in scoring.

On UConn’s second goal of the day, at the 19:40 mark of the second period, Evan Wisock found Payusov. On a power play, he sent a pass from the blue line to the right side of the net that Payusov one-timed into the back of the net.

For UConn’s first goal, however, the puck found Payusov as opposed to the other way around. At the 7:51 mark of the second period, Wisocky ripped a shot that deflected off of Maine goalie Jeremy Swayman. The puck ricocheted to the left of Wayman and in front of a perfectly placed Payusov, who sent it into the back of the net for a 1-0 lead.

“One of the things I think Sasha has understood is that he’s a shooter. He shoots pucks,” Cavanaugh said. “He doesn’t try and handle the puck. Very rarely you see [Alex] Ovechkin say, ‘Hey let me see the puck.’ He just wants to shoot it.”

Cavanaugh reflected back to three years ago, when the Huskies took three of four points against Maine. They were ecstatic.

This year, however, it feels like a loss.

“We took three out of four points on the weekend, and it feels disappointing,” he said. “We had a game in hand, we were playing pretty well and we let our emotions get the best of us.”