UConn women's hockey claims fifth straight with dominant win over UNH

UConn women’s hockey’s winning streak is up to five straight behind a dominant victory over the UNH Wildcats on both ends of the ice. The Huskies put 38 shots on goal — tied for their second-highest total of the season — and pitched their seventh shutout of the year to claim the 4-0 victory at the Whittemore Center on Sunday afternoon.

“The way the team is playing right now, we're doing a lot of good things,” head coach Chris MacKenzie said. “We just gotta to stay at it, stay with it.”

UConn didn’t wait long to take control. The Huskies got the first power play of the day less than four minutes in and immediately jumped on the opportunity. Claire Peterson threaded a pass from the blue line to Kathryn Stockdale on the back post, and the senior only needed to tap it in to give her side the 1-0 advantage.

It’s been a breakout senior campaign for Stockdale. Coming into the year, she had just nine goals and three assists. But by notching the opening score on Sunday, she now has six goals this season alone.

“She's not letting a lot of things bother her,” MacKenzie said about Stockdale. “She's just enjoying her senior year which is special.”

“It's my senior year, now's my shot to go for it,” she echoed.

Even after going ahead, UConn continued to control possession but caught a bad break when Coryn Tormala got sent to the box for tripping — on a play where a UNH player went down within a Husky within five feet of her.

It evened out, though. Tormala jumped out of the box, picked up the puck and went straight towards the net. She fired a speculative shot on goal that bounced up and over the goaltender to double UConn’s lead.

That wasn’t the only puck luck the Huskies got in the opening period. Before UConn opened the scoring, UNH had a shot hit the bottom of the crossbar and stay out. The Wildcats were inches away from taking a 1-0 lead themselves.

“We were fortunate to get some bounces,” MacKenzie said. “They hit a crossbar early in the game. That could’ve changed the whole complexion of the game.”

Instead, UConn caught the breaks and capitalized. After Tormala made it 2-0, the Huskies’ power play piled on another. Amid a long stretch of zone time, Brooke Campbell sent a pass across the net to a wide-open Ainsley Svetek, who buried the chance to give UConn a commanding 3-0 lead behind a pair of a power play goals.

“We had confidence to keep the puck and settle down,” Stockdale said about the power play unit’s performance. “We weren't rushing. Just placing it on each other's sticks and finding each other worked for us.”

The Huskies took that scoreline into the first intermission and it held through the second intermission as well — which worked into their favor. The defense held up its end of the bargain by allowing just six shots in the middle frame.

“We didn't give up, we didn't get sloppy,” Stockdale said.

“We were fortunate to get up 3-0 and really just held lead from there,” MacKenzie added.

UConn finally put the game on ice with 7:25 remaining. Stockdale made a beautiful pass to Megan Woodworth, who slipped it in and extended the gap to four. At that point, the Huskies finally allowed themselves to exhale.

“Once we made it four, I felt like we were pretty relaxed,” MacKenzie said.

The final minutes drained off the clock without much of an issue and UConn came away with the 4-0 win — its seventh shutout of the year and the fourth for goaltender Megan Warrener. As a team, the Huskies have allowed just 1.4 goals per game — a top-five mark in the nation.

“It's one thing to put in the goals but you have to back it up with defense,” Stockdale said. “To keep our lead and to keep every period consistent is what will help us now and help us going forward.”

UConn also vaulted back atop the Hockey East standings with 40 points in 17 games. The five game win streak improves its record to 16-6-2 and 13-3-1. The Huskies haven’t lost a league contest since Oct. 20 against that same UNH team.

While there’s still 10 games left in the regular season, UConn is already in postseason mode.

“Every game is playoff hockey now,” Stockdale said.

The Huskies are confident they can continue rolling, too. They aren’t doing anything special during this win streak. They’re just playing their game — and doing it well.

“Consistency,” MacKenzie said about what stands out during the win streak. “The team's just bought in and they're playing hard for each other and playing hard for UConn.”