One game, one period, one shift at a time.
A head coach’s focus within the long and winding college hockey season is ultra fine, but you can’t blame UConn’s Mike Cavanaugh (North Andover, Mass.) for occasionally taking a second to think about where his program once was, or glance into the exciting future that lies ahead.
The Huskies have come a long way. When Cavanaugh took over in 2013-14, they were getting set for one final season in Atlantic Hockey before making the move to their current Hockey East home.
The 10th-year bench boss has since led a steady rise up the standings, culminating in being a goal away from a first-ever Hockey East championship at Boston’s TD Garden back in March.
“The hardest part of basically starting a program from scratch and building it up is actually getting your guys to believe that they can win every single night,” Cavanaugh said. “Getting to (the stage of a championship game) last year and playing as well as we did makes your guys believe that that’s an attainable goal. …
“When we first joined Hockey East, we knew we needed to play our A-plus game in order to have a chance to win. Now, we expect to win.”
There is more to come. Following all of last year’s successes, the Huskies know where they need to be moving forward.
Returning leading goal scorer Ryan Tverberg, locals like senior defenseman Jake Flynn and junior forward Nick Capone (East Haven, Conn.), and adding in four experienced transfers -- including former captains at Boston University (forward Ty Amonte of Norwell, Mass.), Yale (forward Justin Pearson of Nashua, N.H.) and Vermont (defenseman Andrew Lucas) -- will help them stay on course towards their ultimate goal of raising the Lamoriello Trophy.
“We had a very close team (last year) and guys that brought into the culture of Connecticut hockey and what we stand for,” said Flynn, the Huskies’ assistant captain who matriculated to the program immediately following his prep career at Thayer Academy.
“I think you can see a lot of guys with size, guys who play hard, and we’ve brought in some pretty highly-touted recruits with great skill. I think it’s going to be a really exciting team to watch this year.”
Not only does the team itself enter the 2022-23 season with much promise, but so does the fact that a state-of-the-art home is currently coming to life on the Storrs campus.
Come January of 2023, the Huskies expect to christen a new 2,600-seat, expected $70 million arena that will complete UConn’s on-campus Athletics Village, which already added new baseball, softball and soccer stadiums and indoor spaces for numerous sports in recent years. Since joining Hockey East, the team’s home games were played at XL Center in Hartford or, during the COVID-delayed 2020-21 season, at the existing Mark Edward Freitas Ice Forum in Storrs, where the program was founded and the Huskies’ women’s team currently hosts its games.
The life of a UConn hockey player is about to change drastically.
“In (Freitas Ice Forum), there’s a tiny, tiny training room and no weight room, so they’re actually going to a different building to work out, for example,” said Evan Feinglass, the associate director of athletics for facilities management and planning at UConn, who serves as the sport administrator for both hockey programs. “The new building is going to have everything they need in one place, on our campus. It’s going to be a tremendous asset for the current kids, for recruiting.”
In recruiting, Cavanaugh’s vision has traveled across state and country borders, attracting top international talents such as Russian center Maxim Letunov, who led the team in scoring for two of his three seasons, and a pair of Huskies who left for the pro ranks following last season in Nashville Predators prospect Jachym Kondelik (Czech Republic) and Minnesota Wild prospect Vladislav Firstov (Russia).
The trend has continued with Finnish forward Samu Salminen and Russian goaltender Arsenii Sergeev arriving in this year’s freshman class. Both were NHL draft picks in 2021, with Salminen going to the New Jersey Devils in the third round. Former Canadian World Junior forward Matthew Wood is a touted 2023 draft prospect.
But, UConn’s growth is now being felt as much in its own backyard as elsewhere.
“Some of these guys that we have coming in (including Salminen) are going to help us make a huge shift in our offensive game, so it’s kind of cool to see the progression,” Flynn said. “We had a bunch of European guys, but now it has changed to where some of the higher-end players in New England, who would have gone to a BU or a BC before, are seeing UConn as a place they want to come to play and where they can win.”
As a native of the state, Capone remembers the old days and takes great pride in his role of helping to shape the future of the program.
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“I remember watching when UConn would play in the youth hockey rink I grew up playing at in Milford when they first started out in Atlantic Hockey. They weren’t really much,” Capone said. “Being on a stage at TD Garden with more than 12000 people watching was special. The program has come so far, but we’re not satisfied with where we’re at yet. That’s the best part.”
Of course, the coach is also a key piece to the puzzle. Cavanaugh joined UConn after 18 years at Boston College, where he and first-year Eagle boss Greg Brown (Hartford, Conn.) were the legendary Jerry York’s (Watertown, Mass.) right-hand men on the bench for four national championships, helping to develop more than 30 NHL players, two Hobey Baker Award winners and 22 All-Americans.
