While Friday’s matchup was ultimately cancelled for an undisclosed reason, UConn’s weekend series against No. 11 Boston University continued with their Saturday match at the Freitas Ice Forum. Unfortunately for the Huskies (8-9-2), the match didn’t go their way, falling 3-2 in overtime.
UConn put the pressure on the Terriers (9-2) early into the match. Carter Turnbull struck the first goal at the 1:28 mark for the home side after Carter Berger’s shot deflected off the junior forward following a play of bringing the puck back toward the center. UConn only managed to get on the power play once in the opening 20 minutes while the visitors had two; however, neither team made much use of their advantages. By the 15:32 mark, the Huskies doubled their lead thanks to Brian Rigali’s shot that ended up being deflected into the net by BU’s goaltender Vinny Duplessis. The Terriers gained some momentum less than a minute left in the first period when Jay O’Brien managed to put one back.
A relatively quiet second period, BU had a chance to level the match after Kale Howarth had a five-minute major and a game misconduct, but the home side were able to kill off the power play. The Huskies were able to get on the power play twice in this period but couldn’t slot a puck or two in the back of the opposition’s net.
Both UConn and BU got on the power play early into the final period but to no avail. The two sides played an intense level of hockey until the Terriers’ Max Kaufman brought the game leveled with six minutes left in the match. Neither side were able to kill the game, and thus, went into OT where BU’S Luke Tuch slotted the game-winner in 44 seconds.
“For the most part, I thought we battled pretty hard tonight …” head coach Mike Cavanaugh said in a post-match press conference. “We needed to establish a little more pressure on our power play, I don’t think we established enough on that, but I was very happy with the [competition] and the guys.”
