No. 14 UConn men’s hockey falls to No. 9 BU, 5-2

UConn men’s hockey is unbeaten no more. On Saturday, the Huskies fell to the No. 9 Boston University Terriers 5-2 for their first loss of the season. UConn drops four of six possible points on the weekend and falls to 6-1-1 on the season.

The Huskies were out-shot 43-26 and set a season-high with eight penalties. In goal, Arsenii Sergeev had his first off-night of the season. He stopped 23 of 26 shots but struggled with positioning and body control on the Terriers’ goals.

Ryan Tverberg scored UConn’s two goals, giving him the team lead with five on the season. The Huskies went 1-for-5 on the power play and 5-of-6 on the penalty kill.

For the second night in a row, UConn struggled to find offense in the first period. The Huskies had a stretch of zone time in the opening minute where Justin Pearson put a dangerous re-direct on net but aside from that, the chances were few and far between.

BU owned possession and kept the puck in its offensive zone for most of the first 20 minutes. The Terriers struck first when Lane Hutson flipped a rebound in front of goal past Sergeev, who had come well outside the crease after stopping a few shots moments earlier. At the first intermission, BU had a 16-4 advantage in shots.

Just 1:16 into the second period, the Terriers doubled the lead. UConn turned the puck over behind the net and Wilmer Skoog found Matt Brown for a one-timer that deflected off Sergeev and in. The Huskies’ offense continued to sputter through their first power play of the day but caught a break when BU was called for too many man on the ice right after a previous penalty ended, giving UConn a second advantage.

This time, the Huskies capitalized. Andrew Lucas and Hudson Schandor set up Tverberg in the slot, who sent it into the back of the net to get UConn on the board. From there, the offense started to wake up. The Huskies had more zone time, put more shots on net and created more dangerous chances.

Then, they undid it all with three consecutive penalties. First, Roman Kinal went to the box for interference and 19 second later, Sergeev was whistled for roughing. With a long 5-on-3 power play, BU took advantage as Brown drilled a back-door shot home to double the hosts’ lead. The Huskies killed the two penalties afterwards, but the damage was done by that point.

UConn had a power play that straddled the end of the second and start of the third period but it couldn’t capitalize. Shortly after it expired, the Terriers found the dagger. On a 3v1 rush for the home side up the ice, Sergeev made a spectacular save to stop the initial shot but the rebound found Dylan Peterson, who slotted it home to give BU the 4-1 lead.

Tverberg buried a breakaway chance with 4:21 left to get UConn back to within two, but it proved to be too little, too late. With 3:35 left, Chase Bradley took a minor penalty for kneeing which all but sunk the Huskies’ chances. BU added an empty netter in the final seconds to seal the three-goal victory.

While the series is a split record-wise — UConn and BU both take a victory — the overtime result on Friday meant the Terriers secured one point and took all three on Saturday for the four-point weekend.

Next, the Huskies return home on Thursday to take on Boston College at the XL Center. Puck drop is set for 7:05 p.m. ET on ESPN+.