HARTFORD, Conn. — Connecticut hosted Merrimack Tuesday night and the Huskies rebounded from their dreadful performance Saturday night (a 10-1 loss at Providence) to knock off the Warriors 1-0.
Spencer Naas scored the only goal of the game, with 5:08 left in the third period.
“I was really proud of us, to come back after getting punched right in the mouth Saturday, and regroup and gather ourselves,” said UConn coach Mike Cavanaugh. “We played a complete game from start to finish.”
Coming into Tuesday, Merrimack held a 23-2-1 edge all-time in the series meetings. This included a thrilling 2-1 overtime win back in October.
UConn’s special-teams play continued to disappoint this season, as the Huskies headed to the power play just 26 seconds into the game, but Merrimack opened the game with a strong penalty kill. UConn’s powerplay hasn’t been up to par all season, and it went 0-for-4 on Tuesday night.
A few minutes later, the Huskies had the game’s first big chance as some slick passing gave Jeff White an opening, but his shot rifled off the near post.
The teams battled scoreless into the third period, both needing the points at stake. The Warriors had a chance to tie the Huskies with 14 points in the conference standings and own the head-to-head tiebreaker, while UConn was looking to widen their lead on the last home-ice position.
The Huskies dominated in the chances department with several good looks from close range to try and beat Merrimack goaltender Rasmus Tirronen (35 saves), but he held steady for the Warriors through the first two periods.
UConn finally broke through late in the third period. An odd-man rush up ice for the Huskies and a terrific pass from Brent Norris led to Naas scoring the game’s only goal. The goal came with just 5:08 left in regulation and was also Naas’ fifth game-winning goal of the season.
“You’re not going to win many games without a goal,” Merrimack coach Mark Dennehy said. “I don’t think we did a good enough job of getting to the front of their net, as they did to ours.”
Connecticut goalie Rob Nichols (32 saves) took a pounding Saturday night and was pulled, but Tuesday night, he rebounded to collect his third shutout of the season.
“We’re very comfortable playing in one-goal games, tie-games, because we do it all the time,” said Cavanaugh. “We don’t try to change our structure, we just try to stay with what we trust.”
