By Brittany Burke
The CCSU club hockey team traveled to the UConn campus to take on the Husky club hockey team for the second matchup of the season in a 5-3 loss.
The Blue Devils entered the night’s game following a 4-2 loss against Super East opponent, Montclair State on the road. CCSU was suffering from the after effects of the night before, as the team took to the ice looking lethargic and sloppy.
“We had a long game last night [Saturday], we didn’t get home until three in the morning so I mean the first five minutes they score two goals so it was kind of an uphill battle the whole game, so it kind of hurt us and we came back in the third period but its what ultimately cost us the game,” said Ryan Stanley.
The Huskies got off to a quick start, scoring two first period goals in 28 seconds with over 15 minutes remaining before the first intermission. The first goal was made off of a UConn power play, as Evan Mink served time in the box.
“We finished the third period of last night’s game real slow and it cost us there too,” said Head Coach Ben Adams. “Them scoring two goals in 28 seconds certainly don’t help and that’s been our problem all year long. Once they score or we score it’s almost a good bet to put 30 seconds down that somebody’s gonna score again and that’s what happens when somebody scores it’s a momentum shift good or bad.”
CCSU came out in the second with a new found fire and momentum. The team was able to keep UConn in its own zone and was no longer allowing the Huskies to dominate. With goalie Ross Mocko in net, both teams were held off the boards for the second period.
The Blue Devils began to stage a third period comeback against the Huskies, which began with a power play goal from Captain Tommy Carroll with 12:40 left in the game. Still down 3-1, off an early period goal from UConn, the Blue Devils were able to net a second goal, from Stanley with the assist by Jon Knobloch, cutting UConn’s advantage to one.
Stanley scored again with 2:33 left off a pass from Dan Vasquez, but an empty net goal from UConn sealed the two goal advantage and eventual win for the Huskies.
“We had a pretty serious talk in the locker room between the periods and I just said we got to pick it up and the message was sent and they understood and came out a little harder in the second and third,” said Carroll. “We held them to two and we got a couple and we were flying, we held them in their zone for quite a long time and I thought we were dominating but things didn’t’ quite go our way at the end.”
The third period wasn’t enough time for CCSU to stage a complete comeback. Starting slow is something CCSU has had trouble with all season.
“I think we need to improve on our all around game, obviously we skated harder in the third but putting together 60 minutes will really help us out and we haven’t really done that lately,” said Stanley.
The team also needs to focus on moving up the ice as one unit and getting the shots on net. One of the main things that needs to be improved on is the passing game. Short, crisp passes are what will make the difference, not the fancy stretch pass attempts that result in a CCSU turn over.
The Blue Devils hosted the Huskies last month as part of the CT Governor’s Cup, falling to UConn 7-6 Sunday night’s defeat was the second loss for the Blue Devils against the in state rivals, but the two teams will meet again on February 19 for an outdoor game at Rentschler Field in East Hartford as part of the February Hockey Fest 2011.
Until then the Blue Devils will travel to Danbury on December 10 to play the Western Connecticut State University Colonials at 7:50 p.m. before taking the ice in Simsbury against Endicott on December 11 at 8:15 p.m.