UConn women's hockey sweeps BU to repeat as Hockey East regular season champions

Entering the weekend, UConn women’s hockey found itself five points back of first-place Boston University. The Huskies needed all six points — two regulation wins — in their final series against the Terriers to win the Hockey East regular season title.

They did just that. UConn scored a 4-1 victory at home on Friday and followed it up with a 3-1 road win on Saturday to repeat as champions.

“To win a tournament's one thing. To win a regular season, it’s a grind and it takes a lot,” head coach Chris MacKenzie said on Friday.

In the series opener, the Huskies jumped BU at Toscano Family Ice Forum. UConn took a 1-0 lead in the first period then blew the game open in the middle stanza with three goals.

Saturday proved to be tougher. The Huskies got on the board 6:44 in courtesy of Ava Rinker but the Terriers answered back to tie the game with 1:13 left in the second period. Needing another goal, UConn’s alternate captain stepped up again. Rinker skated into the zone and sniped a shot from a tough angle to put her side back ahead.

BU pulled the goalie with 3.5 minutes left but couldn’t find the equalizer. Instead, Maya Serdachny flipped the puck out of the Huskies’ defensive zone and Jada Habisch beat a defender to it to score the empty-netter with 2:15 remaining. That sealed the victory for UConn and with it, the regular season title.

The Huskies top Hockey East for the second straight year despite losing some significant pieces from a season ago. Coryn Tormala (the team’s assist leader), Kathryn Stockdale (11 goals, second-most on the squad) and half the defensive corps all departed, leaving MacKenzie and his staff to fill the holes with returners and freshmen.

UConn also dealt with more during the campaign than it did in 2023-24.

“This team has faced more adversity than last year's team,” MacKenzie said. “If it isn't injuries, it's something weird going on. Just the resolve and the resilience they've had is special. It's uncommon. I haven't seen it very much and I'm just — I'm proud.”

Given all that, the Huskies struggled against top competition. They opened the season by being swept at home by Minnesota, then split with Penn State and went 4-6-1 against the other top five teams in Hockey East.

However, UConn took care of business against the bottom of the league, owning a 14-0-1 record against teams 6-10 in the standings. The Huskies also won all three contests against the Terriers.

They finish the regular season 21-11-2 overall and 19-6-2 in Hockey East.

The task doesn’t get any easier from here, though. Despite winning the program’s second regular season crown, UConn is well outside the NCAA Tournament field and need to win the Hockey East Tournament to return to the big dance.

The Huskies will have home ice throughout, though. As the 1-seed, UConn will host in the quarters and semifinals while the championship game is set for Toscano Family Ice Forum regardless.

The Huskies’ postseason begins on Saturday, March 1 against the lowest remaining seed — either Vermont, Holy Cross or Merrimack. The semis will be Wednesday, March 5 while the championship game is scheduled for Saturday, March 8 at noon.

Through 27 games, UConn established itself as the best team in the league. Now, it’ll have to prove that all over again in just three games during the playoffs.