UConn handles Northeastern, 2-0

UConn men’s hockey played a good road game to claim a 2-0 win over the Northeastern Huskies at Bentley Arena on Friday night. UConn started slow but notched the first goal, added a second in the middle stanza and cruised the rest of the way to victory.

Tyler Muszelik starred in net, turning away all 16 shots he faced to earn his second shutout of the season.

Ethan Gardula scored the opening goal for UConn while Alexandre Blais added the other. Special teams weren’t much of factor as the Huskies went 0-2 on the power play and 1-1 on the penalty kill.

After a week off, UConn came out a step slow. The Huskies spent most of the first five minutes in their own defensive zone as Northeastern piled up the first six shots of the game. Luckily, Muszelik was locked in from the opening face-off and kept UConn afloat.

Eventually, the visitors settled in and struck first. Ethan Whitcomb wired a pass to Gardula, who just tapped it in to give the Huskies a 1-0 lead.

Almost exactly one period later, UConn doubled the advantage on a similar play. Tabor Heaslip found Blais on the back post, where the freshman sent it into the open net and made it 2-0. While the visiting Huskies dominated play in the middle stanza with a 10-4 edge in shots, they couldn’t widen the gap further.

It didn’t ultimately matter, though. UConn killed off the game with ease in the third period. The Huskies allowed just four shots over the final 20 minutes — none of which seriously threatened Muszelik.

Northeastern pulled the goalie with 1:38 left after a UConn icing but couldn’t capitalize with the extra skater. The visiting Huskies never managed to get a change but held on by packing the middle and blocking four shots to secure the win.

UConn capped off the season sweep of Northeastern and claimed eight of nine possible points against the other Huskies. UConn improves to 16-7-3 overall and 10-5-1 in Hockey East.

Next, the Huskies will have Saturday off before traveling up to Orono for a two-game series at Maine next weekend.