STORRS, Conn. - The UConn men's hockey team scored three times in the third period and struck for a pair of power play goals on the way to a 4-1 win over the Vermont Catamounts Wednesday night in the Hockey East Tournament Opening Round at the Toscano Family Ice Forum.
UConn (15-18-2) and Vermont (13-19-3) headed into the third period knotted at 1-1 but the Huskies capitalized on their second power play chance of the night with senior defenseman Andrew Lucas (Alexandria, Va.) getting the game-winner to start off a three-goal stanza.
Lucas and sophomore Matthew Wood (Nanaimo, British Columbia) each finished with a goal and assist in the win while freshman Jake Richard (Jacksonville, Fla.) chipped in a pair of assists.
The Huskies drew the game's first power play at the 14:51 mark of the first and then struck for the night's opening goal. Richard fed Wood out of the left corner and the sophomore whipped a shot past Gabe Carriere glove side from the top of the circle for his 14th goal on the season and a 1-0 lead.
The Catamounts pulled even early in the second period on Thomas Sinclair's fifth goal of the season. Defenseman Jeremie Bucheler broke up the Huskies entrance into the zone and Sinclair picked-up the lose puck deep in his own end, carried it the length of the ice before snapping one past Arsennii Sergeev (Yaroslavl, Russia) from the high slot just 2:19 into the period.
UConn's second power play chance came at 12:32 of the third and Lucas weaved a wrister through traffic for his fifth goal of the season at 13:53 to put the Huskies in front for good. Grad student Harrison Rees (Oakville, Ontario) pushed the lead to 3-1 with his third on the year at 15:53, putting home a backhander on a rush to the net during a 4-on-4 stretch.
The Huskies then were forced to kill off a UVM power play at 16:24 before freshman Joey Muldowney (Lake View, N.Y.) put the finishing touches on the 4-1 win with an empty net goal with 49 seconds left.
Shots were event at 27 apiece with the Huskies finishing 2-for-2 with the extra skater. Sergeev notched his eighth win of the season with 26 saves on the night.
Up Next:
The No. 8 seeded Huskies will head to the Hockey East Quarterfinals and a match-up with No. 1 seeded Boston College on Saturday night, March 16. Puck drop is scheduled for 7:30 pm from Kelley Rink and will be carried live on NESN+ and ESPN+.
