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March 26, 2025 14 mins
The guys are joined by head coach of UConn Men's Hockey, Mike Cavanaugh, to discuss the team's success on the Power Play, individual efforts of certain players and there expectations going into the Hockey East conference tournament and their first ever bid to the NCAA tournament.
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Episode Transcript

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Speaker 1 (00:00):
They are. Hey, Rob, we're doing great, coach. How you doing.

Speaker 2 (00:04):
You're taking on Providence tomorrow night at seven o'clock. Man,
your last seven games, you guys have been rocking.

Speaker 3 (00:11):
Yeah, we've been, you know, actually since Christmas break, we've
played a really strong brand of hockey. I've been proud
of our team the way they've showed up and competed
on a nightly basis.

Speaker 1 (00:24):
All Right, So I need the nuts and bolts of
this answer.

Speaker 4 (00:27):
I've asked Bob Joyce, I've asked Kurt, I've asked all
the hockey people in my life, and they all just
give me generic stuff like, oh, they're playing harder, this
is moving a lot better. The power play, sir, what
exactly is it? What is the tinkering that you and
the coaching staff have done with like people on the ice,

(00:48):
maybe how it gets work? Because the power play this
year has been what set you apart from everyone else,
and it's big reason why you guys have been so successful.
So what is like the x's and o's that you
guys have changed that made it so successful.

Speaker 3 (01:03):
Well, I'm not going to give you all our secrets, Ben,
but I will give you a good story and we
were out in Milwaukee and our power play had been
just average up until Christmas, and Tyler Helton is in
charge of our power play, and he and I were
having a debate over how we should practice the power

(01:23):
play and I didn't really like well, I wasn't sure.
I agreed with him on how we wanted to practice
practice it, and he said, well, you're going to let
me run the power play or not? Do you want
to run it? And I said no, I'm going to
let you run it. He goes, well, then let me
run it and let me try this. So I said, okay,
Tyler and Ben I've had to eat some crow. Let's

(01:47):
just say that he was at he was He's honestly
he was. Now he made me a believer in the
way that we practiced the power play, and it's I
think it's really given our kids a lot of confidence too,
because that's a you got to understand what's a power

(02:07):
play and Rob you'd appreciate this. It's it's like a
great Major League baseball hitter. You hit three hundred, you're
making twenty five million, right, I mean, but you fail
seven out of ten times. And it's the same thing
with a power play. If you if you're twenty five
percent on the power play, that's probably one of the
top power plays in the league or in the country.

(02:29):
But you fail seven and a half times out of ten.
So you really have to have that mental capacity and
strength to understand, like, doesn't matter what happened on that
previous power play, let's focus on the next one. And
our kids, you know, really have a lot of confidence
now when we go on the power play.

Speaker 2 (02:48):
Talking to Mike kevanaugh yukon hockey, Well then how about
flip this. How about on when you're defending and you're
trying to kill a penalty You guys have nine shorthanded goals.

Speaker 1 (02:58):
That sounds a wird. You lead the country in that category.

Speaker 3 (03:03):
Right, And Nick, Nick Perusi and Vince Stilletti who work
with our penalty kill and.

Speaker 2 (03:09):
Well, did they say the same thing to you, coach, Hey,
are you gonna let me run the penalty kill or
are you gonna get out of my way?

Speaker 1 (03:17):
No?

Speaker 3 (03:17):
They're still relatively new with me. Tyler let me twelve year,
twelve years, so I think he had the confidence to
say that, But no, they we really haven't changed much.
The key to a good penalty kill for me is
making sure all four guys are on the same page,

(03:38):
because you can kill it a bunch of different ways.
You can be aggressive, you can be a pushdown, you
can be passive. But the thing is you can't have
one guy being passive and three guys being aggressive and
vice versa. So what I think they've done a great
job is making sure that we're synchronized when we're out
there killing a penalty and because of that, the power

(03:59):
play a lot of times. A lot of way teams
attack now and we do the same. You only have
one guy up top, so if you can get a turnover,
and the one thing about our penalty killer is we're
really quick. When we get a turnover, it can be
a two on one right out of the gate, and frankly,
that's how we've scored a lot of our goals.

Speaker 4 (04:19):
Six forty five At the pre game seven o'clock, the
puck will drop to Skino Family Ice Forum, Yukon taking
on Providence in their first round of the Hockey East Quarterfinals.
One guy that I'm really proud of this year, just
because he's reaping the rewards of the success that he's had.

Speaker 1 (04:35):
Hard work, great kid and a big power.

Speaker 4 (04:38):
Part of the power play kills the captain, Hudson shandor
you have to be so happy for the success this
team is having with this guy at captain. Talk about
this kid and just what he means to your program.

