UConn struggles in 4-2 loss at Colorado College

UConn men’s hockey’s 2025-26 season opened with a 4-2 loss at the hands of the Colorado College Tigers on Friday night at Ed Robson Arena. The Huskies scored first but it was all downhill from there as they allowed three unanswered goals that ultimately proved to be the difference.

Not much went right for UConn. The Huskies struggled in the defensive zone early on, were out-shot 38-30, went 0-5 on the man-advantage and lost the special teams battle 2-0.

Tyler Muszelik started between the pipes and stopped 34 shots.

It took UConn just 52 seconds to find its first goal of the year. Richard found a wide-open Muldowney on the back post, who unleashed a missile into the back of the net to make it 1-0.

From there, Colorado College owned the opening period. The hosts piled up a 25-12 edge in attempts, a 16-5 advantage in shots while winning more puck battles and playing more physical. The Huskies’ defense held on — aided by some big stops from Muszelik and a few timely blocks — through nearly two full power plays before finally cracking.

With three seconds left on a Richard hooking penalty and 29.7 left in the period, the Tigers buried a rebound to even the score.

Those problems persisted into the second period. 2:20 in, UConn left Colorado College’s Brayden Schuurman wide open in front of the net, who scored to put the hosts ahead 2-1. A few minutes later, the Huskies didn’t account for Philippe Blais-Savoie and when the puck slipped out of the corner, he picked it up and buried a shot to double the advantage.

UConn started to pull itself back into the game thanks to a pair of power plays, though both came up empty. Still, the Huskies rode the momentum to their second goal of the night when Heaslip collected his own rebound and fired a shot across the crease that bounced off a defenseman and in.

In the final minutes of the period, UConn put together its best man-advantage to that point in the contest but couldn’t convert and went into the second intermission down 3-2.

Despite trailing, the Huskies struggled to sustain much offense in the final stanza. They had a power play with 5:46 remaining that came up empty then a pair of golden chances were turned away a few minutes later.

UConn pulled the goaltender with less than 90 seconds to play but the Tigers scored a game-sealing empty-netter with 45 seconds remaining.

This is the Huskies’ first season-opening loss since the 2020-21 campaign. They’ll look to come away with a weekend split when they take on Colorado College on Saturday at 8 p.m. ET/6 p.m. MT.