UConn guts out 3-2 overtime win over Colorado College

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UConn men’s hockey gutted out a hard-fought 3-2 win over the No. 12 Colorado College Tigers on Friday at Toscano Family Ice Forum.

In the extra period, the Huskies caught the visitors on a change and sprung into the zone on a 2v1 rush. Alexandre Blais found Ethan Gardula, who deked around the goalie and buried a backhand winner as he flew through the air. The junior bookended the victory with a pair of goals.

Lirim Amidovski also found the back of the net, assisted by Jesse Heslop — the first career point for both players. In goal, Kam Hendrickson stopped 27 of 29 shots and earned his second victory in as many starts on the young season.

UConn jumped Colorado College out of the gate. The Huskies were responsible for the game’s first 11 shots and sprung a pair of breakaways. While those came up empty, they still struck first.

Charlie Morrison fired a shot from the top of the circle that bounced off the pad and found Gardula, who tapped a backhander through to give UConn a 1-0 advantage just 3:34 in.

The Tigers started to settle in midway through the first period and took advantage after a few strong shifts. Philippe Blais-Savoie let a shot fly from the blue line that snuck through traffic and found the back of the net. Hendrickson never saw it.

With the game tied at 1-1, Colorado College had a chance to take the lead. Cole Davis went to the box for holding, which gave the Tigers the first power play of the night. While the Huskies’ penalty kill unit struggled in their last outing by allowing (essentially) three goals, they held strong to preserve the deadlock.

In the dying minutes of the first period, UConn struck back. Heslop picked up the puck along the boards and skated it all the way to the point. He sent a shot on net and Amidovski redirected it past CC goalie Jackson Unger to put the Huskies back on top, 2-1, with 2:16 left in the stanza. That score held into the first intermission.

UConn lacked energy out of the break. Sloppy passing handed the Tigers a few scoring chances in the opening minutes while the visitors largely controlled the puck. Midway through the frame, Colorado College found an equalizer. Seth Constance fired a shot from the point that flew past Hendrickson’s glove into the back of the net. That made it 2-2.

At the end of the period, UConn went on the power play for the first time courtesy of a holding penalty against Colorado College. The Huskies peppered the net with shots, had a puck sit in the crease before getting cleared out and created plenty of chaos in front but just couldn’t find a goal.

Soon after the man advantage ran out, the Tigers were caught with too many men on the ice. UConn’s power play unit took the ice again with 33 seconds left in the second stanza but couldn’t capitalize on either side of the intermission.

From there, Colorado College took over. It dictated play and kept the Huskies back on their heels, piling up a 9-3 edge in shots in the period through the first 13 minutes. Then, with 7:21 to play, the Tigers got their second power play from a hooking penalty on Ethan Whitcomb.

UConn came up with a big penalty kill to keep the game tied and rode that momentum into a few strong shifts but couldn’t find the go-ahead goal. Eventually, time ran out on regulation which sent the contest into 3×3 overtime.

In the extra period, Colorado College’s Mats Lindgren lost the puck in his skates, which allowed Whitcomb to come in and pick up the turnover. The Huskies sent it back to Kai Janviriya, who reset the play. Blais stepped on to replace Whitcomb and immediately entered the zone on a 2v1. He hit Gardula with a pass between the circles and the junior made a move around the goalie and tucked a shot into the net for the winner. At the same time, Gardula tripped over the pad and flew into the air as the goal horn sounded.

With the win, UConn improves to 2-1-0 on the season. Next, it’ll look to finish off a sweep of Colorado College in the second game of the series on Saturday at 5 p.m. ET.

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