The University of Connecticut Women’s Ice Hockey Crew will be playing their first round of the playoffs this coming Feb. 28 at 4:30 p.m. EST.
This will be the Huskies’ first match of the postseason right after the group they were set to play in the very first spherical, the Merrimack Warriors, have been not able to contend owing to COVID-19-linked protocols, in accordance to Hockey East. The No. 7 Huskies now uncover by themselves matched up towards the No. 2 Eagles in a greatest-of-a person to decide who moves on to the semifinals.
It’s a match with a whole lot at stake. The dropping group is out of this year’s Hockey East playoffs. Their year is above, their seniors have performed their final games at the college. That’s it. The winner gets to shift on, to be one of the 4 most effective teams in the meeting and receives a chance to battle onwards by way of the semifinals on Wednesday of next week, in direction of the finals on Saturday.
The Huskies are, unquestionably, the underdogs. They arrive into the series with an 8-9-1 record, and have lost all 4 games they performed towards the Boston Higher education Eagles this time, and only one particular of all those online games has finished with the Huskies in one particular purpose of a tie.
The Eagles, on the other hand, are 14-4, and a few of their 4 losses occur towards Providence College or university and Northeastern, who are ranked No. 3 and No. 1, respectively. The fourth decline was towards Boston College, who are ranked No. 6, but it also arrived in the very last two game titles of the year when the Eagles were being previously in very good placement, and they only misplaced by a solitary aim in the 2-3 scoreline.
The Huskies staff has experienced a considerably much more tumultuous year, dropping game titles to a variety of top rated teams amid an ever transforming timetable owing to COVID-19-related delays and cancelations. The Huskies were being established to engage in Merrimack two times in the last 7 days, equally very last Friday and this previous Wednesday, and both of those games ended up ultimately cancelled thanks to COVID-19.
That blended with cancelations from the College of New Hampshire on the 19th and 20th means that the Women’s team has not played a video game in two weeks, given that their victories about Holy Cross on the 12th and 13th of the month. That could be a good issue for the Huskies, permitting them time for a reset and to adjust factors up, but it also could indicate that they’re going in without having the warmup that weeks of reliable weekend video games can give you.
They are likely to be relying on their defensive main, bolstered by goalies Samantha Carpentier-Yelle and Tia Chan, to put up a very sturdy effectiveness if they want to have a prospect to assert the upset victory. The two goalies have experienced productive games this season but whichever performs the greater part of Sunday’s activity will have to be on their most effective to restrict Boston College’s scoring opportunity.
UConn’s offense has not usually looked as sturdy as the protection. They’ve from time to time struggled to score even towards groups like Holy Cross who in the course of the year showed a troubling incapability to conduct on the defensive aspect of the rink.
Even so, best-of-one particular formats can lend themselves to upsets like the 1 the Huskies will be wanting to bring about for the reason that all you have to do is be great for 1 day, for one match. There is no second video game you have to win, lightning does not want to strike twice. It’s a person recreation that decides who’s period continues and who’s will come crashing to a summary.