Thursday, October 19, 2017

Weekend With The Huskies

From The Vault
Former Terrier Ahti Oksanen
battles for a puck down low
against UConn in an October
2015 meeting that BU won 4-2.
(Photo by Matt Dresens)
After getting embarrassed by Mankato State last weekend, BU is back in action this weekend as they square off with UConn in a home and home series to open Hockey East play. Friday night, BU will be the host, while Saturday’s game will be played at the XL Center in Hartford.

The Huskies are 2-2-0 on the year with wins over Maine and America International. UConn surprisingly lost to Sacred Heart last weekend 3-1, despite outshooting the Pioneers 45-22.

One of the keys for BU will be putting last weekend’s results in the rearview mirror.

“Obviously last weekend was incredibly disappointing and surprising, but we have to move past it,” said Coach Quinn. “We had a good week of practice and I’m very confident we will see the team we saw in the first two games instead of the last two.”

A season ago, BU and UConn split a pair of games in November. BU won the first matchup 2-1 at the XL Center behind goals from Jordan Greenway and Gabe Chabot. The next night was a different story. UConn blew out the Terriers 4-0, with Huskie goalie Adam Huska making 37 saves in the shutout.

“We just have to get shots on net,” mentioned senior captain Brandon Hickey. “You can’t score unless you’re shooting. UConn likes to block a lot of shots and they have a really good goalie. We have to direct pucks at him and tire him out, get a bunch of traffic and things are going to start going in.”

Scouting the Huskies.
Sophomore Alexander Payusov is off to a hot start to lead the Huskies in goals scored with four. The Montreal native notched a hat trick on Friday night against AIC in a 6-4 win for UConn. Last year, Payusov registered just two points in 15 games played. Karl El-Mir has five points by way of a pair of goals and three assists. Former Terrier commit Max Letunov has posted a goal and three assists.  

Other players to watch include Spenser Nass, Derek Pratt, and Kasperi Ojantakanen.

In goal, Huska is the owner of a .920 save percentage and a 2.43 goals against average.

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