{"id":7309,"date":"2006-02-26T23:53:24","date_gmt":"2006-02-27T05:53:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.uscho.com\/2006\/02\/26\/uconn-falls-loses-out-on-playoffs\/"},"modified":"2010-08-23T11:55:16","modified_gmt":"2010-08-23T16:55:16","slug":"uconn-falls-loses-out-on-playoffs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wwwproxy.uscho.com\/recaps\/2006\/02\/26\/uconn-falls-loses-out-on-playoffs\/","title":{"rendered":"UConn Falls, Loses Out On Playoffs"},"content":{"rendered":"

After 33 games, the UConn women’s hockey season came down to the 34th and final regular season game of the year. <\/p>\n

A 2-1 win Saturday over Providence pushed the Huskies’ to within two points of the Friars. A win Sunday would have gotten them into the Hockey East playoffs, but the Huskies came up short, losing the game by a score of 5-2.<\/p>\n

In Sunday’s game, the Huskies got goals from Nicole Tritter and Alicia Ramolla. The game was 2-2 going into the third, but after giving up three goals, the Huskies’ playoff hopes would be dashed.<\/p>\n

As for Saturday, the Huskies came out flying and certainly played like a team who knew what was on the line. Saturday — which was also senior day for Kaitlyn Shain, Janelle Armitage and team captain Jennifer Houlden — was a fast, scrappy and physical game.<\/p>\n

Both teams were aggressive early on and it was the Huskies who got on the board at 15:55 on a Natalie Vibert goal.<\/p>\n

“[The] first goal is always important,” Vibert said. “[It] kind of sets the tone for the game.”<\/p>\n

The goal was also helpful for the Huskies’ confidence for the rest of the game.<\/p>\n

“We’re better when we play with the lead,” said head coach Heather Linstad.<\/p>\n

The Huskies exploded for 14 shots on goal in the first, but it was their defense that really set the tone. With time running down in the first, Providence got a great shot off on Shain who made the initial stop, then she turned down the Friars’ frantic efforts to slide the puck as the buzzer sounded.<\/p>\n

Shain, who made 35 saves in the game, saw pressure and bodies in front of her all day.<\/p>\n

“We kind of expected that from them,” Shain said.<\/p>\n

“Providence loves to play in front,” Linstad said.<\/p>\n

The second period passed by rather uneventfully, but things picked up for the Huskies in the third with 11:37 remaining.<\/p>\n

A Meredith George tripping penalty was Providence’s second penalty in 36 seconds and it gave the Huskies a 5-on-3 advantage. Linstad, who said she wanted her team to just keep things simple during that time, also felt her players knew what was at stake.<\/p>\n

“I think they knew it would kind of help us ice things,” Linstad said.<\/p>\n

“It’s either you score and keep the momentum or you don’t score and they get the momentum,” Vibert said about the crucial 5-on-3 situation.<\/p>\n

The Huskies took advantage and grabbed the 2-0 lead after Kristen Russell blasted a shot over and past Jana Bugden’s left arm. Russell was set up on a cross-ice pass from Alicia Ramolla who connected with her teammate as she was heading toward the net.<\/p>\n

Shain continued to turn away the Friars, who kept pouring on the pressure down the stretch. Then, with 1:15 remaining, Providence pulled Bugden to get the extra skater. The move paid off as the Friars scored with 24 seconds remaining. <\/p>\n

UConn held onto the lead for the final seconds and brought themselves that much closer to a playoff berth. The physicality and importance of Saturday’s game is pretty much the norm in this intense Hockey East rivalry.<\/p>\n

“That’s [Saturday’s game] classic PC-UConn hockey,” Vibert said. “It’s always been must win games against them.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After 33 games, the UConn women’s hockey season came down to the 34th and final regular season game of the year.<\/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:\/\/wwwproxy.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7309"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwproxy.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwproxy.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwproxy.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwproxy.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7309"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wwwproxy.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7309\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwproxy.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwproxy.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwproxy.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwproxy.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7309"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwproxy.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=7309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}