In front of a packed Toscano Family Ice Forum, the No. 11 UConn men’s hockey team upset No. 4 Maine in a Hockey East battle. Sophomore Jake Richard scored the game winner in overtime on Friday night. Freshman goaltender Callum Tung made 32 saves in the win.
The Huskies got the wheels moving at the start of the first period as freshman Kaden Shahan was in the right place at the right time to knock in a rebound off a shot from John Spetz to give UConn the early 1-0 lead. The Huskies’ lead was short lived when Maine went on the power play and tied the game midway through the period. Maine goaltender Albin Boija finished off the first period with 11 saves while Tung for the Huskies finished the period with nine saves on goal.
In the second period, UConn grabbed the lead again off another rebound as Richard was left alone in front of the net for the tip-in to give the Huskies the 2-1 lead. Similar to the first period, the Black Bears went on the power play once again following a penalty on the Huskies. During the power play, Tung stood his ground and made multiple saves to keep Maine from finding the equalizer goal. At one point during the power play, a scrum occurred in the front of the net with the puck loose. After chaos broke out between UConn and Maine players, the referee blew the whistle, calling the play dead; however, Maine pushed the puck past the goal line after the whistle, which led to the play being put through a challenge. Following the review, the goal was disallowed to the play being called dead before the black crossed the line. But shortly after the disallowed goal, Maine’s Owen Fowler found the equalizer goal as he fired the puck through defenseman traffic and past Tung for the secured goal. Both teams entered the second period break in a 2-2 tie.
In the third period, Maine and UConn were both able to generate chances to score; however, neither team was able to find the game winner in regulation. The two teams entered a sudden death, three vs. three overtime period. Early in OT, Maine dominated the puck and remained in their offensive zone for the first couple of minutes. The Huskies were able to bounce back and following a penalty on the Black Bears with 2:05 remaining in the overtime period, UConn was awarded a four vs. three-man advantage.
As the Huskies were on the power play, they were denied multiple chances at the net by Boija. Hudson Schandor, Joey Muldowney and Richard remained on the ice for the majority of the sudden death period. With 40 seconds left in the game, Richard scored his second goal of the night, the game winning goal to lead UConn to upset No. 4 Maine in overtime.
“I thought five-on-five, that might’ve been one of our best games we’ve played all year long,” said head coach Mike Cavanaugh. “I thought we had a lot of multiple shot shifts, I thought we were really good in our defensive zone. I was proud of the team, that was a really good 64 minute and 20 second game we played, that was a pretty good game.”
The Huskies record improved to 17-10-3 overall and 9-8-3 in conference play. The Ice Bus now ranks tied for No. 4 in the Hockey East league as they have 30 total points. UConn is now tied with Providence as they both have 30 points; however, their difference is that the Huskies have nine conference wins and the Friars have eight in 20 games played. In the Hockey East conference, The Huskies sit behind No. 3 Boston University (38 points), No. 2 Maine (42 points) and No. 1 Boston College (47 points).
UConn had the rest of the weekend to recover before continuing their Hockey East schedule and returning to the ice to welcome No. 9 Boston University to the Toscano Family Ice Forum on Tuesday, Feb. 24. Puck drop is scheduled for 7 p.m. in Storrs, Conn. and will be available to be streamed live on ESPN+.