Speaker 3 (04:52):
Well, I can't say enough. And he might be since
I've been here, the most important kid I've had. Or
he's definitely in the conversation because last year when the
sky was falling, you know, we had three draft choices
that were underclassmen decide to transfer to other schools. And
Hudson could have easily done that because you know a

(05:13):
lot of people didn't think we were going to be
any good and there wasn't a lot of mojo around
the program last May when everybody was transferring out. But
to Hudson's credit, he said, no, I want to stay here.
I don't want my career to end the way it
did this year. I'm confident I can lead this group
back to a you know, twenty win season and a

(05:35):
national tournament first. And he and John Spets over the
summer they did this on their own. They designed this playbook,
not so much on ice stuff, but how they want
the team to act, to behave to conduct themselves off
the ice, how they want them to think the mentality

(05:56):
of the team going into games. And they've stayed true
to it, and they have really got our entire team
to buy in. I've said this many times. It's analogous
with you know, a New Year's resolution. We all make
him in them. By Valentine's Day, you've broken your New
Year's resolution, right, you forget about it. And a lot
of times the team slogan can be the same thing.

(06:18):
You know, we get swept by Merrimack and the team
slogan goes out the window, and guys are worried about
their own playing time and you're pointing fingers. They just
did not let that happen. They stayed true to their
beliefs and their slogan and they said, you know, win
or lose, we stay neutral and we stay true to

(06:38):
our process. And I can't say enough about it. I'm
so happy for Hodey that you know, this week he
was named the Defensive Forward of the best defensive Forward
in the league, and he also got the Sportsmanship Award.
And I'll be shocked if he's not a first team
All League kid as well.

Speaker 2 (06:55):
That's fantastic. We're talking to Mike Cavanaugh yukon hockey, tell
me about your goaltenders. I mean back when I was
like ten as the last time I was a goaltender.
But that's why I had to be good at baseball,
because I sucked at goaltender. You got two great goaltenders, Mike,
tell me about him.

Speaker 3 (07:11):
Yeah, there are version of the Nasty Boys, our two goaltenders.
They you know there. Tyy Muslik was a kid who
was at New Hampshire last year and had lost the job.
He got hurt and he was pretty much hurt all
season long, but he lost the job. He tried to
play through an injury. He had surgery after the year,

(07:33):
and you know he was told that he was going
to be the backup. Well, he wanted a chance to
be a starter and we had lost our goaltender to
the transfer portal, so he went in the transfer portal.
He was a kid we went after and brought him in.
We knew we had a talented freshman, but we didn't
want to have to rely on the talented freshmen. But

(07:55):
both of them have been outstanding for us this season.
Early on, ty Callum was hurt and Tyler carried the
load and then Tyler got hurt and Callum got healthy,
and then he carried the load for a while. But
since Christmas they've pretty much split games and they've done
a fantastic job. Our team feels very comfortable with either

(08:17):
one of them in the net.

Speaker 1 (08:19):
What's the plan for Providence again?

Speaker 4 (08:21):
Providence tomorrow night, seven o'clock at home Tiscano Ice Forum
one and one against Providence this year, So what's the
plan to get the win and move on?

Speaker 3 (08:32):
Well, you know, I don't think we have to change
the way we play because we're playing Providence. Nate Lehman
is an outstanding coach. As teams are always well prepared,
it's going to be a great game. I think the
plan is the team that makes the fewest mistakes. When
you have two really I mean seven and eight, we're
both top ten teams in the country. They're really good team.

(08:56):
When we have two good teams playing, the team that
makes the fewest miss stakes is usually the team that wins. So,
you know, we want to manage the puck well, we
want to be sharp mentally, know our assignments off of
face offs, all those little details. You just got to
keep stacking them up during the game and if we
can do that for sixty minutes, you know, that's what's

(09:18):
going to give us the best chance to win.

Speaker 1 (09:20):
Coach, I'm pulling for you.

Speaker 2 (09:21):
I get some friends that went the Providence that are
going to be at the game, and I would be there,
but my daughter's got a birthday party.

Speaker 1 (09:27):
Give them them Yukon stuff.

Speaker 2 (09:28):
Tell them, Oh no, God, no, they're they're hardcore Providence weirdo. Anyway,
if we I'm pulling for you even extra hard, man,
you got to win this game. But let me let
me ask you about how hard Hockey East is. I
think you got about five or six teams that look
like they're going on to the NCAA tournament. You know
it be one of the best teams in Hockey East. Uh,

(09:51):
that's got to be huge for Yukon.

