University of Connecticut Athletics
University of Connecticut
Yale
Huskies Ring in the New Year Facing Yale Bulldogs
12/29/2018 7:54:00 AM | Men's Ice Hockey
TV Coverage: ESPN+
Radio Coverage: UConn IMG Sports Network - 97.9 ESPN Hartford | WILI 1400 AM and 95.3 FM | Bob Joyce (pxp) Adam Giardino (color)
Audio: TuneIn.com
Video: ESPNPlus.com | YaleBulldogs.com (Viewers outside of U.S.)
Live Stats: YaleBulldogs.com
Ice Chips…
- The UConn Huskies kick-start the second half of the season with a New Year's Eve match-up at state-rival Yale University on Monday afternoon. The Huskies and Bulldogs met earlier this season, a 6-3 Yale win in the consolation game of the Friendship Four in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
- This is the 14th meeting all-time between the two Connecticut schools with Yale winning all 13 previous match-ups. This will be the Huskies first trip to Ingalls Rink since the 2011-12 season.
- The Huskies are looking to put the brakes on a seven-game slide after being swept by Hockey East foe Boston College in a home-and-home series before the break. This is the Huskies longest losing streak since dropping eight-straight during the 2015-16 season.
- UConn will head out west to Las Vegas to take part in the 2019 Ice Vegas Invitational next weekend. The Huskies will be matched up with Western Michigan in the opening game and then take on either Air Force or St. Lawrence in the second game. The Huskies have never met Western Michigan or St. Lawrence and are 7-21-4 all-time against Air Force but haven't met the Falcons since their days in Atlantic Hockey.
- The Huskies will be without freshman forward Jachym Kondelik for at least Monday's game with Yale. Kondelik is playing for his home country, Team Czech Republic at the 2019 IIHF World Junior Championship in Vancouver.
- Kondelik led the Huskies in scoring in the first half of the season, putting 14 points on the ledger in 17 games, coming on a goal and 13 assists. He is third among Hockey East rookies in scoring and tied for 12th overall in the league. His 13 assists (0.76 pg) is tied for the lead in Hockey East. He has three multi-point games on the year. The UConn freshmen class as a whole leads the team with 40 points (11g/29a) this season.
- Senior Karl El-Mir and junior Alexander Payusov are the team's leading goal scorers with nine each over the first 17 games, tied for fourth among Hockey East leaders. Both have four power play goals on the year, third among league leaders.
- The Huskies are road warriors over the first three months of the season, playing just five times at the XL Center in their first 21 games. Once returning from Las Vegas, UConn will play 10 of the season's final 14 games at home in Hartford.
Last Meeting vs. Yale
Nov. 24, 2018 - Friendship Four
The Yale University Bulldogs won their 13th-straight against the Huskies thanks to a 6-3 victory in the consolation game of the 2018 Friendship Four tournament in Northern Ireland on November 24. The Bulldogs put three goals on the board in both the second and third periods to pull away from the Huskies in Belfast. Yale sophomore Kevin O'Neil finished with a pair of goals including the game-winner to pace the Bulldogs. In net, senior Sam Tucker turned away 34 UConn shots to claim victory. UConn freshman goaltender Tomas Vomacka stopped a season-best 31 shots in taking the loss. The Huskies had a 1-0 lead after the first period thanks to senior captain Miles Gendron's first goal of the season. Yale went up 2-1 in the second before junior Alexander Payusov knotted the game up. O'Neil's first of the night sent Yale to the locker room with a 3-2 lead after two periods. In the third, O'Neil made it 4-2 just 1:36 in the period before UConn senior Max Kalter pulled the Huskies to within 4-3 at 8:01. Yale's Joe Snively scored on the power play at 13:43 and freshman Curtis Hall put the game away at 15:26.
Scouting the Bulldogs
The Yale Bulldogs open the second half of the season ranked No. 15 in the USA Today poll and No. 18 in the USCHO.com poll. The Bulldogs, who hosted McGill University in an exhibition on Saturday, saw a five-game win streak end just before the break thanks to a 5-2 loss at Massachusetts. The Bulldogs are led by senior Joe Snively who has 17 points on eight goals and nine assists. Yale has gotten balanced scoring up and down their roster with 15 different Bulldogs finding the back of the net and 20 players registering at least a point. On the defensive end, the Bulldogs are allowing just 2.42 goals per game and have been backstopped by the senior-junior goaltending tandem of Sam Tucker and Corbin Kaczperski all season. Tucker sports a 2.01 goals against average with a .931 save percentage on the season. The Bulldogs will be without sophomore defensman Phil Kemp and freshman blue liner Jack St. Ivany who are playing for Team USA at the IIHF World Junior Championships.
Huskies vs. ECAC
- UConn is 21-56-10 all-time against teams from the ECAC. Under head coach Mike Cavanaugh, the Huskies are 8-8-3 against the ECAC.
- This season, the Huskies are 2-2-0 against teams from the ECAC, beating RPI (2-1) and Brown (3-1) while falling to Quinnipiac (4-2) and Yale (6-3).
- The Huskies still have match-ups with Yale and RPI on the slate along with a potential meeting with St. Lawrence as part of the Ice Vegas Invitational.
- The Huskies have faced Brown (5-5-1), Colgate (3-5-0), Dartmouth (0-2-0), Princeton (0-3-0), Quinnipiac (11-19-2), Rensselaer (1-2-3), Union (1-7-4) and Yale (0-13-0) from the league.
