This past weekend, the No. 11 UConn men’s hockey team split a weekend two-game series with two ranked Hockey East foes. The Huskies were ousted by No. 18 UMass at the Toscano Ice Forum on Friday but bounced back to defeat the No. 10 UMass-Lowell Riverhawks in 5-4 overtime fashion the following day at the XL Center. With the win over the Riverhawks, the Huskies look poised to make a run in the Hockey East tournament.
Things were looking great for the Huskies early in the first period. Sophomore star forward Joey Muldowney, assisted by Hudson Schandor and Jake Richard, continued his scoring hot streak by burying the puck past UMass goaltender Michael Hrabal, making the score 1-0 early in the first period. A couple of minutes later, Muldowney found the back of the net again, tacking on another goal to the Huskies’ 2-0 first period lead against UMass.
UMass’ Jack Musa got the Minutemen into the scoring column on a power play after just 34 seconds into the second period, cutting the Huskies’ lead to 2-1. However, Connecticut fought back. Eight minutes later, Ontario native Ethan Whitcomb took advantage of a UMass power play by scoring his first goal of the game, garnering a 3-1 lead.
The Huskies’ lead was short-lived, as UMass’ Cole O’Hara and Lucas Mercuri found Musa open once again to cut the Husky lead back down to one.
The third period would be the game’s defining moment for the Minutemen. After a Dans Locmelis goal, Musa completed the hat trick to give UMass their first lead of the game, making the score 4-3. Shortly after, UMass forward Kenny Connors took matters into his own hands, lighting the lamp to tack onto UMass’ 5-3 lead.
UConn’s Kaden Shahan scored another goal for the Huskies with just a minute left in the game. Unfortunately, this would not be enough as the Huskies would drop this one to the Minutemen by a final score of 5-4.
Looking to bounce back, the Huskies hopped on I-84 West to the XL Center for a date with No. 10 UMass-Lowell.
The Riverhawks started things off strong with a bang, as Dillan Bentley took advantage of a power play to score the first goal of the game. UMass-Lowell held onto their one-point lead for the majority of the first period. However, Ryan Tattle made matters interesting by scoring a goal to tie the game up at 1-1. Right after Tattle’s first goal of the weekend, Ethan Gardula showcased his scoring prowess by burying a puck past the UMass-Lowell goaltender to give the Huskies a 2-1 lead as the period eclipsed.
Midway through the second period, Muldowney scored his third goal of the weekend, assisted by Schandor and Viking Gustafsson Nyberg, extending the UConn lead to 3-1. Suddenly, the Riverhawks’ offense ignited, with Bentley and Connor Eddy finding the back of the net to even the score at 3-3.
Finally, UMass-Lowell managed to obtain their second lead of the game after Scout Truman found Dillan Bentley open to score his third goal of the game, completing the hat trick and giving the Riverhawks a 4-3 lead.
With five minutes left in the game and the Huskies down by one, Schandor came up massively by scoring his first goal of the weekend to tie the game at 4-4, sending the game into overtime.
In a hard-fought overtime period between two of the best teams in the Hockey East, it was Schandor that came up big-time yet again to win the game for Connecticut by a score of 5-4. Despite a hat trick by UMass-Lowell’s Bentley, the Huskies were able to persevere and win a massive, ranked matchup.
UConn (15-10-3) will look to continue their momentum this week in a game against Alaska-Anchorage on Wednesday. The game will be played at the Toscano Ice Forum at 6 p.m.