Speaker 3 (09:54):
Well, to tell you how hard it is. We're fourth
in the league and seventh in the country. Let's just
tell you how hard the league. And we have six
teams going and Providence is a fifth fifth in the
league and U Mass is sixth. Our top six teams
in the league are going to go to a tournament
that only takes sixteen teams. That's fantastic and there's no

(10:17):
like and it wouldn't shock me, you know if Lowell
or Northeastern or you know won the tournament, Like that's
how good the league is. At one point, Lowell, I
mean Lowell seventeenth in the country. So uh, it's just
it's been an incredible league. But it's what makes it
so fun. It's like the SEC and football. Every week

(10:38):
there's not a layup like you have to grind, and
I think it really helps you, you know, later in
the year, come postseason, because it's not like you have
to get up for a certain NCAA game. We have
to get up for every game or you're going to
get embarrassed.

Speaker 4 (10:52):
Right, It's been a fun season and we're so proud
of you in this program, and really what the evolution
that we have seen here, say, since you've been at Yukon,
Like getting the new facility was humongous, especially for recruiting,
especially for the fans, and can't wait for this place
to be rocking on Friday. And since I just praised you,
I got to get to a stupid question about hockey

(11:13):
that we have been debating in the studio since we
went to the wolf Pack.

Speaker 1 (11:17):
A couple of weeks ago.

Speaker 4 (11:19):
Can the goalie hear me yell at him from behind
the glass, like if I'm standing right behind him, like
right behind him and I'm screaming pretty loud.

Speaker 1 (11:27):
Can the goalie hear me or not?

Speaker 4 (11:30):
Is there is.

Speaker 3 (11:31):
There a crack in the glass like you're doing it
between the glass or like trying to talk through the glass.

Speaker 4 (11:37):
And talk through the glass, but it stops it it
doesn't go to the ceiling.

Speaker 1 (11:42):
I mean, it's it's you know, it's only eight foot tall.

Speaker 3 (11:44):
Not a chance, I don't think, thank you, not a chance? No,
I would say no.

Speaker 2 (11:55):
Like I gotta tell you, I still use some of
the things that you've said on the show with my
sixteen you baseball players about taking jobs on the varsity level,
You're not going to make friends, don't don't look for
these seniors and juniors to like you once you take
their buddies jobs and stuff like that. And sometimes they
look at me their eyes are like saucers, and I'm like, yeah, yeah,

(12:17):
that's the reality. You want to play varsity, You're gonna
have to take somebody's job. And so I still that's
one of my main speeches that I always use. So
I really appreciate that from you.

Speaker 3 (12:26):
Yeah, well, I tell I tell my players when when
the season ends, and I hope it doesn't end till
late April or mid April, whenever the Frozen four ends.
But I tell them, I said, just listen, my job
is to go out and recruit players better than you.
It's your job to make sure they're not so Oh that's.

Speaker 2 (12:43):
Another gem writing that, that's another gem.

Speaker 1 (12:48):
I love it.

Speaker 2 (12:51):
Well, Hey, good luck tomorrow, good luck the rest of
the way in Hockey East, but definitely in the NCUBLEA tournament.
And and as you get prepared for the NC DOUBLEA Tournament,
we want to get you back on man.

Speaker 1 (13:01):
You love having you on.

Speaker 3 (13:03):
That'd be great. I appreciate you guys, having man supporting
us all the way.

Speaker 1 (13:07):
Oh, go go Huskies and go hockey.

Speaker 3 (13:09):
Excellent, great job code All right, guys, have a great night, you.

Speaker 1 (13:12):
Too, Thank you.

Speaker 4 (13:13):
Mike Ice, Buss kicking Buttikes Buske, Cavanaugh Man be there.
And by the way, I gotta say this, I can't go,
but I have to be around eleven. Oh, this is
the slumber party. Well check this and what you gotta
do so they don't burn the house down. So it's
going to be a split channel broadcast. We're expecting to
win a basketball game tonight, which will put Yukon's next

(13:34):
game starting at nine o'clock, moving our pregame up to
eight thirty four hoops. We want to get this hockey
game on all the airwaves we possibly can, so it's
going to be in its entirety on WPOP fourteen ten
AM one hundred point nine FM, which you and the
girls can easily pop up the website hit the little
play button, or right before that men's basketball game, we're

(13:56):
going to play the beginning of the hockey game on
WCS ninety seven nine in Hartford Fox Sports Radio. So
trying to put that as many places as we possibly can,
and Bob Joy's gonna be rolling with the ice bus
wherever they go. As long as it doesn't conflict with
women's basketball, we'll be having that broadcast on the airwaves.

Speaker 1 (14:12):
Hey, we're greedy.

Speaker 2 (14:13):
We want big East titles, Hockey East NCAA tournament championships.

Speaker 1 (14:18):
We're greedy here. We want it all. We want it all.
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