Joey Muldowney's four goals help No. 17 UConn take down No. 6 Maine

A four-goal hat trick from Joey Muldowney helped the No. 17 UConn Huskies take down the No. 6 Maine Black Bears 4-2 on Friday night. UConn extends its win streak to four and hands Maine just its second loss at Alfond Arena this season.

Muldowney recorded a natural hat trick, scoring at least one goal in each period and all four in the victory. Each of his first three goals put the Huskies ahead then he sealed the result on an empty-netter with 17.7 left.

UConn attacked from the opening face-off and had a pair of grade-A chances in the opening minutes but couldn’t convert. The Huskies then stunted that momentum with an early penalty but killed it and immediately went on the power play themselves.

The unit, which had scored six goals in five games to start the second half, stayed hot. John Spetz slipped a pass to Muldowney in the slot, who buried a shot to give UConn the 1-0 lead.

The Black Bears answered late in the first period when a shot from the point bounced off Charlie Russell and ended up in the back of the net, which sent the two sides into the locker room knotted at 1-1.

It didn’t stay tied long. Just 1:10 into the second stanza, Muldowney flew into the offensive zone with the puck and uncorked a shot at the face-off dot that beat Maine goalie Albin Boija near-side to put the Huskies back ahead, 2-1.

At the other end of the period, UConn survived a couple nervy moments on the penalty kill to take the lead into the final intermission.

Even though the Huskies started the third period on the power play, the Black Bears grabbed ahold of the game. They sprung free on a shorthanded breakaway at one point, only to be denied by UConn goalie Tyler Muszelik.

A few minutes later, Maine broke through. Nolan Renwick went coast-to-coast with the puck, diced through the Huskies’ defense and fired it into the back of the net to even the score at 2-2. After that, the Black Bears’ offense came at UConn with waves of pressure — but the Huskies didn’t crack.

Eventually, UConn got a chance down the other end and capitalized. Hudson Schandor got the puck behind the net and found a wide-open Muldowney, who ripped it past a helpless Boija to make it 3-2 Huskies with 11:42 remaining.

Soon after, Maine squandered a golden opportunity to even the score by ending a power play after just 18 seconds with a penalty of its own. The Black Bears pulled the goalie with 1:42 remaining but the Huskies’ defense held tough and eventually, Muldowney finished it off with an empty-netter from his own defensive zone.

With the win, UConn improves to 12-8-1 overall and 7-6-1 in Hockey East play. Next, they’ll go for the sweep on Saturday with puck drop is set for 7 p.m. ET from Alfond Arena.

A historic night

There was plenty of history made in the win.

With a pair of assists, Hudson Schandor became UConn’s Hockey East Era points leader with 105 in his career, surpassing Jachym Kondelik. He’s now recorded a point in 11 of his last 12 games and is up to 20 on the season.

Speaking of points leaders, John Spetz recorded his 51st career point and moved past Joe Masonius for the most by a defenseman in the program’s Hockey East Era.

As for Muldowney, his four goals tied UConn’s single-game Hockey East Era record —Jonny Evans also lit the lamp four times against Merrimack on Jan. 21, 2021. Muldowney is the seventh player to record a hatty for the Huskies since 2014-15.

As a team, UConn has now won four straight games for the first time since the start of the 2022-23 season when it swept both Vermont and Union. However, the Huskies haven’t recorded four consecutive regulation victories since Feb. 2022. They’ve now won five of six since the winter break.

Pairwise check

After coming into the weekend at No. 11 in the Pairwise, the win bumped UConn up to No. 8. That means if the NCAA Tournament started today, the Huskies would be a two-seed.

UConn’s best-ever Pairwise ranking is believed to fifth, which it obtained after sweeping Maine on Nov. 4-5, 2022. This is comfortably the highest the Huskies have ever been at this point in the calendar.