UConn hockey confident in ability to make postseason push
UConn hockey coach Mike Cavanaugh hopes the 2021-22 season will be one of firsts for the program.
He expects it to be, actually.
“We have a team that’s really looking to make a deep push towards a Hockey East championship and into the NCAA Tournament,” Cavanaugh said Tuesday during the team’s first formal media availability session in advance of the season opener Oct. 2 against Sacred Heart as the XL Center in Hartford.
This is Cavanaugh’s ninth season at UConn, and the program’s eighth in Hockey East. The Huskies have yet to make the NCAA field or win a conference playoff game (0-11 overall, 0-9 Hockey East) since Cavanaugh, previously a Boston College assistant, took over in 2013.
But UConn has momentum as a program, with a $70 million arena currently being constructed on campus for use beginning next year, and as a team. The Huskies are coming off their best Hockey East finish, fourth place. They were fifth in 2019-20 and in 201718.
UConn returns all of its top forwards, including second-team All-American Jonny Evans, a senior who led Hockey East players with 28 points last season in conference games. The Huskies might have more scoring potential than any of its previous teams.
“On that front, I feel really good,” Cavanaugh said. “I feel like this is the most depth we’ve had up front since I’ve been here. We were talking about it in the office the other day. I’m not sure we have a fourth line.
Like, I don’t know who our fourth line is. I don’t know who our third line is.”
Cavanaugh’s point was that there are many interchangeable players and combinations he’s experimented with over nine practices.
Evans, overall, had 29 points — 14 goals and 15 assists — in 23 games last season.
Cavanaugh wants Evans to take another step as a senior.
“I think it’s just more, every single night, being a threat, offensively,” Cav
anaugh said. “One of the things Jonny doesn’t get enough credit for is his defensive play. He’s an excellent penalty killer, he’s really smart in our own zone, does a lot of little things that people don’t’ see in our defensive zone. … Those things lead to the transition. We’re expecting him to be a leader on this team — and an offensive threat every single night.”
Senior Jachym Kondelik (four goals, 18 assists), sophomore Hudson Schandor (six goals, eight assists), senior Carter Turnbull (nine goals, four assists), senior Marc Gatcomb (six goals, six assists) and junior Vladislav Firstov (three goals, nine assists) also return from a team that finished 10-11-2 after a Hockey East quarterfinal loss to Providence.
UConn played its home games at the on-campus Freitas Ice Forum last season, due to the pandemic, and returns to the XL Center this season. After the opener against Sacred Heart, UConn plays a home-and-home with Boston University to open Hockey East play (home Oct. 8), the second game of which opens a seven-game road trip.
UConn lost goalie Tomas Vomacka to the NHL. He signed a contract with Nashville after starting all 23 games last season. He was a fifth-round selection of the Predators in 2017.
Graduate student Darion Hanson transferred from Union, where he played 78 games in three years, posting a 2.55 goalsagainst average and a .913 save percentage. He is competing with freshman Logan Terness, the British Columbia Hockey League’s rookie of the year in 201920, and sophomore Matt Pasquale, coming off labrum surgery.
“(Terness) is coming in, certainly, as a highly-touted goaltender,” Cavanaugh said. “Darion right now probably has the most experience of the three goalies we have. If I had to pick a goaltender today, it would be him, but we still have probably another five or six practices before that decision has to be made.”
Hanson is one of three transfers on the UConn roster, joining graduate forward Kevin O’Neil, who had 44 points in 94 games over three seasons at Yale, and Jarrod Gourley, a graduate defenseman from Arizona State.
“All three have brought a wealth of experience,” Cavanaugh said. “They’ve played a lot of college hockey. They’ve fit in seamlessly with our team. I think they’ve given us a different perspective, too. …. I’ve been able to utilize them as a resource and I think they’ve been a great resource for our players.”
One of the Huskies’ top defenseman last season, Yan Kuznetsov, the youngest player in college hockey when he arrived in 2019 and a second-round selection by the Flames a year later, also departed for the NHL.
The defensemen corps is expected to be led by three juniors — Roman Kinal, Jake Flynn and Carter Berger. Turnbull and Kondelik are the team’s captains. Gatcomb and Kinal, who missed the 2019-20 season with a blood clot, are alternate captains.
“We’ve always kind of had a baseline identity going into each year for what we expect and how we want to play, and that’s just playing fast,” Kinal said. “We’re a really fast team, especially our forwards. It’s probably the fastest team I’ve seen. … We’re fast, we’re gritty and we’re [tough], but we always have skill. We’re working on systems every day. We’re all on the same page there. I just think fans are going to go, ‘Wow, it’s one of the best teams we’ve seen at UConn.’ ”
East Haven’s Nick Capone, a key recruit who played 20 games last season as a freshman and had five points, returns for his sophomore season. Capone is 6 feet 2, 205 pounds.
“Nick can bring that fear factor into a game, that intimidation factor, and I’d like to see him do that (while) being more involved, offensively,” Cavanaugh said. “Nick’s a guy I want averaging three or four shots on goal a game.”