UConn men’s hockey falls to Holy Cross

WORCESTER, Mass. - After a strong first couple of periods, the University of Connecticut gave up four goals in the final period of play to fall 5-0 to Holy Cross in their first Tuesday night game of the year [Nov. 24] at the Hart Center.

The Huskies drop to 2-9-2 on the season, 2-6-2 in Atlantic Hockey action while Holy Cross improves to 4-7-2 on the year, 4-5-2 AHA.

Freshman Jeff Larson started the night off in goal for the Huskies, allowed four goals in a little over 50 minutes of action, made 23 stops.

Junior Brad McInnis stepped inbetween the pipes for Larson after the freshman gave up the fourth goal on the night, and finished with one goal allowed and four saves.

On the other side of things, Holy Cross goaltender Thomas Tysowsky played the whole game, earned the shutout and made 19 stops.

The Crusaders were the first to score at the end of the first period.

After the Huskies were unable to clear the puck out of their zone, Brandon Nunn scooped up the puck for Holy Cross and took a shot on goal that was saved by Larson.

Luke Miller grabbed Nunn’s rebound and snuck it past Larson into the net for the lone goal of the first period.

UConn battled defensively during the first period. Larson continued to impress in goal for the Huskies. At the end of the first, the rookie added another 11 saves to his season total.

The Husky offense got going in the second period and it looked as though UConn got on the board around the 13 minute marker when, on a power play opportunity, junior Andrew Olson took a shot on goal that hit the pipe and rimmed out.

UConn got 10 shots off during the second period and held Holy Cross to just eight.

After a rough finale to the period, UConn was left with a 5-on-3 advantage in the final 30 seconds of play that carried over into the beginning of the third period.

It was Holy Cross that would take advantage of their power play situation, though just minutes into the third period at 2:11.

After a great save off of a shot by Mike Daly, Larson was unable to get back into position and Everett Sheen knocked in his fifth goal of the season to give the Crusaders a 2-0 lead.

The Crusaders added to their lead minutes later, when Sheen netted his second goal of the period, this time with help from Brodie Sheahan.

It was the second attempt at a shot that got past Larson for the third time on the night.

Sheahan started things off with a shot that clanged off of the pipe. Sheen scooped it up and beat Larson, for the Crusader’s third goal of the night, at 7:38.

Holy Cross continued to score and just two minutes later, at 9:23, they put in their fourth goal of the night on a fast break opportunity, this time as Rob Linsmayer got hit first goal of the night.

The Huskies took Larson out and entered McInnis into the game but at 13:09, the Crusaders got their fifth goal into the back of the net.

The Huskies next game was scheduled as an out-of-conference meeting with Brown on Saturday, Nov. 28 in Providence, R.I.

Posted Nov. 29, 2009