UConn handles Northeastern, 5-2

UConn men’s hockey closed its home slate with a 4-2 victory over the Northeastern Huskies on senior night Friday at Toscano Family Ice Forum.

Joey Muldowney and Hudson Schandor both made history in the win. With the opening score, Muldowney became the first Husky in the program’s Hockey East Era to hit the 20-goal mark. As for Schandor, he recorded a pair of helpers to become the Hockey East Era single-season assists leader with 25. The captain added a goal for good measure, too.

Ryan Tattle also found the back of the net twice while Callum Tung stopped 28 of 30 shots between the pipes.

After a shaky start, UConn eventually settled in and then took over. The Huskies owned possession with long stretches of zone time and barely let Northeastern touch the puck. While a penalty broke up the dominance, UConn got right back to it after the kill.

It eventually resulted in a goal when John Spetz took the puck to the net and set up a rebound for Muldowney, who buried it to put the Huskies ahead 1-0. That lead held into the intermission.

In the second period, UConn’s power play continued its white-hot run by scoring in its eighth straight game. The Huskies put together a near-perfect man-advantage — they never let the puck leave the zone and hit the post twice before Richard uncorked a wrister from the point that snuck through traffic and found the back of the net.

The two-goal lead didn’t last long, though. 22 seconds later, Northeastern’s Cam Lund got behind the defense and scored on a breakaway to make it 2-1.

At the end of the frame, Richard found a wide-open Schandor on the back post, who tucked a shot far-post to extend UConn’s advantage back to two.

Out of the second intermission, Northeastern struck back. 2:14 into the third period, Lund scored his second of the night on a scramble in front of net to cut the Huskies’ lead down to 3-2.

From there, the two sides combined for end-to-end action — including 7:38-long sequence without a whistle. UConn finally added a much-needed insurance goal when Tattle finished a perfect cross-ice pass from Jake Percival, pushing the gap back out to two. Tattle added an empty-netter with less than a second left to seal the 5-2 victory.

UConn notches its first regulation win in Hockey East play since Jan. 17. The Huskies improve to 18-10-4 on the season and 10-8-4 in Hockey East play.

Next, they’ll go for the sweep on Saturday in what could be their final trip to Matthews Arena. Puck drop is set for 7:30 p.m. in Boston.