No. 17 UConn men’s hockey routs No. 11 Ohio State, 6-1

UConn men’s hockey earned a series win over the No. 11 Ohio State Buckeyes with a 6-1 victory on Saturday.

The five-goal blowout is the Huskies’ largest margin of victory against a ranked opponent in the team’s Hockey East Era. UConn improves to 5-0-1 on the year, the best start in program history.

Ty Amonte found the back of the net twice while Matthew Wood, Ryan Tverberg, Jake Percival, and Jake Flynn all scored as well. Wood added a pair of assists for a game-high three points.

Coming in, Ohio State goalie Jakub Dobes had never allowed a goal to UConn in his previous three appearances against the Huskies. On Saturday, he allowed five goals before being pulled in the third period. On the other end, UConn goalie Arsenii Sergeev stopped 28 of the 29 shots he faced.

Together, Sergeev and Logan Terness — who started in goal for the Huskies on Friday night — made a combined 71 saves and allowed just a single goal.

For most of the first period, the scoreless deadlock carried over from Friday night. UConn hit the post twice in the early going but outside of that, neither team generated much danger around the net. Both sides had short power plays that sandwiched 4-on-4 hockey but even the extra ice didn’t help spark any offense.

Finally, the Huskies broke through. Wood drew a penalty after the whistle, which gave UConn its first full power play of the game. Even though the Huskies didn’t capitalize on the advantage, it set up the first goal. Six seconds after the penalty expired — and before Ohio State’s Tyler Duke re-joined the play after leaving the box — Andrew Lucas threaded a beautiful pass from behind the net to Wood, who one-timed it home for the lead.

UConn didn’t stay in front long, though. After the goal, Ohio State woke up and locked the Huskies in their own zone. After multiple failed clearances — and a shot off the post — the Buckeyes wouldn’t be denied. The puck found Kamil Sadlocha in front of the net and he tapped it into the back of the net to tie the game with 1:03 left in the first period.

The intermission didn’t do much to slow down the offense. Less than four minutes in, Wood took it toward the net and bounced a shot off Dobes. The rebound found Amonte, who shoveled a rebound off the post and in. 1:20 later, Tverberg picked the puck up while speeding into the zone, put a deke on Dobes, and finished a backhander to double UConn’s lead.

For the second time, the two sides played 4-on-4 after dual penalties. Sergeev preserved the two-goal lead on an impressive save where he stuffed a wrap-around attempt and then got across the crease to block the rebound attempt. Not long after, Ohio State got its first real power play of the day when Tom Messineo went to the box for cross-checking. But UConn’s penalty kill drained the two minutes without a problem.

The Huskies once again didn’t waste any time expanding their lead once the third period began. Hudson Schandor ripped a shot from the side of net that Dobes stopped and then lost track of. The puck appeared to be around Dobes’ pads but the officials never blew the play dead, so Percival skated in and knocked it home to give UConn a 4-1 lead.

From there, the Huskies continued to pile on. Amonte added his second goal of the night when he put home a rebound off a Justin Pearson shot, which chased Dobes from the game. Less than 90 seconds later, Jake Flynn hammered a one-timer past Ryan Snowden off a feed from Nick Capone to make it a 6-1 game.

UConn managed the final nine minutes to come away with the five-goal win. After the 0-0 tie on Friday night, the Huskies secured the series victory on Saturday.

Next, UConn will hit the road for a two-game series at Boston University next weekend.

UConn goals