No. 9 UConn went on the road this weekend and came away with one win and one loss, defeating Providence 3-2 on Friday but suffering a setback in a 1-0 defeat to the Harvard Crimson on Thursday. The weekend split leaves the team sitting at .500 with a record of 4-4, although they remain undefeated in Hockey East conference play.
The game against the Providence Friars began with a couple early shots from the home team, but the Huskies quickly took command as sophomore forward Ashley Allard scored her first goal of the season to put Connecticut up 1-0 six minutes into the first period. Shortly after, a tripping penalty on Providence set the Huskies up for an opportunity to extend the lead, but Claire Murdoch’s shot went wide and an effort by Jada Habisch was saved by Friars goalie Hope Walinski. The programs traded shots for the rest of the period.
In the second period, UConn swiftly made the score 2-0 just 35 seconds in with a goal from Megan Woodworth, her second of the season, assisted by Brianna Ware and Emma Eryou. This put the Huskies in a seemingly comfortable spot, but Providence wasn’t giving up yet. The Friars slowly built momentum with a flurry of shots, eventually breaking through 14 minutes into the period. Forward Millie Sirum tipped in an effort from Reichen Kirchmair to put Providence on the board. After a power play for UConn that failed to net a goal, the Friars managed to tie the game at 2-2 all in the dying moments of the period, with junior forward Sarah Davies supplying the goal for Providence.
It didn’t take long for the Huskies to strike back. At the beginning of the third period, sophomore forward Martha Mobarak notched her first career goal to make the score 3-2 for UConn. Providence continued to threaten, though, with their best chances coming on a power play starting at nine minutes into the third. The Friars took four shots in the span of a minute, but were unable to come up with a game-tying goal. In a last desperate measure, they pulled their goalie with three minutes left, putting UConn in a 5-on-6 scenario. Sirum got off a shot on goal, but the effort was saved by Huskies goalie Tia Chan, who made 28 saves in total, sealing the nail-biting win for Connecticut.
It was a different story at Harvard for the Huskies. In the first period, a penalty on Harvard’s Kate Kasica for hooking left UConn with some excellent chances, but they didn’t capitalize on them, as Crimson goaltender Emily Davidson made five saves during the power play. The rest of the first resulted in a stalemate going into the second period.
The second period saw Connecticut extend their advantage in shots, but both teams once again failed to break the scoreless tie. UConn had a brief 5-on-3 scenario for 30 seconds after two consecutive penalties on Harvard, but a shot from defenseman Meghane Duchesne-Chalifoux was saved by Davidson. The Huskies were granted another power play opportunity late in the second until UConn’s Riley Grimley was called for hooking, leaving the teams to play 4-on-4 before Harvard’s penalty expired, putting the Crimson on the power play themselves. At the end of the period, the score remained 0-0, and for a moment it seemed that UConn goaltender Megan Warrener and Harvard’s Davidson would continue to pitch shutouts.
However, it was not meant to be. The third began with Harvard still in the power play, and just four seconds after it lapsed, the Crimson broke through with a goal by Jenna MacDonald, which turned out to be the game winner. Still, the Huskies had several more chances in the third. UConn pulled their goalie with a little less than two minutes to go, which led to a fierce 6-on-5 attack that produced eight shots in the final minute. Shots by Christina Walker and Ava Rinker were blocked by Harvard defenders, while two successive efforts from Habisch were swallowed up by Davidson. In the last seconds of the game, Rinker tried twice more to tie the score, but the shots were blocked again. The Crimson, despite having three more penalties and 15 less shots, survived UConn’s final frenzy and won.
Next, Connecticut will head home and take on Holy Cross, a Hockey East rival, in two games on Nov. 1 and 2, looking to extend their unbeaten run in conference play. The games will take place on the Storrs campus at the Toscano Family Ice Forum.