diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index fe267cb..f3e0bf6 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -91,7 +91,7 @@
     <dependency>
       <groupId>org.apache.httpcomponents.client5</groupId>
       <artifactId>httpclient5</artifactId>
-      <version>5.5.1</version>
+      <version>5.6</version>
     </dependency>
     <dependency>
       <groupId>org.apache.httpcomponents.core5</groupId>
diff --git a/src/main/java/io/github/mfoo/libyear/LibYearMojo.java b/src/main/java/io/github/mfoo/libyear/LibYearMojo.java
index 0fb41fa..ac6154d 100644
--- a/src/main/java/io/github/mfoo/libyear/LibYearMojo.java
+++ b/src/main/java/io/github/mfoo/libyear/LibYearMojo.java
@@ -48,10 +48,10 @@
 import javax.inject.Inject;
 import org.apache.commons.lang3.tuple.Pair;
 import org.apache.hc.client5.http.classic.methods.HttpGet;
+import org.apache.hc.client5.http.config.ConnectionConfig;
 import org.apache.hc.client5.http.config.RequestConfig;
 import org.apache.hc.client5.http.impl.DefaultHttpRequestRetryStrategy;
 import org.apache.hc.client5.http.impl.classic.CloseableHttpClient;
-import org.apache.hc.client5.http.impl.classic.CloseableHttpResponse;
 import org.apache.hc.client5.http.impl.classic.HttpClientBuilder;
 import org.apache.hc.client5.http.impl.io.PoolingHttpClientConnectionManager;
 import org.apache.hc.core5.http.HttpResponseInterceptor;
@@ -360,14 +360,18 @@ public LibYearMojo(RepositorySystem repositorySystem, ArtifactFactory artifactFa
 
     private CloseableHttpClient setupHTTPClient() {
         RequestConfig config = RequestConfig.custom()
-                .setConnectTimeout(Timeout.ofSeconds(MAVEN_API_HTTP_TIMEOUT_SECONDS))
                 .setConnectionRequestTimeout(Timeout.ofSeconds(MAVEN_API_HTTP_TIMEOUT_SECONDS))
                 .setResponseTimeout(Timeout.ofSeconds(MAVEN_API_HTTP_TIMEOUT_SECONDS))
                 .build();
 
+        ConnectionConfig connectionConfig = ConnectionConfig.custom()
+                .setConnectTimeout(Timeout.ofSeconds(MAVEN_API_HTTP_TIMEOUT_SECONDS))
+                .build();
+
         PoolingHttpClientConnectionManager connectionManager = new PoolingHttpClientConnectionManager();
         connectionManager.setMaxTotal(20);
         connectionManager.setDefaultMaxPerRoute(20);
+        connectionManager.setDefaultConnectionConfig(connectionConfig);
 
         return HttpClientBuilder.create()
                 .setConnectionManager(connectionManager)
@@ -825,33 +829,33 @@ private Optional<LocalDate> getReleaseDate(String groupId, String artifactId, St
     }
 
     /** Make the API call to fetch the release date */
-    private Optional<String> fetchReleaseDate(String groupId, String artifactId, String version) {
-        if (version.equals("${project.version}")) {
-            version = project.getVersion();
-        }
+    private Optional<String> fetchReleaseDate(String groupId, String artifactId, final String version) {
+        final String versionToFetch = version.equals("${project.version}") ? project.getVersion() : version;
 
         URI artifactUri = URI.create(String.format(
-                "%s/solrsearch/select?q=g:%s+AND+a:%s+AND+v:%s&wt=json", searchUri, groupId, artifactId, version));
+                "%s/solrsearch/select?q=g:%s+AND+a:%s+AND+v:%s&wt=json",
+                searchUri, groupId, artifactId, versionToFetch));
 
         getLog().debug("Fetching " + artifactUri);
 
         final HttpGet httpGet = new HttpGet(artifactUri);
 
         try {
-            try (CloseableHttpResponse response = httpClient.execute(httpGet)) {
+            return httpClient.execute(httpGet, response -> {
                 if (response.getCode() != 200) {
                     getLog().error(String.format(
                             "Failed to fetch release date for %s:%s %s (%s)",
-                            groupId, artifactId, version, response.getReasonPhrase()));
+                            groupId, artifactId, versionToFetch, response.getReasonPhrase()));
                     return Optional.empty();
                 }
 
                 String responseBody = EntityUtils.toString(response.getEntity(), StandardCharsets.UTF_8);
                 return Optional.of(responseBody);
-            }
+            });
         } catch (Exception e) {
             getLog().error(String.format(
-                    "Failed to fetch release date for %s:%s %s (%s)", groupId, artifactId, version, e.getMessage()));
+                    "Failed to fetch release date for %s:%s %s (%s)",
+                    groupId, artifactId, versionToFetch, e.getMessage()));
             return Optional.empty();
         }
     }
diff --git a/src/main/java/io/github/mfoo/libyear/utils/MavenArtifactInfo.java b/src/main/java/io/github/mfoo/libyear/utils/MavenArtifactInfo.java
index 0738a4e..c3033c6 100644
--- a/src/main/java/io/github/mfoo/libyear/utils/MavenArtifactInfo.java
+++ b/src/main/java/io/github/mfoo/libyear/utils/MavenArtifactInfo.java
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 
 import java.io.IOException;
 import java.net.HttpURLConnection;
-import java.net.URL;
+import java.net.URI;
 import java.time.ZonedDateTime;
 import java.time.format.DateTimeFormatter;
 import java.util.Locale;
@@ -49,7 +49,8 @@ public static long parseHttpDate(String httpDate) {
     public static long getLastModifiedTimestamp(String groupId, String artifactId, String version) throws IOException {
         final String path = groupId.replace('.', '/') + "/" + artifactId + "/" + version + "/" + artifactId + "-"
                 + version + ".pom";
-        final HttpURLConnection connection = (HttpURLConnection) new URL(MAVEN_CENTRAL + path).openConnection();
+        final HttpURLConnection connection =
+                (HttpURLConnection) URI.create(MAVEN_CENTRAL + path).toURL().openConnection();
 
         connection.setRequestMethod("HEAD");
         connection.connect();