East Meadow, New York - The UConn Huskies took down Long Island University Thursday night 2-1 behind freshman Arsenii Sergeev 29 saves. Andrew Lucas opened the scoring while Hudson Schandor scored the overtime winner.
The Huskies wasted no time as they jumped out to the 1-0 lead five minutes into the game following an LIU penalty. With the lead UConn continued to attack but the sharks netminder Vinnie Purpura made 11 saves to prevent another goal. Long Island eventually found the equalizer on the power play with five minutes remaining in the period.
The second period was a defensive battle as both teams netminders made key saves to keep the game knotted at 1. Freshman Arsenii Sergeev made 10 saves in the second period while Vinnie Pupura of LIU made seven. UConn's best chance of the period came early in the period when Andrew Lucas rang a shot off the inside of the post. LIU looked to take the lead late in the second period on a breakaway, but a save by Sergeev, followed by a block on an open net by Messineo kept the game tied at 1.
The defensive battle continued into the third period as neither team was able to generate many scoring chances and take the lead. Freshman Arsenii Sergeev made 16 saves in the third period to hold the sharks scoreless. With neither team able to score, the game entered a sudden death overtime.
In overtime, the trio of Andrew Lucas, Hudson Schandor, and Ryan Tverberg would win it for the Huskies as Tverberg found Schandor for the one timer. With the win, UConn improves to 12-5-3 on the season.
