A rematch of the 2025 Hockey East semifinals produced the same results in the 2026 Hockey East quarterfinals. UConn defeated Boston University 5-3 on Saturday afternoon, ending the Terriers season prematurely.
In front of a packed crowd for the final game at Toscano Ice Forum this season, Joe Cavanaugh’s team got the job done and will play in the semifinals of the Hockey East tournament on Friday.
The Ice Bus sits right on the bubble as the NCAA tournament looms.
UConn could not cover their first good opportunity of the game when Joey Muldowney missed his first shot of the game.
The next opportunity got the Ice Bus on the board.
Jake Percival got the puck at center ice and had a two-on-one with Tristan Fraser. The senior took matters into his own hands by firing a shot past BU goalie Mikhail Yegorov to give the Huskies a 1-0 lead.
Connecticut then went on to the defensive as they had to kill two separate Jake Richard penalties. Thankfully for the Ice Bus, the power play unit has struggled for the Terriers all season. Before scoring twice on the power play against Vermont on Wednesday, they were 6 for their last 70 on power play opportunities.
They almost tied the game up halfway through the first after Tyler Muszelik could not corral Owen McLaughlin’s shot, leading to a Jack Harvey rebound. Harvey passed it to Sacha Boisvert who had a great look with Muszelik out of position, but Brendan Dunphy saved the day for the Huskies. The freshman made a leg save on Boisvert’s shot and UConn cleared it to the other side, ending the first power play.
The Huskies killed the second power play with ease and took a 1-0 into the first intermission.
An action packed second period started when Percival missed a great chance and the Terriers took it the other way. Tynan Lawrence took it all the way and flipped a backhanded shot by Muszelik and tied it at one. The 17-year-old Lawrence was not even with BU when the two teams battled in October, now he is making an impact with the season on the line.
UConn was quick to respond, however. Cole Hutson was sent to the box for elbowing, giving the Ice Bus their first power play of the game. Kai Janviriya found Muldowney at the blue line who swung it to Percival. Thanks to a great goalie screen by Ryan Tattle, Percival had plenty of real estate to fire in the goal. The Huskies scored on the power play for a sixth straight game, giving them a 2-1 advantage.
Later in the period, it was deja vu from the first BU goal. A good chance from UConn led to another Lawrence rush where he fired a shot at Muszelik. The tender got a piece of the puck, but Jack Murtagh was there for the tap in. Terriers tied it at two thanks once again to the young Lawrence.
Boston University tried to take the lead late in the period, but Muszelik had other plans. The recently named Hockey East All-Star Third-Team goaltender made a great save on a Boisvert shot, but the Huskies could not clear the puck. Ryder Ritchie ended up with the rebound and looked to have a goal, but the diving Muszelik got a glove on the shot before a scramble for the puck ensued. A pile up between two teams desperate to keep their seasons alive resulted in the referees whistling the play dead with no goal for BU.
The teams headed to the locker rooms tied with 20 minutes to determine if their seasons would continue or not.
Early in the third period, Ethan Whitcomb and the Huskies got to work. Whitcomb missed his first shot but scored on the rebound to put the Ice Bus back in from 3-2.
Sixty seconds after the Whitcomb goal, Anthony Allain-Samke fired a shot from near the blue line which got past Yegorov. The referees quickly waived the goal off for interference on UConn’s Viking Gustafsson Nyberg. Cavanaugh challenged the call and after much discussion, the referee reversed the decision giving the Huskies a 4-2 lead. The goal was the first of Allain-Samke’s college career, one he scored in dramatic fashion.
UConn killed their third penalty of the day and looked to be in cruise control with 10 minutes left to play. All was going well until the freshman Allain-Samke mishandled the puck and it ended up with Ben Merrill of BU. Merrill took it all the way in to cut the deficit to one for the Terriers.
Thankfully for the Ice Bus, Murtagh was sent to the penalty box for cross checking and the Huskies could kill some of the time remaining in the game.
They did just that until Yegorov left the ice with two minutes left and it was an empty net for BU. Off a face off win, Muldowney did what he has been doing all year. The Second-Team Hockey East All-Star got past multiple defenders and took some time off the clock before firing in an empty net goal.
That goal made it 5-3 Huskies and that was all she wrote for Saturday’s contest.
UConn will play the winner of the quarterfinal matchup between UMass Amherst and Northeastern University. The semifinals and finals of the Hockey East tournament will be played at TD Garden on Friday and Saturday of next week.