Spring Break
Thibault too much for opposing defenders
Russell Blair
Issue date: 1/26/09 Section: Sports
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Dominque Thibault was held scoreless for the first time this season, a feat accomplished only five times in the 18 games since. In that game, UConn was shut out for the first of only two times thus far.
?Friday night would be much different.
?Thibault capitalized on her tremendous size and speed, taking advantage of the power play to net two goals within the first 11 minutes of the game. She finished the game with her second career hat trick.
Thibault leads Hockey East with 23 goals and is second in points with 34, just four behind Kelli Stack. Despite Thibault being far and away UConn's best goal scorer, Michelle Binning is second on the team with 15 and Amy Hollstein is the only other Husky in double digits with 10. Other teams cannot seem to defend Thibault's ability to create plays.
?With 61 career goals thus far, Thibault needs just nine more to break Jaclyn Hawkins' school record for career goals.
"I just crash the net hard and try to get past the defense and set myself up inside," Thibault said. "Then I just pick a corner, shoot and it usually goes in."?
Thibault failed to mention her ability to take the puck all the way from UConn's blue line, across center ice, past two defenders and tally a goal as she did with her second score.?
UConn's power play unit stands atop Hockey East by converting 21.6 percent of the time. UConn has netted a goal with the man advantage in 11 consecutive games, and eight times during that streak they scored twice on the power play.?
"We have really good puck movement out on the ice," Thibault said. "We do a good job of getting open and scoring and making the opponent's goalies get down on themselves a little bit."?
On the other end of the ice UConn is one of the most complete teams. They kill opposing penalties 87.9 percent of the time, good for third in Hockey East. No other team is ranked in the top three in both the power play and the penalty kill.
Play got aggressive towards the end of the game with six penalties called in the final period, including four against UConn. Despite five power play opportunities and two four-on-four situations, Northeastern simply couldn't take advantage and break through the Huskies strong penalty kill unit.
?"We just need to keep our cool and work hard," Thibault said. "We can't let having one of our teammates in the penalty box disturb us."?
"If it does get chippy out there, we capitalize on the special teams like we did tonight and we take advantage of that," said coach Heather Linstad.?
In the second game of the home and home Thibault netted the decisive goal in the third period to give UConn the 1-0 win and two more points in Hockey East standings. The Huskies are now one point out of first place which is tied between Boston College and the University of New Hampshire.
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