The moments that made UConn's season magical (part one)

The first building block of UConn men’s hockey’s magical 2024-25 campaign was laid in the final moments of the previous season.

In the Hockey East Quarterfinals, the Huskies traveled to face top-seeded Boston College. The Eagles had spent much of that season ranked No. 1 in the polls and ended up as the top overall seed in the NCAA Tournament. They were overloaded with talent, featuring four first round picks and 14 draft picks.

Early on, they had their way with UConn. BC scored three goals in the opening eight minutes to take a commanding lead, then went into second intermission with a 4-1 advantage. The third period seemed to be little more than a formality.

But as the Huskies stared elimination in the face, they made one last push to keep their season alive. Out of the locker room, they scored three unanswered goals in the first 5:35 to tie the game.

The late flurry ultimately came up short, though. The Eagles scored the eventual winner with 9:25 remaining and punched their ticket to TD Garden while UConn’s tumultuous 2023-24 campaign reached its conclusion.

While defenseman John Spetz walked out devastated at the result, the way the Huskies rallied late stuck with him. For one period, they finally put it all together and went toe-to-toe with the best team in the nation. If they could reach that level for one period, he thought, what’s stopping them from doing it for a full season?

“It was proof that we have good players here and we can compete with these kids (at BC),” Spetz explained. “We just have to look in the mirror and just understand that it is an everyday process. You can't take days off.”

It wasn’t the only time UConn flipped a switch that season, either. Back in October, the Huskies opened a series at Union with a frustrating 4-1 defeat despite out-shooting the hosts 37-22. The next night, they decided they wouldn’t leave it in the hands of the hockey gods.

“The mantra tonight was ‘Let's play a no-doubter,’” head coach Mike Cavanaugh said at the time. “Let's play so well that regardless of the goalie or whatever other variables are in the game, there's no doubt we're going to find a way to win this game.”

The result? A 69-shot, 104-attempt onslaught that resulted in a 5-0 victory. Their success wasn’t borne out of an adjustment to the forecheck, a tweak to the power play or some other tactical change. It came down to mindset — just as it did in the third period at Boston College.

That quarterfinal defeat proved to be a seminal moment in the program’s history.

“When we lost that game to BC, it was like, ‘We could have done this all year,’” Hudson Schandor said. “We showed up for one period during the season and we almost beat the best, the number one team in the country. It was like, ‘This is so attainable.’”

For all that went wrong during the 2023-24 season — an inability to score, a fractured locker room and an exodus of talent — UConn came out of it not feeling down and defeated, but optimistic and hopeful about what the future could be.

“The way that last year went, it made us realize that it was possible to win a national championship,” Schandor said, “but the time and effort that needed to go into it needed to go way up.”

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