UConn men's hockey leveled by No. 2 BU, 6-1

UConn men’s hockey dropped its third straight game and its fourth straight at Toscano Family Ice Forum after being leveled by the No. 2 Boston University Terriers 6-1 on Friday.

The visitors scored twice in the first period and cruised from there, adding two more in the second and twice in the third. The Huskies’ special teams struggled, allowing two power play goals while failing to do anything on their lone advantage.

Samu Salminen scored the lone goal for the Huskies — their first at Toscano in nearly two months. Arsenii Sergeev stopped just 25 of 31 shots in net.

The game fell apart in the third period with a combined eight penalties — including three game misconducts. In total, there were 70 penalty minutes in the contest.

BU got on the board courtesy of some tic-tac-toe passing through the offensive zone. Shane Lechance and Jack Harvey combined to set up Macklin Celebrini on the back post, who tapped in the opening goal.

The top line later doubled the Terriers’ lead. UConn’s defense lost Harvey in the slot and he fired a shot past Sergeev to make it a 2-0 game.

The Huskies had no trouble creating chances — they out-shot BU 14-8 in the first period and doubled them up 25-12 on attempts — but still couldn’t break the drought. UConn went into the first intermission down by two.

Finally, the Huskies scored in Storrs. Jake Percival had his initial attempt denied, but the puck leaked out into the crease and Salminen skated in to bury the rebound. It was UConn’s first goal in 10 consecutive periods at Toscano dating back to a New Year’s Eve win over Harvard.

Those good vibes didn’t last long, though. Less than a minute after getting on the board, the Huskies took their first penalty on a hold by Tabor Heaslip. On the advantage, Celebrini blasted a one-timer from the face-off dot to put BU back up by two.

The Terriers piled on another courtesy of the power play. Quinn Huston ripped a shot from the top of the circles into the twine, pushing the score to 4-1.

With 7:24 left in the period, all hell broke loose. BU took exception to a hit from Nick Capone on Celebrini and a mini brawl ensued. Capone received a major for elbowing while Salminen and two BU players also got sent to the box for roughing.

Despite the extended advantage, the Terriers didn’t capitalize — in part because they took a penalty of their own to wipe out the final two minutes.

After all that, the scoreline remained 4-1 at the second intermission.

BU kept it coming in the third. Andrew Lucas lost an edge on the blue line and turned the puck over, which sparked a 2v1 rush the other way. Quinn Hutson gave it to Jack Hughes who finished to make it a 5-1 game. The Terriers added another to reach the 6-1 final.

The loss drops UConn to 12-16-2 on the season and 7-12-1 in Hockey East play. Next, the Huskies will head to Boston for the second game of the series on Saturday.