On Wednesday, Dec. 4, the UConn men’s ice hockey team traveled to Chesnut Hill, Massachusetts to take on Hockey East foes, the No. 3-ranked Boston College Eagles. The Eagles got the best of the Huskies in overtime by a score of 2-1 in a tightly contested defensive slugfest. This was UConn’s first loss to the Eagles this season after previously defeating them at home 5-4 earlier in mid-November.
Early in the first period, Connecticut forward Tabor Heaslip found himself in the penalty box due to cross-checking. However, the Huskies defense stood strong and kept the Eagles off the scoreboard for the entirety of the power play. After multiple BC scoring attempts were smothered by the Huskies’ defense, Boston College freshman forward Teddy Stiga, assisted by Gabe Perreault and Drew Fortescue, wiped the zero off the scoreboard to give the Eagles a 1-0 lead. Despite the early score, the UConn defense, led by freshman goaltender Callum Tung, remained stout for the rest of the first period.
It was the second period when the Huskies finally broke into the scoring column. British Columbia native Ryan Tattle took advantage of an untimely Boston College turnover to sneak the puck past All-American goal tender Jacob Fowler. Tattle knotted the score up at 1-1 with 13 minutes left in the period. Despite several scoring opportunities, the Huskies were unable to capitalize as BC’s Fowler ultimately lived up to his impressive accolades.
The final period was yet again highlighted by the defensive prowess of UConn’s Tung. While being outshot by the Eagles 17-7, Tung was able to withstand the opposing barrage by recording an impressive 17 saves in the third period. With four seconds left in the period, Eagles’ forward Ryan Leonard had his chance to win the game but was blocked by John Spetz to send the game into a final overtime period.
Fowler, once again, delivered for the Eagles by not letting anything pass him for the entirety of the overtime period. With a little over a minute into overtime, Boston College’s James Hagens was finally able to find the back of the net to score the game-winner, defeating the Huskies in 2-1 overtime fashion.
After a couple weeks off, the Huskies (7-7-1) will return to action at the 2024 Kwik Trip Holiday Faceoff against Alaska in late December. The match will be played at Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee.