No. 14 UConn men’s hockey beats No. 9 BU in overtime, 4-3

No. 14 UConn men’s hockey remained undefeated with a 4-3 overtime victory over the No. 9 Boston University Terriers. On a rush up the ice, Andrew Lucas sniped a shot past BU goalie Vinny Duplessis to notch the game-winning goal less than a minute into the extra period.

It was the first goal of Lucas’ UConn career as the Huskies improved to 6-0-1 on the season. As an overtime victory, UConn picked up two of three possible points.

Along with Lucas, Nick Capone, Ryan Tverberg and Tristan Fraser all scored for the Huskies. Lucas added an assist on Capone’s goal for a two-point night. In goal, Logan Terness stopped 27 of 30 shots and picked up his third victory of the season.

On special teams, UConn went 1-of-5 on the power play but the penalty kill allowed its first goal of the season as part of a 1-of-5 effort.

Offense proved to be hard to come by early on as neither team recorded a single shot through four minutes, but UConn made its first chance count. On their first shot of the game, Capone drilled a one-timer home off a pass from Lucas to put the Huskies up 1-0.

From there, the tide turned in favor of the home team. The Terriers tied the game when Case McCarthy buried a shot from the blue line that Terness never saw. On the same play, John Spetz got called for interference, which put BU on the power play immediately following the score. UConn killed it off but even after the sides returned to even strength, the Terriers maintained pressure in their offensive zone.

In the final minutes of the period, Jamie Armstrong collected a loose puck in front of the goal and sent it past Terness to put BU up 2-1. The Huskies put together a strong shift after going down but couldn’t break through in the final 90 seconds before intermission.

The second period proved to be all UConn. On its first power play of the day, UConn tied the game with a beautiful tic-tac-toe play that set up Tverberg for an easy goal on the back post. The Huskies had three more chances with the extra skater but couldn’t break through to re-take the lead despite 10 shots on net.

On the defensive end, UConn suffocated the hosts. The Terriers generated just three shots on goal in the entire period — none of which came on their two power plays — as the Huskies had a 14-shot advantage in the middle stanza.

UConn finally found the elusive go-ahead goal shortly after the intermission. After a face-off win, Fraser slipped a rebound past Duplessis to give the Huskies a 3-2 advantage with 17:56 left to go.

The lead wouldn’t hold, though. After starting the season a perfect 26 of 26 on the penalty kill, BU finally broke through. On a scramble around the net, Jeremy Wilmer flipped the puck off the back of Terness’ leg and into the goal to even the score at 3-3 with 6:19 remaining. The Terriers had a second power play opportunity later in the period but couldn’t convert.

With both teams tied at 3-3 after regulation, the game went into a 3-on-3 overtime. BU dominated possession initially before Lucas picked up the puck at UConn’s blue line, skated through the neutral zone and into the offensive zone unbothered and picked out the top-left corner to give the Huskies the win. BU had three players around him but never pressured him.

With the win, UConn improves to 3-0-0 in Hockey East play. The Huskies will go for the sweep tomorrow night in the second game of the series at Agganis Arena. Puck drop is set for 7:00 p.m. on ESPN+.

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