UConn hands BU "a good old-fashioned ass-kicking" in Hockey East Semifinals

Boston University coach Jay Pandolfo cut straight to the point. After UConn handed his team a 5-2 loss in the Hockey East Semifinals at TD Garden on Thursday, he delivered a blunt assessment of the contest.

“That was a good old-fashioned ass-kicking, what happened to us,” he said. “That's what that was.”

The Huskies didn’t just advance to the Hockey East championship game for the second time in the last four seasons. They did so in utterly convincing fashion.

“Out-competed, out-battle for every puck, out-battled on the wall, out-battled in the slot. They played winning hockey. They wanted to win. They wanted it a heck of a lot more than we did,” Pandolfo continued. “They deserved everything they got and we deserved everything we got tonight. We're lucky it was as close as it was, to be quite honest with you.”

It started out shaky for UConn, though. Before the game even began, the Huskies found out they’d be without captain (and 40-point scorer) Hudson Schandor. The fifth-year forward went down with a lower body injury in the quarterfinal win over Providence and though he gave it a shot during warmups, he ultimately couldn’t go. Head coach Mike Cavanaugh said Schandor was always a “longshot”, so the Huskies were prepared for his absence.

Still, it was a significant blow. Schandor, along with John Spetz, are the only players still on the roster from when UConn went to the Hockey East championship back in 2022. They’re as crucial to the Huskies’ turnaround as anyone, so their younger teammates are determined to send them out on top.

“A lot of us are playing for those two because they were here before in the finals,” Joey Muldowney said. “They didn’t come up on the winning side of it and now it's just doing it for those two and everybody else.”

Once Schandor was officially ruled out, that added extra motivation.

“It obviously sucked to see him not being able to go,” Jake Richard said. “But everyone's mind went right to, ‘Do this for Hudson.’”

Even after the puck dropped, UConn didn’t just dominate from start-to-finish. Even though it played well early on, BU took a 1-0 lead midway through the first period on a power play goal — a score that held into the first intermission.

Despite the deficit, the Huskies never panicked.

“Our theme in the locker room between periods was: Stay with it. Don’t bored of doing what works,” Cavanaugh explained.

Once the second period began, UConn grabbed the Terriers by the throat and didn’t let up until the final buzzer sounded.

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