Once again, UConn comes up short in Hockey East title game

For UConn men’s hockey, the third time wasn’t the charm in the Hockey East title game. On Saturday night, the Huskies fell to the Merrimack Warriors 2-1 and have now lost in all three appearances in the final.

This one proved to be the most devastating of all. In 2022, UConn either needed to cling to a 1-0 lead to win in regulation or get a fortunate bounce in overtime to steal a victory against UMass. Last season, Maine was just the better team with seemingly its entire fanbase filling TD Garden.

But against Merrimack, the Huskies had a 50-25 edge in shots. They piled up 100 attempts — 50 of which came in the final period. And yet it wasn’t enough. Max Lundgren made 49 saves in goal for the Warriors — a regulation record in the Hockey East championship — as UConn once again came up short.

“Certainly a disappointing result for our team,” head coach Mike Cavanaugh said afterwards. “I was proud of the way we played. This game can be a cruel game.”

The Huskies ultimately played right into Merrimack’s strengths. They never controlled the game, going behind early in the second period before answering with the tying goal down the other end of the stanza. 26 seconds into the third period, Merrimack went ahead, then parked the bus and hoped its white-hot goalie could win it.

Lundgren was up for the task.

“We were tired, that was obvious,” Merrimack coach Scott Borek said. “Fortunately, Max wasn't.”

A bad bounce and a bad sequence ultimately sunk UConn. On the Warriors’ first goal, Trevor Hoskin missed the net with his initial shot but the puck bounced off the end boards and went straight to Ryan O’Connell, who buried the rebound.

Then on the opening shift of the third period, Viking Gustafsson Nyberg tried to pass it behind the net, only to have it intercepted by Parker Lalonde. His initial shot was turned away but Tyler Muszelik allowed a rebound and then missed a poke check that would’ve cleared the danger. Instead, the puck ended up with Caelen Fitzpatrick, who capitalized on the series of mistakes to give the 8-seed a 2-1 lead.

From there, Merrimack sat back defensively and let the Huskies dominate possession.

Unlike the opposition, UConn couldn’t take advantage of its chances.

Tabor Heaslip ripped a shot from the slot that was turned away by a glove save.

Jake Percival beat the goalie but hit a body in front. The Warriors cleared the puck out of the crease but only got it as far as Anthony Allain-Samaké. With Lundgren out of position, the freshman just needed to shoot past one defender into the open net but couldn’t do it. The attempt was blocked.

Jake Richard fired a shot off the pads that ended up as a juicy rebound in front but the Huskies didn’t have anyone there to clean it up. Joey Muldowney got in close but failed to convert.

Lundgren stood on his head but UConn didn’t help itself, either. Only 22 of its 50 attempts in the third period made it on net. The Huskies wasted a lot of chances by missing the frame entirely.

“It's easy to say that the goalie stole the game,” Cavanaugh said. “But you gotta get more traffic in front of them, you gotta be hungrier around the net. Then we missed the net high a lot.”

UConn certainly didn’t put in a perfect performance. But the Huskies weren’t outplayed.

“I thought we put forth an effort that was worthy of a better result,” Cavanaugh said.

Since joining Hockey East in 2014, UConn’s rise has been characterized by slow but steady progress.

UConn failed to win a postseason game in its first seven seasons in Hockey East, going 0-9. Then the Huskies got their first and are 7-5 since, winning at least one in four of five seasons while reaching the title game three times.

Similarly, UConn lost three straight Connecticut Ice finals to Quinnipiac despite holding a third-period lead in the latter two. Then the Huskies got their first crown in 2025 and followed it up with another in 2026.

During the first 64 years of the program’s history, UConn never made the NCAA Tournament — not even at the Division III level. The Huskies are now going back for a second straight year.

UConn never exploded onto the scene. Instead, the Huskies more resembled rock climbers, constantly and patiently moving upwards. Sometimes it takes them awhile to find a foothold — as with the postseason, Connecticut Ice and the NCAA Tournament. But once they do, they rarely lose it — as exemplified by four 20-win seasons in the last five years and seven top-five finishes in the league over nine years.

Saturday night showed that the Hockey East championship game is the next demon that UConn has to slay, the next mountain to overcome. But the Huskies will have to wait a year — at least — to try again.