The good news: rookie forward Taylor Gross has set a promising tone for her career, scraping out 10 goals and 14 points in her first 18 games.
The bad news: Gross is to the Connecticut Huskies what Ned Braden was to the pre-Hanson Charlestown Chiefs. She is the only one of Heather Linstad’s pupils to have had no scoreless streak last longer than two games.
A traditionally offensive-compulsive bunch, this edition of the Huskies has dug itself an unprecedented hole at 6-10-1 overall. And it is patently owed to insufficient productivity.
Granted, junior goaltender Alexandra Garcia has endured her share of maulings, most of them from established national heavyweights. At the same time, she has allowed a respectable three goals or fewer in nine start-to-finish ventures, but only gone 5-3-1 in that scenario. And when she has been scorched, it is often due to her skating mates’ numbing psychological crashes.
Minus a predictable 11-0 drubbing of Sacred Heart in the Nutmeg Classic consolation game, the UConn strike force has tuned the opposing mesh 24 times in 17 games for a 1.41 median. Conversely, the Huskies have allowed 51 opposing strikes after letting in a mere 62 all through last season
They are 6-3 in games decided by one or two goals, but 1-7 in the more lopsided contests. They have outscored their opponents, 14-13, in the first period, but are down by another football-like count of 23-10 in closing stanzas. And although plenty other teams are winless when trailing after the first or second period, few have been that predicament as frequently as UConn, which is 0-9-0 when facing a deficit at either intermission.
Such trends are symptomatic of fragile hearts and a collective inclination to hang one’s head when momentum slips out of immediate reach.
One of the few indisputable positives in the Huskies’ 2010-11 diary is a 2-2 knot with Boston College prior Halloween. Or, more accurately, it was the first period of that tie, wherein they cultivated a 2-0 lead at the expense of opposing goaltender Molly Schaus. In the subsequent 40 minutes, they mustered a mere five shots on goal while the Eagles pelted Garcia with 26 and ultimately deleted their deficit.
Most other nights, it’s as if the Huskies are waiting for Elisabeth Stathopolous, who left school after a 23-point freshman campaign, or Monique Weber, out of service since mid-October, or recent graduates Michelle Binning and Cristin Allen to reemerge with their acetylene twigs. All the while, such active veterans as Jody Sydor and Brittany Murphy are alarmingly arid with three and four points, respectively.
“We obviously have the talent and we have played well in spurts,” Linstad told the UConn Daily Campus earlier this month. “But we have not played consistently well all the time.”
She added, “If our focus is there, we can play with anybody. If our focus is there, and we’re doing well, we are always going to have a chance to win games.”
Linstad has also emboldened the monosyllabic yet mighty expression “Grit” as her top holiday wish. The current lack thereof shows not only on the scoreboard, but also the shooting gallery. To date, UConn is averaging a mere 22.5 stabs at the opposing goalie.
Furthermore, it is worth noting that while the Huskies have demonstrated commendable discipline with a mere 8.3 penalty minutes per game, they are drawing an average of 8.2 minutes on their opponents. If they took more risks in and around the dirty-nose dimension, they could dole out more salsa-based biscuits and purchase themselves more 5-on-4 time. In turn, they can use that time to take still more shots and, for those Logic 101 students, elevate their chances to score.
By sheer fortune, UConn’s first half Hockey East schedule has allowed its playoff hopes to withstand its struggles. A successive quartet of wins over the likes of Maine, Vermont, and floundering New Hampshire helped amount to a 4-4-4 record in the conference.
But after a two-night visit from the Catamounts in mid-January, a taxing homestretch lies in wait. The final 10 games consist of a two-night trip to an ascending Black Bears team with nothing to lose, followed by five dates with the presumptive Women’s Big Four –namely Providence and the three Boston schools.
Bluntly put, the Huskies will have to come out of hibernation a whole new pack, kind of like the one they’ve been the previous three seasons, if they are to see postseason action.
Al Daniel is the Hockey East correspondent to Beyond the Dashers
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