Although everyone on the winning side insisted that they were fixated on the present, the Connecticut Huskies came off as bent on putting a 180-degree spin on their 2008 semifinal date with Providence College Saturday.
The juniors and seniors have no way of escaping the fact that, when UConn hosted the 2008 tourney, they authorized a 4-0 deficit and ultimately lost to the Friars, 5-1. But regardless of what ingredients went into their incentive, the Huskies of this year similarly invaded Schneider Arena and similarly sculpted a gaping lead early.
By day’s end, a 3-0 edge at the first intermission had morphed into a 3-2 triumph, catapulting the Huskies into the Hockey East final and rinsing all the vinegar the Friars force-fed to them in three preceding postseason encounters.
“No doubt about it,” said PC head coach Bob Deraney when asked to read his opponents’ mind.
“We’d be the same way. If they had ended our season the last three or four years, we couldn’t wait to get another chance at them. But that’s sports. It’s hard to beat a great team several times, no matter how you do it.”
It was even harder for the Friars to rerun the old routine after the Huskies outshot them through the opening frame, 15-4, and potted three goals within intimate distance of stopper Genevieve Lacasse.
Radiant rookie Lisa Stathopolous sparked the ignition at 4:18 when she waited front and center on the porch for a setup by Jenniefer Chaisson, who stripped Lacasse along the near post after the goalie vacated her crease.
Less than 10 minutes afterward, Amy Hollstein converted just to Lacasse’s right, tucking in an in-your-face rebound left by Michelle Binning. And then, with 2:30 to spare, Hollstein and Binning switched roles, Binning burying the soapy remnants of Hollstein’s bid when Lacasse failed to keep it in her trapper.
“The better team won,” Deraney said in blunt concession. “You have to play 60 minutes. You can’t give away goals. If you do that, it’s going to be awfully hard to win this time of year, and that was the deciding factor today.”
But after the Friars perked up and concocted an unimaginably lopsided 30-8 shooting edge in the final 40 minutes, UConn goalie Alexandra Garcia was another can’t-miss factor. Garcia’s final bushel of 32 saves would be her second-heaviest collection all season behind a 35-save effort in a 2-1 loss at Harvard back on December 8.
That included three stops in a prolonged shorthanded segment that lasted two minutes and 52 seconds and included 69 seconds of a 5-on-3 deficit halfway through the third period.
Garcia continues to rank No. 10 in the nation under both the goals-against average (1.59) and save percentage (.931) headings. After authorizing three or four goals in five of her first 12 appearances this season, she has allowed two or fewer in all but two of her last 20 starts.
And her performance Saturday in contrast to, say, one of her freshman baptismal games last year –namely a 3-0 loss to these same Friars in the conference quarterfinals- personifies UConn’s improvement.
“Every game, she’s gotten better,” said Huskies’ coach Heather Linstad. “Earlier in the year, she and I had a nice conversation over what was expected of her and she’s obviously risen to the challenge that I put forth for her. But I also think that as she’s grown our defense has grown with her and grown more comfortable with her.”
The Friars did bite back enough to salvage the game’s intrigue. Sophomore grinder Kate Bacon put them on the board with 2:15 left in the second period, parking herself along the far post and spooning home a pass from Arianna Rigano on her backhand.
And then, with 5:33 to spare in regulation, assistant junior captain Jean O’Neill wandered uncontested to the porch and waited to rake in a feed by Abby Gauthier from behind the cage.
“I thought you saw a classic Women’s Hockey East hockey game,” Deraney said. “You saw two tremendously talented teams that are very deep, that are very resilient and put on a tremendous showcase of what women’s hockey is capable of.”
He added, “I couldn’t be prouder of my team but you have to give credit to the University of Connecticut. They played extremely well today. They got out to a quick start and were able to hold off a furious comeback by us.”
That they did. In occasional relief of Garcia, the UConn skaters achieved 12 blocked shots, five of which were in the closing frame. And of a whopping 49 total shot attempts on the day, the Friars put a hefty enough 34 on the net, but an insufficient two in the net.
“We got back on our heels a little bit in the second period,” Linstad confessed. “But I thought we did very well in the third period, certainly after killing the five-on-three. I think we had the momentum and we felt really good about ourselves.”
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