UConn men’s hockey blasts Vermont, 4-1

UConn men’s hockey opened the 2022-23 season with a decisive 4-1 win at Vermont on Saturday night. The Huskies out-shot the hosts 32-16 and scored two power play goals while killing off both penalties they faced.

Matthew Wood scored the first goal of the season and his career while Ryan Tverberg, Tristan Fraser and Nick Capone all found the back of the net as well. Andrew Lucas recorded two assists against his former team while freshman Tabor Heaslip impressed with five shots on goal in his debut.

Between the pipes, Logan Terness earned the first win of his career by stopping 15 of the 16 shots he faced.

UConn killed a penalty on Justin Pearson less than 90 seconds in without allowing a shot and Vermont quickly returned the favor courtesy of Joel Maatta. On the Huskies’ first power play, they found Tverberg three times in front of net but each of his attempts were kicked away.

Maatta picked up two more penalties in the opening period and on UConn’s third advantage of the day, it finally capitalized. After winning the draw, Andrew Lucas sent a pass to Wood on the backpost, who buried a one-timer to put the Huskies ahead.

The lead didn’t last long, though. A little over a minute later, Pearson turned the puck over next to the goal and Vermont’s Simon Jellus ripped a shot through traffic to even the game at 1-1. That would be the extent of the Catamounts’ offense, though.

In the second period, special teams again came up big for the Huskies. After being denied in front of net on UConn’s first power play, Tverberg finally converted by slipping the puck five-hole through UVM goalie Gabe Carriere.

The Huskies took that one-goal lead into the third period but quickly put the game away once the final 20 minutes began. Fraser notched his first collegiate goal thanks to a wild bounce from the puck that slipped past Carriere undetected. Twenty-seven seconds later, Capone added another with a top-left snipe from his knee to put UConn up 4-1.

With a comfortable lead in hand, the Huskies managed the final 18 minutes without much trouble outside of one penalty in the final minutes, which it killed without much trouble.

UConn moves to 1-0-0 on the season and in Hockey East play with the win. It’ll return to action on Saturday at 4 p.m. to finish up the series at Vermont. ESPN+ will broadcast the action from Gutterson Fieldhouse.