The Connecticut Huskies entered last weekend’s home-and-home set with Northeastern in a fair position to nail first place in Hockey East. Then, upon losing Part I in a shootout and subsequently watching Providence claim the crown, they entered Sunday’s regular season finale tucked into second place and needing a simple two-point package to earn the other bye.
Yet by day’s end, they had whiffed again, and with Boston University and New Hampshire both winning and pole-vaulting themselves in the standings, the Huskies plummeted to fifth.
Just their puck luck. Within eight hours, the Huskies went from possibly being excused from the conference quarterfinals to having to enlist a bus for their quarterfinal date.
More frightfully, though, is that UConn closed its regular season on an iffy 1-2-2 slip, that coming after they had vacuumed a program-record nine consecutive victories and gone 13-2-4 in their 19 ventures between Halloween and Groundhog Day.
Groundhog Day? While it has fast become a cliché concept, the fact is that this generation of Huskies has a propensity to tumble miserably towards spring almost as soon as folklore makes its annual effort to heal every Winter Blues’ sufferer.
When this year’s senior class was a band of rookies, UConn was a decent 16-10-2 by February 4, 2007. But afterwards, they went 1-5-1, including a winless 0-3-1 finish in league action and a semifinal loss to UNH.
In 2008, not unlike this year, the Huskies entered the postseason one or two statements away from cementing their first bid to the Elite Eight. Sure, they had just endured two egregious losses to New Hampshire to polish off the regular season. But they were still a sound 22-7-5 overall and they were hosting the WHEA dance, so if they could just beat Providence in the semifinals and garner a rematch with UNH for the title, that might have been enough for an at-large passport.
Nothing doing. The dogged Friars shell-shocked their hosts, 5-1, at Freitas Ice Forum, and the Wildcats ultimately took off as the league’s lone NCAA ambassador.
In 2009, the conference tournament could have, by all means, returned to Storrs in its first year under the gotta-earn-that-home-ice policy. And the Huskies were riding into the homestretch on a nine-game tear identical to what they formulated earlier this season.
But whereas by January 24, 2009 they were 17-7-2, they would not link up another pair of consecutive victories thereafter. They went 3-4-1 (including a shootout win) to close out the playoff push and spilled their shot at home ice for the quarterfinal on the very last day, losing another two-game series to the Wildcats.
As a direct consequence, they visited the nemesis Friars instead of vice versa, and Providence won the wild card match, 3-0.
This year’s playoff presage looks even more ominous. All you have to do is look up head coach Heather Linstad’s reaction to her team’s performance against Northeastern, whom they shall visit again for this Saturday’s quarterfinal.
Facing the laser-beamed Leah Sulyma, Connecticut went scoreless on a cumulative 60 shots in 125 minutes of clock time. They were no more effective in Saturday’s shootout –Amy Hollstein, Brittany Murphy, and Sami Evelyn all faltered- and the Hub Huskies tipped the scale on the very last shot courtesy of Kristi Kehoe.
In reference to Sulyma, Linstad told the UConn Daily Campus, “Their goalie played very well, but our offense didn’t get the job done.”
There’s certainly some merit to that assessment. After all, prior to the WHEA’s version of Judgment Weekend, Linstad’s pupils had not been shut out for 17 games.
But at least sophomore stopper Alexandra Garcia was equally effective and got her mates a point. That wouldn’t happen at Matthews Arena on Sunday. Kehoe and Brittany Esposito each solved the otherwise reliable Garcia in regulation.
The good news on Garcia’s front: that marked only the third time she has authorized more than one goal since January 9, a span of 13 games. The bad news: those three occasions have fallen within her last five outings. The timing for these hiccups couldn’t be much worse.
Not to mention, as formidable as Sulyma has been, there is every indication that Swiss starlet Florence Schelling will return from Vancouver to the Northeastern crease this weekend. And even if she is not game-ready, Sulyma is hogging an abundance of momentum, and both NU stoppers rank slightly ahead of Garcia in the way of goals-against average and save percentage.
UConn ranks No. 7 in two relevant polls, Northeastern No. 8. This week’s USA Today leaderboard has those positions reversed. Either way, both packs of Huskies are on the national bubble and the outcome of their quarterfinal bout will likely pump a merciful breath of life into the victor while the final horn –whether that be a third period buzzer or an overtime goal horn- will translate to a death knell for the loser.
Whichever fate falls upon who will likely depend on two factors: momentum and learnedness. With the hosting Hub Huskies act quick to apply the psychological dagger when they have the chance? Or will Linstad’s players convert their negative energy in a timely fashion and crack the code to the Northeastern net?
Assuming Garcia can hold her ground like usual, one or two red lights may be all UConn will need on Saturday. But a simple prerequisite to that will be learning from the immediate and not-too-distant past.
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