This Saturday, the Connecticut Huskies hosted the Holy Cross Crusaders at home in the Hockey East Quarterfinal round of the tournament. UConn, who entered the tournament as the number one overall team for the first time in school history, came in having already beaten the Crusaders three times this season, including a 5-1 victory on Feb. 10. With a spot in the Semifinal on the line, the Huskies cruised past Holy Cross once again to advance. Here’s how the game went down:
In their home arena, the Toscano Family Ice Forum, the Huskies scored early and often. Captain Coryn Tormala started the day for Connecticut on their first power play opportunity of the game. With the Huskies on the attack, the puck found its way to Tormala with an open look on goal, and she punched it in, giving the Huskies the lead 1-0.
UConn found another scoring chance in the second period and capitalized once again, this time from one of their freshmen. Ashley Allard put a shot on goal that was blocked by Crusader’s goalie Madison Beck, but the puck deflected right back to Allard, who tapped it into double UConn’s lead in the second period.
Known for their great defense this season, the Huskies were put to the test with three power play opportunities for Holy Cross. While UConn killed the Crusaders’ first two chances, an Alexa Pongo cross-checking penalty gave them another in the second period. However, UConn’s leading scorer, Jada Habisch, broke away on a Holy Cross power play opportunity, skating past three Crusader defenders for a look at the net and scoring to double UConn’s lead to 3-0.
Down three with time winding down, Holy Cross finally got themselves a goal when Lilly Feeney found the back of the net with five seconds left in the second period. Feeney wrapped around the goal and went over the shoulder of UConn’s goalie, Tia Chan, to break into the scoring column for the Crusaders.
The Huskies would strike again, with a fourth scoring getting in on the action. Junior Ava Rinker sent a slapshot to the goal that was placed perfectly for Brianna Ware to chip it in, giving UConn back their three-goal lead at 4-1.
Holy Cross made one last push halfway through the third period, with Reghan Chadwick scoring off a Lulu Rourke assist while falling to cut UConn’s lead in half, but that would be the end of it for the Crusaders as the UConn Huskies advanced to the next round.
Tia Chan was in goal for the Huskies; she made 13 saves and allowed just two goals. Madison Beck was in the net for Holy Cross; she made 28 saves but allowed four.
In their next game, the Huskies will host Boston College, a team that they have struggled against this season. In all three meetings this season, the Eagles were the ones to walk away victorious. These teams first met back in October, when Boston College took game one with a thrilling 4-3 overtime victory at home, then traveled to Storrs the next day to steal another from the Huskies, winning 2-1 at Toscano. The teams met again in early December to complete their regular season matchups, and the Eagles yet again stole another game from the Huskies on the road with a shootout win. In fact, two out of four of UConn’s conference losses this year have come at the hands of Boston College. As for momentum, the Eagles headed into Wednesday off an electric victory over Providence on Friday, winning against the Friars in overtime, but they had lost five of their last six games beforehand.
The winner of Wednesday’s game meets with the New Hampshire and Northeastern game-winner on Saturday, March 9. As of right now, the start time is still TBD for Wednesday’s game, but it will be played here at Toscano Family Ice Forum in Storrs, Connecticut.