UConn men's hockey taken down by No. 4 Boston College in OT, 5-4

UConn men’s hockey’s upset bid against the No. 4 Boston College Eagles came up short on Friday night as the hosts pulled out a 5-4 win in overtime.

BC led 3-1 after the first period, the Huskies answered with three unanswered goals in the second then the Eagles tied it in the third. In overtime, both teams had their share of chances but BC found the winner — courtesy of UConn. With goaltender Ethan Haider sprawled on the ice after making an initial save, Chase Bradley tried to clear the puck from behind the net but it bounced off Haider and went in to give the Eagles the sudden-death victory.

Bradley scored a pair of goals while Tristan Fraser and Jake Flynn also found the back of the net for the Huskies. BC went 2-for-2 on the power play and scored both goals with less than five seconds left on each advantage.

The Eagles went ahead with a pair of quick goals — first on the power play and then at even strength less than two minutes later. They nearly extended the lead to three when a shot went off the underside of the crossbar, but it stayed out.

UConn got a brief foothold when Fraser beat BC goalie Jacob Fowler five-hole and were in position to go into the first intermission down just one despite being badly outplayed on both ends of the ice. But then with 1:36 left in the period, Andre Gasseau ripped a one-timer into the back of the net to send the deficit back to two.

After the break, the game flipped and suddenly, UConn found itself dominating. The Huskies got within one again thanks to a beautiful goal by Bradley and he tied the game a few minutes later by putting a rebound home. Then, UConn went ahead for the first time when Flynn ripped a shot from the top of the circles into the back of the net.

Thanks to three unanswered goals, the Huskies took a 4-3 advantage into the second intermission.

BC eventually tied it up thanks to some puck luck. Haider made an initial save but the puck hit off Harrison Rees’ skate and went in to make it a 4-4 game. Both sides had opportunities to find a game-winner down the stretch of the third period but ultimately it remained tied and went into overtime.

In the extra period, the two sides went up-and-down the ice, trading chance after chance. Jake Percival had UConn’s best chance in overtime when he beat Fowler clean but the shot hit the post and didn’t go in.

With the clock winding down, BC geared up for one final rush towards the net. While Haider denied the initial shot, he struggled to get up off the ice and the puck bounced off him and went into the net to give the Eagles the victory.

UConn will try to recover a split from the weekend on Saturday when it hosts Boston College at Toscano Family Ice Forum at 7 p.m. ET.