Cavanaugh has brought that blueprint to Storrs to help create a winner.
While on campus, the 6-foot-5, 205-pound Capone has developed into a player who Cavanaigh says can be a force in Hockey East because of not only his size but untapped offensive potential.
“He gets the most out of all of us, and the guys want to work hard for him. He’s a really good coach who makes it easy to play for,” Capone said. “I think my speed has improved and I’ve caught up to the game a lot more, but it’s every little habit that you learn to focus on with him that has gotten me to where I am.”
The new arena is only going to help Cavanaugh further achieve his goal of keeping the best Connecticut natives and other notable New Englanders in the region.
In other words, he wants more Capones to help carry the banner for hockey in the Nutmeg State just as Buffalo Sabres star Tage Thompson (Orange, Conn.) and former Husky captain Adam Karashik (Ridgefield, Conn.) had done before.
The five Connecticut natives on this season’s roster are the most in Cavanaugh’s tenure as head coach. Having a local presence helps, but playing in and winning big games speaks even louder to New England recruits.
“When someone of Nick Capone’s status and stature stays at home, it has other Connecticut kids thinking, ‘Hey, maybe I’ll stay home as well,’ ” Cavanaugh said. “But, the most important thing is having a winning program.”
The Huskies have finished in the top four of the Hockey East standings in back-to-back seasons. Last year, they beat both Boston University and Northeastern in the conference tournament and took the regular-season series from Boston College.
Those points mean something.
“We’ve shown consistency (in Hockey East) and made a run in the playoffs,” the coach said. “When you’re playing at a high level on a consistent basis, that bodes well when you’re recruiting local talent, and then you take them through the new rink and they see a state-of-the-art facility that will have everything they need to achieve whatever their goals are.”
The immense pride for the state around the program is shown on the ice and trickles all the way down to Hartford-based JCJ Architecture, which was tasked with designing the Huskies’ new home rink.
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JCJ has also designed UConn’s Burton Family Football Complex, Mark R. Shenkman Training Center and Student Recreation Center on campus, as well as renovations to the XL Center to support both the Hartford Wolf Pack and UConn teams.
“We’ve worked with the coaches, Evan (Feinglass) and the AD (David Benedict) on this for four or five years now, and it’s fantastic to see this -- like the other UConn projects we’ve done -- built from the ground up because Connecticut is our home,” said Jim LaPosta, the chief architectural officer for JCJ. “I’m looking forward to the teams seeing their new spaces for the first time, but it’s that first game night with a full crowd (of students and fans) when the place will really come to life.”
Cavanaugh is most excited about being able to create a unique atmosphere in the new arena. Over the past several seasons, the coach and other UConn administrators have taken inspiration from various arenas throughout their travels.
The arena will feature a “student deck” overhanging the net that opponents will defend twice, a club lounge that will span between the blue lines and overlook campus reminiscent of Notre Dame’s Compton Family Ice Arena, and exposed brick similar to Goggin Ice Arena at Miami (Ohio).
“It’s not a cookie cutter rink with a seating bowl, some luxury boxes and regular cinderblock walls,” Cavanaugh said. “I like that it has unique features. We took things we liked from a lot of different places and tried to incorporate it here, but it’s going to be our own.”
All the hard work and all the travels lead back home, as the facility will inspire the next generation of hockey players in Connecticut. The Huskies are already on par with some of the traditional Hockey East competitors, but there is more room to grow.
Before playing in the USHL, being drafted by the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2020 and beginning his college journey at UConn, Capone played two seasons at New England power Salisbury School. He is Connecticut through and through.
Representing the state in a UConn sweater is even more special following the team’s recent run to the brink of a league championship.
“I would watch Hockey East games growing up and UConn was not there, but then they started to get better players every year and win more games,” Capone said. “For them to join (the conference) 10 years ago and now having a new rink on the way, it’s incredible. It’s something I wouldn’t have even imagined. We’re all pretty fired up for what’s to come.”
What’s to come in Storrs is very special.
Cavanaugh can’t help but think about the future in a sparkling new home. But, there’s plenty of hockey still to be played before the future becomes the present.
“There are days it’s hard not to think about it,” he said. “I was taking a recruit through in the morning and you think, ‘Oh man, I can’t wait for this to be finished because you can see how close it is,’ but we have to stay focused on getting better today.”
Fortunately, there are others who can look further ahead.
“The first games are definitely circled on my calendars,” LaPosta said. “I don’t have to worry about taking it one game at a time.”
