It was the D.J. Miller show in the consolation matchup of the Cingular\/UConn Classic.<\/p>\n
The junior forward netted two first-period goals and sent a bid for a natural hat trick off the near post, leading Connecticut (4-9-3, 3-5-2 MAAC) past Bentley (2-16-1, 2-11-1 MAAC) by a 3-1 score.<\/p>\n
Miller came into the game with a 5-2-7 scoring line for the season, but asserted himself as the most dangerous threat on the ice for Connecticut, notching an even strength goal as well as a power play score.<\/p>\n
“D.J. has a good shot, a hard shot, and it’s a very good tool. He just needs to use it,” said Connecticut coach Bruce Marshall. “We didn’t play as well as I would have liked in the first period last game. We had an average first period last night and I told D.J., as well as the team, that we needed to have a better first today.”<\/p>\n
Needless to say, Miller came through in the first frame, and his play proved to be enough for Connecticut to hang on for the win.<\/p>\n
“Coach yelled at me a little bit after yesterday, letting me know that I needed to be a little more selfish and not be afraid to shoot the puck,” said Miller. “I was lucky enough that a couple fell in and we played defensive hockey to get the win.”<\/p>\n
Although Connecticut seemed to establish itself in the first, play fell off in a second period mired in penalties. The teams combined for 32 penalty minutes, including misconducts to Matt Grew and Seth Vinocur.<\/p>\n
Despite the slow, chippy play, Bentley was able to break onto the scoreboard in the second frame. Marcus Willy was credited with a goal that appeared to deflect off of a Connecticut skate past netminder Artie Imbriano in the midst of a pile of players out front.<\/p>\n
Bentley buzzed in most of the third period, but couldn’t put together many quality scoring chances. Again, Connecticut fell victim to undisciplined play, giving Bentley several power-play opportunities as the clock wound down. <\/p>\n
“We’ve got to avoid falling into that kind of stuff,” said Marshall. “We got worn down by all of their extracurricular play.”<\/p>\n
Yet, Imbriano held his ground and the Connecticut defense was able to clear away any loose pucks in front of the net. The sophomore saved 25 shots for the victory.<\/p>\n
Kevin Williams stopped 33 in the losing effort for Bentley.<\/p>\n
Connecticut and Bentley are no strangers to each other, and it was evident in Sunday’s game.<\/p>\n
“It’s tough to have to play a team like that in a tournament,” said Marshall. “You know the adage it’s hard to win three games against any team. Well, playing them a fourth time without any points doesn’t make things any easier.”<\/p>\n
Miller said, “We are definitely familiar with their team. We really wanted to go out there tonight and send a message of things to come.”<\/p>\n
Connecticut achieved some of that goal with a win, but Bentley proved that any points in league play will be tough to come by.<\/p>\n
After playing two MAAC teams, Connecticut was a gracious host. “We are happy to host a tournament like this,” said Marshall. “We brought three good teams to play in front of our fans this weekend.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It was the D.J. Miller show in the consolation matchup of the Cingular\/UConn Classic. The junior forward netted two first-period goals and sent a bid for a natural hat trick off the near post, leading Connecticut (4-9-3, 3-5-2 MAAC) past Bentley (2-16-1, 2-11-1 MAAC) by a 3-1 score. Miller came into the game with a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22374,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2735"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2735"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2735\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2735"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=2735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}