UConn women's hockey captures Hockey East regular season championship

UConn women’s hockey clinched the 2024 Hockey East regular season championship with a 4-0 win over the Boston University Terriers at Walter Brown Arena on Friday. It’s the first conference title in program history.

“It's the culmination of a lot of work,” head coach Chris MacKenzie told the UConn Hockey Hub postgame. “A lot of great players have come through to help build the program to get to this point. Give credit to the players in there that have had a great season and been very consistent. That's come from a lot of great players that have come before that.”

The Huskies secured the trophy in their penultimate regular season game with senior day still on tap for Saturday at Toscano Family Ice Forum in Storrs. Still, the victory on Friday night gave them 58 points on the season, eight more than Northeastern in second place.

UConn owns an 18-4-4 record in Hockey East play, built on the back of a 21-game unbeaten streak between Oct. 21 and Feb. 16 after starting 0-3-0 in league play. During that run, the Huskies went 17-0-4 in Hockey East.

“The consistency of gaining points every game in a very tight league, it gives you a chance to win a championship,” MacKenzie said. “That's basically what happened.”

While UConn would’ve clinched the regular season title on Friday night regardless of its own result since since Northeastern fell to Vermont, the team didn’t leave anything to chance.

Kyla Josifovic got the Huskies on the board in the final seconds of the first period then Brianna Ware doubled the lead just 2:51 into the second. Jada Habisch and Megan Woodworth each scored in the final period to secure the hardware.

As the regular season champion, UConn clinches home ice throughout the Hockey East Playoffs.

This is just the second conference championship won by either hockey program in school history — and the first regular season crown. UConn men’s hockey captured the 2000 MAAC Tournament title.

UConn women’s hockey still needs to win the Hockey East tournament championship to reach its first-ever NCAA Tournament. The Huskies are currently 11th in Pairwise, which puts them outside the 11-team field because of automatic bids.

UConn’s quarterfinals matchup is set for 1 p.m. ET on Saturday, Mar. 2 at Toscano Family Ice Forum against a still unknown opponent.