UConn Men’s Hockey Defeats Army In Season Opener

The UConn men’s hockey team started their 2018-19 season on the right foot Friday night in West Point, New York, scoring five goals to take down former Atlantic Hockey foe Army for a 5-2 victory.

After going down 1-0 on a power play goal from Alex Wilkinson, UConn managed to bounce back and rattle off four unanswered goals to put the game out of reach for the Knights, including three goals in the second period.

The Huskies tied things up just over a minute after Wilkinson’s first goal with a goal from Karl El-Mir to even it at 1-1 through the first period.

From there on out, it was all UConn. Benjamin Freeman, Brian Rigali and standout freshman Ruslan Iskhakov all scored in the second period to make it a 4-1 lead.

Head coach Mike Cavanaugh got an immediate impact from his standout freshman class, with Iskhakov scoring one goal and assisting on another and Jacym Kondelik recording an assist on the first goal of the year.

Army tried to make things interesting in the third period with another goal from Wilkinson in the third period to make it 4-2, but UConn’s Alexander Payusov answered shortly after to up it to 5-2.

Huskies goaltender Adam Huska racked up 32 saves in the win, and the Black Knights outshot UConn 34-31 on the night. The Ice Bus returns to action with a road match up against in-state rival Quinnipiac on Tuesday, October 16.