UConn men's hockey earns thrilling OT victory over UMass Lowell, 2-1

It took UConn men’s hockey 58:45 to find the back of the net on Friday night, but it still managed to pull out a 2-1 overtime victory on the road against the UMass Lowell River Hawks.

Chase Bradley scored a 6-on-4 power play goal with 1:15 left to tie the game then Andrew Lucas found the game-winner with 1:20 left in overtime to give the Huskies the unlikely win.

Prior to Bradley’s goal, UConn’s power play had gone just 0-5 on the game but created plenty of chances that just refused to go in.

In net, Arsenii Sergeev made 28 saves for the Huskies and got better as the game went on. His biggest play of the night came when he helped turn away a 3v1 rush in overtime just moments before Lucas’s game-winner.

After an even-matched start to the game, Lowell struck first when Mitchell Bentley sprung free on the back post and finished a cross-ice pass to give the River Hawks a 1-0 lead. UConn had the first power play of the game at the end of opening period but couldn’t convert, so it went into the first intermission down a score.

The Huskies had no shortage of chances in the second but their finishing issues cropped up again. Despite three power play attempts in the second, they couldn’t find the back of the net. Matthew Wood missed a wide-open net, another puck landed (and stopped) on the goal line, and in one sequence, they had multiple chances on the doorstep but never put a threatening shot on net.

Later, Tristan Fraser couldn’t settled a puck on a breakaway and never managed an attempt. Then during a 3v2 rush, Jake Flynn sent a shot from the slot over the net.

In the third period, Wood looked to have the game-tying goal, only for UMass Lowell goalie Luke Pavicich to rob him with a lightning-quick glove save.

UConn had more opportunities to pull even on the power play early in the third period but, again, came up empty. At one point, the Huskies wanted a penalty shot after Hudson Schandor got taken down on his way to the net, but the officials sent the River Hawks to the box instead.

Once again, UConn failed to convert.

But with 90 seconds left, the Huskies got their sixth power play of the day — after pulling the goalie, too — and the unit came through when it mattered most. Lucas fired a shot from the blue line that Pavicich kicked onto the stick of Bradley, who buried the rebound and tied the game at 1-1.

With neither side able to find a winner in the final 1:15 of regulation, the game went to 3x3 overtime. Although the Huskies mostly controlled possession, a turnover sprung UMass Lowell on a 3v1 rush with two minutes left. But as the hosts entered the zone, Lucas made a heady play to disrupt the pass while Sergeev turned away the shot.

30 seconds later, Schandor tied the puck up along the boards which allowed Wood to skate in and get the puck back to the captain. Schandor then skated up the boards and into the offensive zone, where he flipped a cross-ice pass to Lucas on the back post. The defenseman poked the shot past Pavicich for the win.

With the overtime victory, UConn earned two of three points towards the Hockey East standings and improves to 3-3-1 on the season. The Huskies and River Hawks will return to action in game two of the series at 4 p.m. ET on Saturday from the XL Center in Hartford.