It’s hard to imagine a better season-opening result than Vermont’s Oct. 6 win at Michigan.
Of course, junior goaltender Stefanos Lekkas had almost all to do with that 5-2 triumph, holding down the fort with 48 saves. If anything, the Catamounts proved just how unpredictable college hockey can be and that picking up wins against any team in the country on any night is, indeed, possible.
Head coach Kevin Sneddon’s club then learned the unpredictability of college hockey from the negative end, losing back-to-back 3-2 games to Quinnipiac and Hockey East foe New Hampshire. Each time, UVM held two-goal leads in the third period.
The Catamounts had little time to sulk after Saturday’s overtime setback to UNH, as they returned to action Sunday at Brown. They got back on track three weeks after the opener in Ann Arbor, Mich., using goals from senior Craig Puffer (New Canaan, Conn.) and sophomore Christian Evers in the final frame to snag a 2-1 win.
“From a confidence standpoint, it's nice for these guys to taste some success for all the hard work they've put in and get back into the win column,” the Cats’ 16th-year bench boss said after defeating Brown in just their second meeting since 2005.
Vermont has chances for league points over the next three weekends, including a two-game visit from UConn that begins Friday. Although two points weren’t on the line against Brown, it’s no secret that winning puts a team in a better state of mind.
“Those last two games didn't go as planned, losing in the last couple minutes,” said Puffer, a former Berkshire School standout. “Battling back in the third is huge for us to finally be on the other side of it again. Out-of-conference games are huge down the road, so we knew we had to bounce back and get this one after, unfortunately, not getting two points last night.”
Sneddon shuffled the lines following the Hockey East-opening loss to UNH in hopes of sparking the offense. Among the changes was moving Beverly, Mass., native sophomore Ace Cowans onto Puffer’s second line. He began the season as the 19th skater that the NCAA allowed to be dressed for the first time.
Cowans was injured for the second half of his rookie season and played in just 12 games, but the Groton School product has used his biggest strength to contribute to the Cats from the outset.
“We'd been playing the same forward group for three games and had some staleness to some of it, so we made that adjustment,” Sneddon said of Cowans. “Ace brings so much speed to the game and has a great work ethic, and I think he's going to continue to get better and better. Last year was a tough year for him, missing significant time with injuries, but he's been very good for us so far.”
The first few weeks of the season mark a time to create an identity and learn how to close out games. For a Vermont team with six freshmen and 12 sophomores, this spell is especially valuable.
A major key to Sunday’s win was special-teams play, as Vermont scored its first goal on the power play before Puffer’s winner came on a delayed penalty. Puffer knows generating chances on the power play — no matter who takes the ice in such situations — will pay dividends going forward.
“We work on it all week and coach preaches it every day,” said Puffer, who joins Liam Coughlin (South Boston, Mass.) among the team’s three seniors. “I thought our units played well. I think anyone you put out there can play on the power play. It’s still early in the season, so it’s just about building chemistry and finding what works.”
Sneddon is hoping the team can find more consistency on defense to take the burden off Lekkas, who became the 10th goalie in Catamount history to record 2,000 career saves during Saturday’s loss to UNH.
In the meantime, the Cats know they have a stalwart in net who gives them a chance in every game. The Elburn, Ill., native has been the guy since the day he stepped on campus, having started 68 games as an underclassmen, including all four this season.
“He's been sensational,” Sneddon said. “Last year was very difficult with a younger group in front of him, but he gave us a chance to get better as a team as the year wore on. This year, he's obviously kicking out some amazing saves. We want to be better defensively so he doesn't have to be as spectacular, but he was, again, our MVP (against Brown).”
