The No. 8 UConn women’s ice hockey team (5-2-1) will open Hockey East conference play this weekend in a home-and-home series against Holy Cross (7-2).
Saturday’s home matinee will take place at 1 p.m. at the Toscano Family Ice Forum. The Huskies will then travel to Worcester, Mass., on Sunday for a 2 p.m. contest at the Hart Center Rink.
Holy Cross was projected to finish next to last in the Women’s Hockey East Preseason Coaches’ Poll but have gotten off to an even better start than UConn, who was projected to finish first. The Crusaders did drop their first game of Hockey East play, a 4-2 road loss at the hands of Boston College (4-4), one of their two losses.
The Crusaders are currently on a four-game winning streak. While Holy Cross has a better record than UConn, they have not yet played an opponent who is currently in ESPN’s top 15 ranking.
In comparison, UConn’s strong start has come against a slate of opponents that has contained two ranked teams and two that have received votes towards the bottom of the ballot. The Huskies are coming off a pair of games against Mercyhurst in which they won one and tied another.
Holy Cross is currently 13th in the nation in goals scored (25) and 11th in assists (44). Freshman Violet Carroll has already racked up seven assists and leads the team. The forward leads the team in points with 10. Seven other Crusaders have also reached at least three assists.
One of the players with three assists is senior Alexia Moreau, who leads the team in scoring with four goals. Carroll has three, along with all of Naemi Herzig, Charlotte Sonntag and Lulu Rourke.
For the Huskies, junior defender Maya Serdachny is coming off a nice weekend in which she scored a goal in each game against Mercyhurst, her first two goals of the season. Senior forward Kyla Josifovic currently leads the team with four goals, while fellow senior Megan Woodworth has three after scoring in game one against Mercyhurst.
Sophomore Claire Murdoch also found the back of the net in game one for her second goal of the season. After leading the 2024-25 Huskies in total points, the unanimous Hockey East Rookie of the Year has gotten off to a slow start, putting up just four over eight games. Increased production from the forward would unlock a new level of UConn’s offense going into conference play.
Over 23 games since their first matchup in 2001, UConn has played Holy Cross to a 20-3 record. Two of those losses came in the first series the two teams played, a pair of Holy Cross victories in 2001. They didn’t play again until the 2018-19 season, and the Huskies have dominated from that point on. They dropped one game in 2023 but are back on a nine-game winning streak.
Both contests will be available on ESPN+.