The entire Hockey East Tournament has held true to form thus far, as the top four seeds will all enter TD Garden for the semifinal round for the first time since 2018.Â
Alongside Northeastern, Massachusetts and UMass Lowell, fourth-seeded Connecticut will round out the field following its 3-1 quarterfinal win Saturday over Boston University. But, it was no ordinary result for the Huskies, who will continue their best season — now with 19 wins, 14 in league play during the regular season — under ninth-year head coach Mike Cavanaugh (North Andover, Mass.).
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After scoring twice in the second period to open up a lead that would never be relinquished against the Terriers, freshman Chase Bradley’s empty-net goal with 10.5 seconds remaining was cause for a most memorable celebration, clinching a first-ever Hockey East playoff win and trip to Boston for the #IceBus.Â
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“My goal when I came here was to build a blue-chip program, not a dot-com,” Cavanaugh said. “I didn't want to have a program that wins and then all of a sudden is back down again. I wanted to continually build a program that's getting better and better and better. …Â
“We hadn’t won a playoff game. Sometimes we weren’t good enough and had great efforts, but we still hadn’t done it yet. When we did it, I guess that was just raw emotion coming out.”
The Huskies were previously 0-11 during Hockey East postseason play, suffering sweeps in four best-of-three first round or quarterfinal series and losing a single-game quarterfinal last March to Providence.Â
Key reinforcements came at the perfect time to help deliver that milestone win as Bradley and big sophomore forward Nick Capone (East Haven, Conn.) returned to the lineup after missing six straight and three of the last five games, respectively. Both dealt with lower-body injuries.
“(Bradley is) so strong. We missed him,” Cavanaugh said. “He’s just a strong presence for us, both he and Nick Capone. Every time they get on the ice, it creates momentum for us with their physical play. He’s strong on the puck, well-positioned and structured. … They gave us momentum every time. Whenever they had hits, it got the crowd and the next line into it. They want to follow that lead.”
In terms of the game, senior Jonny Evans — Hockey East’s leading scorer last season — and junior Vladislav Firstov got the Huskies on the board with their first goals in seven games.Â
The Huskies were able to weather a late 2-4 stretch with one of the league’s deepest forward groups. That time included a home-and-home sweep at the hands of their semifinal opponent, top-seeded Northeastern.
UConn, which has clinched either the No. 4 or No. 5 seed in four of the last five seasons, now looks to reach new heights as league rival UMass did a season ago. The Minutemen captured their first-ever conference tournament and national championships last season after a disappointing end to the 2019 Frozen Four run with a title game loss to Minnesota Duluth.Â
Their run to claiming back-to-back Lamoriello Trophies began with a 4-2 Saturday win over Providence. Sophomore Josh Lopina scored twice in the first period, and senior Matt Murray made a career-high 45 saves in net.
“I’m not going to feel bad that our goalie stole a game. It happened to us last weekend and turnaround is fair play,” UMass coach Greg Carvel said, referring to his team’s back-to-back losses to end the regular season over which they out shot Boston College, 71-42.
Having canned several years’ worth of playoff experience with the likes of two-time first-team Hockey East All-Star and newly crowned scoring champ Bobby Trivigno leading the way, Carvel feels his team is better prepared to handle the experience of the upcoming environment in the Garden and everything that comes with it.
“Very similar to the first time we went to the national championship, we weren’t ready (in the 2019 Hockey East semis). We didn’t know what to expect, and we looked like it,” Carvel said. “We learned valuable lessons (like) that other teams in this league play there a lot. We weren’t ready for it. … Just like the second time we went to the Frozen Four, I think we were much better equipped to make better decisions to help prepare the guys.”
