UConn Women’s Hockey loses to the Boston University Terriers 0-1 Friday, Oct. 18 in the Mark Edward Freitas Ice Forum. UConn played an intense game, and despite having competitive offense who shot more than the Terriers, they were unable to find the net. Photo by Kevin Lindstrom/The Daily Campus
UConn did not get the results the team was hoping for in the first ever women’s ice hockey IceBreaker Tournament, and the Huskies are still looking for consistency after dropping both games this past weekend.
The Huskies (4-4-0) came into the tournament with momentum on their side, having won a game against Merrimack College 4-3 in overtime. Unfortunately, the Huskies were not able to find the same success against Colgate (5-3-1) and Mercyhurst (5-2-1). While the losses hurt, they have not caused UConn to fall in the conference standings, as UConn is currently in fifth place in the Hockey East.
Colgate has a good offense that is used to scoring fast and often, and this was evident against the Huskies as the Raiders took a 2-0 into the start of the second period. The Raiders’ first goal in the first period was scored by Kendall Williamson, with an assist going to Sydney Bard. Colgate moved out to a 2-0 lead when the Raiders were able to score on a power play, with the goal being scored by Allyson Simpson.
UConn responded at the start of the second period with a quick score from Danika Pasqua to cut Colgate’s lead to one. UConn was not able to capitalize on the momentum they had as the Raiders scored their third goal and went into the third period with a 3-1 lead. While UConn was still in this game, only down two goals, everything was going right for Colgate. At this point the Huskies were facing an uphill battle the rest of the way.
The dagger that effectively ended UConn’s comeback chances came on a power play and was scored by Malia Schneider. The Raiders coming into the game were an average team when it came to scoring on power plays, but one could not tell that based on how they performed in this game. Colgate only had two power play opportunities, scoring on both. This goal gave the Raiders a 4-1 lead.
UConn, on the other hand, had three power play opportunities but were unable to score on any of them. The Huskies have struggled on power plays all year and are now just 5-for-34 for the year. The Huskies are going to need to start scoring on power plays if they hope to win games against teams like Colgate or Mercyhurst that have good offenses.
UConn scored another goal to cut the lead to 4-2 midway through the third period. The goal was scored by Tristyn Svetek. The Raiders would go on to score two more goals and the game ended with UConn losing 6-2. Colgate moved on to face Minnesota Duluth, and the Raiders lost that matchup 3-1.
UConn played Mercyhurst, who lost to Minnesota Duluth, on Saturday. Both teams were playing great defense in the first period as neither team was able to score a goal. Mercyhurst had a slight advantage in shots taken, as they took seven while the Huskies took only five.
Mercyhurst has an impressive offense and it was only a matter of time before they ended up scoring. The Lakers scored less than three minutes into the start of the second period to take a 1-0 lead. UConn was able to tie the game at 1-1 halfway through the second period on their first power play goal of the tournament, scored by Morgan Wabick, her fourth goal of the season. This would be the only power play goal the Huskies scored in the tournament.
At the start of the third period the score was tied at 1-1. Mercyhurst scored their second goal of the game halfway through the second half, and the goal was scored by Summer-Rae Dobson, her fifth on the year. The Raiders scored again just a few minutes later to take a 3-1 lead which proved to be enough to get the win, as UConn was held scoreless in the third period.
The Huskies will have plenty of time to review what went right and what went wrong as they do not have another game until Nov. 5, when they play Brown University (0-2-0).
Joshua Gorman is a campus correspondent for The Daily Campus. He can be reached via email at joshua.gorman@uconn.edu. He tweets @joshuagorman15.