Special teams rule the day as UConn beats UNH, 4-1

A big day from UConn’s special teams unit led to a 4-1 victory over the No. 17 New Hampshire Wildcats on Friday night at the Whittemore Center. The Huskies opened the scoring with a shorthanded goal — their nation-leading sixth of the season — tagged on a pair from the power play then finished it off with an empty-netter to open the weekend with a win.

Hudson Schandor, Ryan Tattle, Jake Richard and Tabor Heaslip scored for UConn. With three points, Schandor became the second player in the Huskies’ Hockey East Era to reach 100 career points — joining Jachym Kondelik (2018-22).

Tyler Muszelik got the start (and the win) against his former team. In his first action since Nov. 15, he stopped 27 of 28 shots.

UConn got off to a slow start and didn’t have much of the puck in the first few minutes. Then the Huskies got the first power play of the night and while they didn’t score, it gave them a much-needed foothold into the game. They started to pile up the chances — including a few right in front of net — but couldn’t capitalize.

Finally, the penalty kill unit got them on the board. With Tattle in the box for slashing, UConn jumped out on a 2v1 rush. Joey Muldowney’s centering pass to Schandor that bounced in the air, but the fifth-year senior still got a stick on it and snuck it over the line for the shorthanded goal. That gave the Huskies a 1-0 advantage.

With over a minute left on the penalty, they though. UNH got set up on the power play and nearly scored, only to be denied by a spectacular pad save from Muszelik.

As the buzzer sounded for the end of the period, the Wildcats committed a penalty to put UConn on the power play when play resumed.

The Huskies took advantage. 1:17 into the middle stanza, Tattle poked in a power play goal to push the lead to 2-0.

A few minutes later, UConn had a chance to put the game away after a major elbowing penalty and game misconduct on UNH’s Marty Lavins. Then as the five-minute power play began, the Wildcats were called for high-sticking to give the Huskies a 5-on-3.

Despite the two-man advantage, UConn couldn’t score and then ended the major power play early with a penalty of its own. As a result, the Huskies only went into the second intermission with a narrow two-goal lead.

In the third period, UNH gave UConn another chance to finish the game off with a kneeing penalty. This time, the Huskies obliged as Richard scored a power play goal with 9:46 remaining to make it 3-0.

The Wildcats added a power play goal with 1:47 left to cut the gap to two but Heaslip quashed any comeback hopes immediately with an empty-netter from the other end of the ice.

With the win, UConn improves to 10-8-1 (5-6-1 Hockey East) and snaps New Hampshire’s seven-game unbeaten streak. The two teams will wrap up the weekend series on Saturday at Toscano Family Ice Forum. Puck drop is set for 3:30 p.m. ET.