UConn men’s hockey adds two games to schedule

UConn men’s hockey added two games to its schedule, the team announced on Thursday. The Huskies will host the UMass Lowell River Hawks on Monday, Dec. 21 for a 5 p.m. puck drop at Freitas Ice Forum before traveling to face the UMass Minutemen on Wednesday, Dec. 23 at 3:30 p.m.

Before these games were set, UConn’s next matchup on the schedule wasn’t until Jan. 1 at UNH.

Monday’s game will be broadcast on CollegeSportsLive while NESN will carry Wednesday’s game.

UConn’s players unanimously voted to stay on-campus through the holidays to avoid the required quarantine — which would’ve resulted in games being postponed — when they returned from home. Because of that, Mike Cavanaugh said he wanted to find a few more games for the players.

“My players are going to be here, I want to find games for them,” he said.

Earlier this week, Hockey East announced that all games played between conference members would be counted towards the league standings. Previously, certain matchups were designated as “flex” games, which weren’t counted towards the standings. But with so many games already postponed to this point, Hockey East isn’t sure if every opponent will have the opportunity to play each other this season.

The league also announced that every eligible team will make the conference tournament, as opposed to just the top eight.

Though UConn will be happy to have games at all, the schedule hasn’t fallen kindly. UConn’s first two series were scheduled against Vermont and Maine — two of the weaker teams in the conference. But both those matchups were postponed and the Huskies ended up playing UMass, picked to finish second in the league, instead.

Last weekend, UConn faced No. 2 Boston College and now will preparing to face No. 10 UMass Lowell and the 15th ranked Minutemen. If the Huskies play both these games, their first six games will have all come against ranked opponents.

So far this year, UConn is 1-2-1. The Huskies sit tied for third place in the Hockey East standings in terms of total points (6) but are fourth in percentage of points earned (which will be used if an uneven number of games is played) with a .500 mark.