COLLEGE HOCKEY CAPSULES
A weekly glance at state Division I college hockey:
LOOKING AHEAD
NUTMEG CLASSIC at Freitas Ice Forum: Friday: Sacred Heart women (85-1) vs. UConn (11-3-2), 3 p.m.; No. 6/7 Yale women (8-2-1) vs. No. 5 Quinnipiac (13-1-2), 6:15 p.m. Saturday: Consolation, 3 p.m.; Championship, 6:15 p.m.: For the first time since 2010-11, four state teams play in this annual holiday tournament. And boy, did they get a first-round matchup, with two top-10 teams meeting up just a little off Whitney Avenue. The host Huskies picked up a vote in the USA Today/USA Hockey poll, while we’re at it.
Colgate men (8-7) at UConn (7-6), XL Center, Friday, 4:05 p.m.: The Huskies are 4-2 against unranked opponents, and the two losses came to now-ranked Ohio State. Unranked Colgate is in this weekend, and the Raiders have been streaky, winners of three out of four after a five-game losing streak.
Post women (2-12) at Wesleyan (3-0), Spurrier-Snyder Rink, Saturday, 7 p.m.: Post, seeking its first win in a while, meets Wesleyan, which has three close wins (two against Bowdoin) after losing last season to the pandemic.
Sacred Heart men (6-5-3, 4-2-2 AHA) at Army (4-5-2, 2-2-2, play Friday/Saturday at Bentley), Thursday, Dec. 2, 7:05 p.m.: The Pioneers get a little time off after their four-games-in-five-days’ visit to the Air Force Academy, and after this they’ll have a longer break, not playing again until New Year’s Day.
LOOKING BACK
The Yale women celebrated their firstever top-10 ranking by running their unbeaten streak to seven, coming back to tie St. Lawrence 4-4, beating No. 7 Clarkson 4-2 and beating LIU 2-1 in overtime. Junior Rebecca Vanstone scored to tie the Saints with 6:07 left, erasing the Bulldogs’ third deficit. Junior Emma Seitz was in on all four goals against the Golden Knights, then scored the winner on Long Island against the Sharks as Yale outshot them 56-14.
Greenwich’s Ryan Carmichael scored 3:51 into Wednesday’s game against Vermont to give the Yale men their first lead of the season. Defense partner Graham Lillibridge scored 11 seconds later, and the Bulldogs were on their way to their first win of the season, 4-2 over Vermont. Teddy Wooding and William Dineen also scored. The Bulldogs had been shut out for the third and fourth time this season over the weekend, swept at Colgate and Cornell by identical 3-0 scores. Junior Connor Hopkins made 21 saves against Colgate, and freshman Luke Pearson stopped 22 Big Red shots.
The UConn men split with No. 15 UMass Lowell, losing 3-0 at Tsongas Center but coming back to win 2-1 at home. Graduate student Darion Hanson made 30 saves in the win, and two defensemen scored the goals in the second period, senior Ryan Wheeler and junior Jake Flynn.
The Sacred Heart men took the last three of their four-game set in Colorado against Air Force, all four games played within two goals. Senior Josh Benson
returned after a month and a half with 56 saves on 59 shots in two wins; Justin Robbins, who’d been the workhorse in Benson’s absence, stopped 24 of 25 in the final victory. Junior forward Kevin Lombardi
scored a goal in each game.
After a hot start, the UConn women are winless in four after a 3-3 tie against Providence (and a loss in the shootout) and a 3-2 loss at Northeastern. UConn led 2-0 against the other Huskies, but Brooke Hobson scored the winner for Northeastern with 5:31 to go. Against Providence, UConn sophomore defender Alex-Anne Boyer scored with 4:19 left to tie it.
The Sacred Heart women improved to 6-2-1 in NEWHA with a 4-0 win over Post. Senior Frankie Sanchez and freshman Carly Greene combined on the shutout, and four different players scored. The Pioneers had swept Saint Michael’s 10-0 and 6-3. Senior Anna Klein had six points on the weekend for the Pioneers, who got at least one point from 14 different players; three aside from Klein scored four.