When he transferred to Connecticut over the summer, Andrew Lucas knew he was joining a hungry men’s hockey team.
The Huskies were coming off a season where they missed an NCAA tournament appearance by one overtime goal.
Lucas, meanwhile, was at Vermont, playing well but for a struggling team.
The junior forward has been pretty hungry himself so far this season, racking up eight points (1-7-8) in as many games and leading Hockey East in scoring among defensemen, tying Northeastern forward Aiden McDonough for the overall lead with seven league points. Lucas is also tied with forward Ryan Tverberg — who thrice scored in a weekend series at Boston University — for the team scoring lead (5-3-8).
“When a defenseman’s leading your team in scoring — I don’t know if he is, but he’s up there — that shows you how much of an offensive addition he’s been,” UConn coach Mike Cavanaugh said. “It’s great to get that type of offense from the back end.”
Lucas scored twice — including the game winner in overtime — in a 4-3 win at Boston University on Friday night. Despite losing 4-2 in the second game of the series, the split was enough to move UConn up four spots in the latest DCU/USCHO.com D-I poll, from No. 14 to No. 10.
It’s the first time the Huskies have ever been ranked this high — coming into the season, UConn had never ranked higher than No. 19, according to the UConn Hockey Blog.
Lucas is one of 16 newcomers on this year’s UConn team, a group that includes three other transfers. Though the first-year players weren’t on last year’s squad that lost in overtime to UMass in the Hockey East championship game at TD Garden, they definitely share the rest of the team’s desire to go further this year.
So far, the offense is doing its part.
UConn has averaged more than 3 goals in its first eight games, including a 6-1 blowout of then-No. 11 Ohio State at the Hartford Civic Center on Oct. 15. One week earlier, they beat Union 4-3 in OT.
“When you have 16 new bodies on the team, you just never know how they’re going to mesh or gel,” Cavanaugh said. “The fact that we’ve won a couple games in overtime early certainly doesn’t hurt.”
Lucas’s overtime goal against BU, the first of his collegiate career, came less than a minute into the extra frame. Surrounded by all three of BU’s skaters, Lucas fired from the blue line and scored on a low shot just past the goalie’s pad.
“We’re winning games,” Lucas said after the goal, which extended UConn’s unbeaten streak to seven games. “It’s just been fun. (The veteran group) has been great, welcoming all 16 new guys. That made it really easy on me, and I’m sure it made it easy on all the freshmen too. We have a lot of really good players in the returning class, too.”
