UConn men's hockey blanked by No. 12 UMass, 2-0

UConn men’s hockey’s on-campus scoreless skid hit three games after a 2-0 loss to the No. 12 UMass Minutemen at the Toscano Family Ice Forum on Friday night. The Huskies have gone three straight games in Storrs without a goal and have been shut out five times this season.

Neither side found the back of the net until UMass scored twice in 18 seconds at the beginning of the third period. UConn came at the Minutemen in waves in the game's final minutes but couldn’t break through.

Despite the loss, Arsenii Sergeev played well in goal, stopping 29 of 31 shots.

The score was knotted at 0-0 through two periods — in large part due to the goalies. In the first period, Sergeev made an impressive kick-save and followed it up with a behind-the-back glove stop shortly afterward. As for UMass’s Michael Hrabal, he gloved a stop on the doorstep and turned away two other shots in quick succession during the second period.

Both sides had a power play in the middle stanza, but neither capitalized.

The Minutemen finally broke the deadlock early in the third period. Scott Morrow took the puck behind the net and found Dans Locmelis open in the slot, who scored the opening goal. Just 18 seconds later, the visitors doubled the lead. UConn lost the puck in the corner and Kenny Connors found Jack Musa to make it a 2-0 game.

From there, the Huskies dominated possession and spent plenty of time in the offensive zone, but couldn’t score. They whiffed a sitting puck in the back post, missed the net, and also had a shot go through Hrabal’s legs but dribble wide. None of it was enough to snap the scoreless drought and UConn ultimately fell by two.

The loss drops the Huskies to 12-14-2 on the season and 7-10-1 overall. They’ll go for the split on Saturday at UMass.