UConn Men’s Hockey Falls Short vs. Boston College, 5-3

Another comeback attempt from the UConn men’s hockey team fell short as the Huskies lost to the Boston College Eagles, 5-3.

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Comeback Falls Short

For a moment in the third period, UConn appeared to have Boston College on the ropes. The Huskies trailed by just one goal and were peppering the net with shots, along with having an extra skater for nearly five minutes.

“I thought for sure we were going to tie that game,” UConn head coach Mike Cavanaugh said. “It felt like the way we were going we were going to tie that game but we fell a goal short.”

However, a three-goal deficit proved too much to overcome as UConn couldn’t find the game-tying score despite chance after chance.

It’s a tough loss, but there are certainly positives to glean from the performance. UConn showed off their potential in the third period when they completely dominated the Eagles. The Huskies can compete with any team in the country when they play like that, but time is running out on the season. They need to play like they did in the third period every game to have A chance of getting into the Hockey East Tournament.

Huska Struggles, Gets Pulled

Over UConn’s six-game winless streak, Adam Huska has struggled in goal. He’s allowed 19 goals, an average of 3.17 goals against average. He allowed four goals through two periods against Boston College — a handful of which were savable — and was replaced by Tomas Vomacka at the start of the third period.

“I just thought the team needed a switch there and I thought Tomas did a great job coming in,” Cavanaugh said.

The coach didn’t name a starter moving forward and said they’ll continue to compete, though it’s hard to argue that Vomacka shouldn’t be the starter for at least the next few games.

Iskhakov Explodes

Ruslan Iskhakov had been quiet recently. The highly-touted freshman failed to record a single point over the the last 10 games dating back to Nov. 30 against UMass.

But against BC, Iskhakov flashed his sky-high potential. He had a hand in every goal, scoring two and assisting on the other. The Eagles could barely contain Iskhakov who was everywhere the puck went while firing five shots shots on net.

“That’s the kid we recruited,” Cavanaugh said. “I didn’t think it was going to take this long but it’s hard coming over from Moscow. He’s never spent any time here in the US and he’s in a whole new culture academically. He was dynamic tonight. He was playing north. He gets a tendency to play east-west a lot...I thought he was the best player on the ice.”

Notes

• UConn is now 0-5-1 in their last six games and 0-11-1 in their last twelve Hockey East meetings.
• Carter Turnbull was given a five-minute major and ejected for checking from behind and game misconduct. Because of a new rule this year, Turnbull will be suspended for the Huskies next game due to his automatic ejection Friday night.
• Kale Howarth was out with an upper body injury, according to the team.

Next

UConn has just one game this weekend and will return to action next Thursday against Northeastern at the XL Center.