Spring Break
Huskies climbing back into contention
Chris Brodeur
Issue date: 12/2/08 Section: Sports
Guiding a team that has already sustained five crushing, one-goal defeats thus far on the season, coach Bruce Marshall knows its early enough for the men's ice hockey team to reverse its fortunes but there's little room for self-pity.
"We're at that point in the season where we've got two games left before break and we don't have time to wallow," Marshall said. "I told the guys we've got two league games left, let's play with an edge and dictate where we end up. You're gonna be staring at those standings all Christmas break."
Tonight offers another road test for the Huskies (4-9, 3-4 Atlantic Hockey), where most of their struggles have been contained. Of their nine losses, seven have come away from the Freitas Ice Forum.
UConn travels to Fairfield for a showdown with in-state rival and conference foe Sacred Heart (3-9, 3-7 Atlantic Hockey) - another team that has struggled in 2008.
The Huskies are coming off their first ever victory over Brown Saturday, a 4-1 road win kicked off by Bobby Reiners' first collegiate goal as part of the fourth straight game in which the team tallied at least two first period goals.
UConn narrowly missed out on another historic win over an Ivy League opponent back on Nov. 11 when Yale escaped Freitas with a 2-1 victory on a last-minute goal to preserve its untainted record against the Huskies in a series that dates back to 1971.
The Pioneers were victorious in their last outing as well, winning 3-2 at Holy Cross to earn a split of the home-and-home series with the Atlantic Hockey opponent. It marked the first time Sacred Heart has won away from its own Milford Ice Pavilion this season. In the preceding series at Air Force, the Pioneers were served with thrashings of 8-1 and 7-1 at the hands of the reigning Atlantic Hockey Champions.
In four regular season meetings with Sacred Heart in 2007-08, UConn was outscored by a combined total of 19-6 and didn't manage a single victory. The two teams met in the quarterfinals of the Atlantic Hockey Championship for a best-of-three series with the Huskies coming in as the seven-seed and the Pioneers the four-seed. It was the only first-round matchup in the tournament to require three games with Sacred Heart taking the decisive third game by a score of 4-1.
Marshall stressed the importance of the team's final two games before exams - both opposite Atlantic Hockey teams - in a conference that's been very close with the exception of undefeated Air Force.
"The conference is very tight," Marshall said. "We don't wanna fall too far behind that cluster in the middle and be separated from that pack. These are big points."
The Huskies will look to build on the success of the Brown game, an outing that Marshall drew several positives from.
"We gotta see where that's gonna carry us," Marshall said. "We've been stressing how we need to shoot the puck more and we generated shots consistently. We kept our energy up for 60 minutes."
"We're at that point in the season where we've got two games left before break and we don't have time to wallow," Marshall said. "I told the guys we've got two league games left, let's play with an edge and dictate where we end up. You're gonna be staring at those standings all Christmas break."
Tonight offers another road test for the Huskies (4-9, 3-4 Atlantic Hockey), where most of their struggles have been contained. Of their nine losses, seven have come away from the Freitas Ice Forum.
UConn travels to Fairfield for a showdown with in-state rival and conference foe Sacred Heart (3-9, 3-7 Atlantic Hockey) - another team that has struggled in 2008.
The Huskies are coming off their first ever victory over Brown Saturday, a 4-1 road win kicked off by Bobby Reiners' first collegiate goal as part of the fourth straight game in which the team tallied at least two first period goals.
UConn narrowly missed out on another historic win over an Ivy League opponent back on Nov. 11 when Yale escaped Freitas with a 2-1 victory on a last-minute goal to preserve its untainted record against the Huskies in a series that dates back to 1971.
The Pioneers were victorious in their last outing as well, winning 3-2 at Holy Cross to earn a split of the home-and-home series with the Atlantic Hockey opponent. It marked the first time Sacred Heart has won away from its own Milford Ice Pavilion this season. In the preceding series at Air Force, the Pioneers were served with thrashings of 8-1 and 7-1 at the hands of the reigning Atlantic Hockey Champions.
In four regular season meetings with Sacred Heart in 2007-08, UConn was outscored by a combined total of 19-6 and didn't manage a single victory. The two teams met in the quarterfinals of the Atlantic Hockey Championship for a best-of-three series with the Huskies coming in as the seven-seed and the Pioneers the four-seed. It was the only first-round matchup in the tournament to require three games with Sacred Heart taking the decisive third game by a score of 4-1.
Marshall stressed the importance of the team's final two games before exams - both opposite Atlantic Hockey teams - in a conference that's been very close with the exception of undefeated Air Force.
"The conference is very tight," Marshall said. "We don't wanna fall too far behind that cluster in the middle and be separated from that pack. These are big points."
The Huskies will look to build on the success of the Brown game, an outing that Marshall drew several positives from.
"We gotta see where that's gonna carry us," Marshall said. "We've been stressing how we need to shoot the puck more and we generated shots consistently. We kept our energy up for 60 minutes."
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