No.15 Connecticut Huskies tied with Boston University this past Friday to end their regular season series.
Coming into the series, Boston University had dominated UConn in their previous matchup. The Terriers walked away with two wins, sneaking away with a 2-1 victory in game one followed by a dominant 5-2 performance in game two.
Connecticut has simmered out in recent weeks after its five-game win streak. Since their game against Providence, the Huskies are 0-2-2 and don’t look like the same team they had been.
UConn opened the scoring midway through the first period on a score by sophomore Ava Rinker. The Huskies held on to the lead early and were able to capitalize on an error in front of the goal by the Terriers in the second period. Sophomore Riley Grimley was able to swipe the puck in for UConn to build its lead to 2-0, her fourth goal of the season.
Even though they were down two scores late, the Terriers found a way to come back.
With just under four minutes left in the game, freshman Brooke Disher put the Terriers on the board, narrowing the deficit to just one. Later in the period, now with just one minute left, the Terriers scored again. Junior Catherine Foulem scored the equalizer to send the game to overtime. Foulem had scored in her previous game as well, accounting for five total goals on the season.
Neither team was able to end the game in overtime, sending them both into a shootout for the extra point.
UConn’s Coryn Tamala and Boston University’s Lacey Martin traded goals in the first round, knotting both teams at one apiece. They remained tied until Catherine Foulem scored in the fifth round of the shootout, earning the Terriers the shootout victory over the Huskies.
Boston University’s unbeaten streak extended to six straight games (3-0-3), marking their longest streak since the end of the 2019-2020 season (8 games). An interesting note, three of those games during this stretch have been shootout victories for the Terriers.
Both UConn and Boston University ended the game with 25 shots on goal. Husky Tia Chan and Terrier Andrea Brändli allowed two goals each, blocking 23 shots throughout the game.
The Huskies have had some trouble keeping multi-score leads the past few weeks. There were a lot of similarities between the Huskies game versus the Friars and the game against the Terriers on Friday. Against Providence on Jan. 20, Grimley scored to put UConn up 2-0 in the third period but the Friars fought back to send the game to overtime. Unlike the Boston University game, UConn did walk out with the shootout victory with a winner from Jada Habisch, but these games are eerily similar.
The alarms don’t need to be going off for UConn, it has played well otherwise, but it is an area to focus on. Two games aren’t going to define this season, but if this trend continues it can really impact the Huskies chances come time for the tournament.
With the tie, this brings UConn to 15-31-9 versus the Terriers in their all-time series. It has been more of the same for the Huskies as Boston University really seems to have Connecticut’s number every time they face off.
Boston University now sits in sixth place in the Hockey East standings. The Huskies remain just one spot ahead of Boston University in fifth place with a conference record of 10-9-4.
Both team’s next matchups are against No. 5 Northeastern with the Terriers facing them Tuesday in the 44th annual Women’s Beanpot game and UConn hosting them Friday in Storrs. The Huskies will then take on Holy Cross for their final three regular season games.
Northeastern is another one of those teams that Connecticut has historically had trouble playing against, and with these games starting to mean more about position, it should be a hard fight. Connecticut’s game versus Northeastern is available for streaming on NESN+ and will be played at the Toscano Family Ice Forum.
Boston University has had success against Northeastern in the past but is currently winless in their last four meetings. This streak includes a 6-0 blowout that happened last month and really shows how good this Northeastern team is. You can watch the Terriers game either on NESN or ESPN+ Tuesday night.
