Disappointing Weekend On The Ice

Men's Hockey

By: Tim Ehrens

Posted: 2/19/07

While head coach Bruce Marshall saw the weekend series with American International College as a step back for the Huskies, the Atlantic Hockey standings show otherwise.

UConn (13-17-2, 13-11-2 Atlantic Hockey) battled to a 2-2 tie with their conference counterparts Saturday at the Mark E. Freitas Ice Forum, capping off a one-point weekend that has now guaranteed the Huskies home ice for the Atlantic Hockey Quarterfinals following Holy Cross' 4-1 loss to Sacred Heart.

"It was a disappointing weekend for us," Marshall said. "Teams are scratching and clawing for points in this conference and AIC just did a better job tonight."

After dropping a 3-2 decision to the Yellow Jackets (7-22-1, 7-18-1) in overtime Friday, the Huskies took the lead 14:03 into the game when Chris Ochoa took advantage of a flurry in front of the AIC net and slipped one of his two shots into the back of the net just past Yellow Jacket goalie Tom Fenton.

The first period saw limited action from both teams, as they both combined for only 11 shots. Scoring chances were plentiful but both teams failed to connect on them.

The Yellow Jackets wasted little time trying to tie the game up in the second period as Jeason Lecours received a behind-the-back pass from Matt Woodward to square the game up. Woodward passed the puck behind him to a waiting Lecours who shot it easily into the UConn net past goalie Beau Erickson, who had 19 saves on the night.

Four minutes after Lecours' equalizer, Cole Koidahl broke the tie in spectacular fashion with a breakaway goal to put the Huskies ahead, 2-1. Koidahl faked left and went right to record UConn's seventh short-handed goal of the season.

[Sean Erickson] made a nice play and I was off to the races," Koidahl said about the goal. "I faked him left and just put it in the goal with a backhand."

After an equalizing goal three minutes into the third period by Mark Fuqua, the game turned into a goalie showcase with both goalies making great saves and frustrating the other team's offensive chances. Both Erickson and Fenton made fabulous glove saves in the third period as both teams were struggling and fighting for an advantage and a win.

An exasperating third period gave way to a five-minute overtime period in which no team had a decided advantage and only three combined shots were fired.

"This is a nice rivalry. These teams go way back," said AIC coach Gary Wright. "We respect UConn a lot and today was just a hard fought college hockey game."

AIC was not a team the Huskies overlooked, as both of their wins over the Yellow Jackets this year have come by one goal. Despite their dismal record, AIC "always seems to play us tough," said UConn captain Matt Scherer.

"We didn't have a sense of urgency at the right time. We need a playoff attitude [in these games]," Marshall said. "In practice this week, we have to come with an attitude that we just wasted a weekend."

"We had one chance to make up for last night and we couldn't finish," Scherer said. "We need to rebound back after a loss if we want to be a playoff team. We're in a rut right now and we need to turn it around."

Next up for the Huskies is a two-game series with Holy Cross, who is coming off of back-to-back losses to Sacred Heart this past weekend.

"We need to take Holy Cross seriously and start playing playoff hockey," Scherer said. "We are definitely in a do-or-die mode."

Huskies will say goodbye to their 10 seniors Friday when they celebrate Senior Night Friday at Freitas Ice Forum. The Huskies play Holy Cross Friday at 7 p.m. and then travel to Worcester, Mass. Saturday for their regular season finale.