UConn Men’s Hockey Falls to Boston College, 4-0

The UConn men’s hockey team’s woes continued as the Huskies fell 4-0 to the Boston College Eagles at the XL Center. It is UConn’s sixth-straight loss and their seventh in eight games.

Here’s how it went down.

Pregame:

UConn Lines:

BC Lines:

First Period:

14:04: Both teams send players to the box and will play 4-on-4 for two minutes. UConn’s Ryan Wheeler gets whistled for slashing while BC’s JD Dudek got caught for embellishment.

14:53: Boston College gets on the scoreboard first. Julius Mattila gets behind the defense and beats Adam Huska with an impressive move. Eagles lead, 1-0.

Recap: It was a quiet period without either team getting dangerous shots on net. UConn controlled the game and held the puck in their attacking zone for the most part. However, they struggled to find the back of the net.

Each team got hit with a penalty, which led to them playing 4-on-4 for two minutes. Boston College took advantage of the extra space, slotting a pass behind the defense to Julius Mattila, who put a move on Huska and beat him to give the Eagles a 1-0 lead.

UConn nearly tied the game in the final seconds of the period, but Ruslan Iskhakov’s shot was blocked by Boston College goaltender Joseph Woll.

Second Period:

1:08: UConn gets an early power play opportunity as BC’s Christopher Brown goes to the box for tripping.

6:19: First penalty kill of the night for the Huskies after Roman Kinal gets called for holding.

7:24: Boston College strikes again. Logan Hutsko rips a one-timer into the net to give the Eagles a 2-0 lead. Huska was slow the close the angle and left the goal wide-open.

16:07: Justin Howell puts a big hit on a BC player at the end of the ice and will go to the box for it. Officials reviewed the play and deemed it as just a minor penalty for boarding.

16:42: Boston College takes advantage of the power play again to go up 3-0. David Cotton put a pass from the near-side across the crease to a streaking Julius Mattila, who just tapped it into the open net.

19:31: Both teams put players in the box after a post-whistle scrum behind the net. Adam Karashik is the guilty part for UConn.

Recap: After a solid first period of play, things came unraveled for the Huskies in the second period. UConn got a power play early in the period, but couldn’t do much with the extra skater.

Five minutes later, Boston College had much more success on the power play. Casey Fitzgerald sent a puck across the front of the net to Logan Hutsko, who ripped a one-timer into the goal before Huska could close the angle.

The Eagles added to their lead later in the period on yet another power play. UConn struggled to mark in the zone as Boston College passed their way to the net, capped off by a perfect pass from David Cotton to Julius Mattila, who just directed the puck into the open goal.

The Huskies struggled to generate much offense during the period, putting just 5 shots on net.

Third Period:

11:20: Third off-setting penalty of the night. UConn has pulled Adam Huska as well which is an interesting move with over 8 minutes left to play.

12:48: Huska back into goal.

15:27: UConn on the power play after Oliver Wahlstrom gets called for tripping. Huska to the bench.

16:32: Julius Matilla gets a hat-trick on the night with a short-handed empty-netter. BC leads 4-0.

After failing to generate much offense in the second period, UConn’s offense continued to struggle in the final period. Their best chance came off the stick of Benjamin Freeman, whose shot went off the iron. Besides that, the Huskies didn’t do much to cut into the deficit.

Head coach Mike Cavanaugh tried to spark some offense by pulling Huska in a 4-on-4 situation with over 8 minutes left, but the move was unsuccessful. Huska returned to the ice a few minutes later, but returned to the bench after UConn went on the power play.

Despite being down two skaters, Boston College still put the final nail in the coffin, scoring an empty netter to take a 4-0 lead.