UConn advances to Hockey East championship with 5-2 win over BU

UConn men’s hockey is moving on to the Hockey East championship game after a 5-2 win over the 3-seed Boston University Terriers at TD Garden on Thursday. The Huskies fell behind 1-0 in the first period before scoring five unanswered goals en route to victory.

Joey Muldowney recorded his third hat trick of the season, Tristan Fraser and Ryan Tattle also found the back of the net while Jake Richard had three assists. Callum Tung started in goal and finished with 25 saves on 27 shots despite dealing with an apparent injury in the third period.

UConn put together a strong first period but trailed 1-0 after an ugly effort by the penalty kill. The Huskies failed on a pair of clearances then let Quinn Hutson walk in from the blue line and score to put the Terriers ahead.

In the middle stanza, UConn came alive and needed just 59 seconds to pull even. Fraser got turned away on his first attempt, whiffed on his second and then sent his third into the top corner to make it a 1-1 game. Two minutes later, Richard sprung a breakaway with a long stretch pass to Tattle, who scored five-hole to put the Huskies ahead.

Another few minutes after that, Muldowney got in on the fun. His initial shot was turned away by an incredible save from BU goalie Mikhail Yegorov but the sophomore fired a back-hander from an impossible angle into the twine to push UConn’s lead to 3-1.

Out of the intermission, the Huskies killed the final 1:40 of a penalty but struggled to get back into the game. They played flat-footed and spent a lot of time in their own defensive zone.

UConn’s sophomore duo quickly changed that. Richard flipped a pass to Muldowney on the back post, who buried the shot to extend the gap to 4-1 with 15 minutes remaining. BU pulled the goalie with 6:01 remaining but Muldowney slammed the door on any comeback hopes with an empty-netter to secure the hat trick.

The Terriers scored a consolation goal with 10.7 seconds remaining to reach the final score of 5-2.

UConn now advances to the Hockey East championship game for the second time, though it’s still in search of its first league title. The Huskies will battle the winner of 2-seed Maine and 9-seed Northeastern for the Lou Lamoriello Trophy on Friday at 7:30 p.m. ET.