UConn men’s hockey takes down Boston College, 5-1

UConn men’s hockey scored four goals in the third period — including three in the final 3:26 — to secure a 5-1 victory over the Boston College Eagles. The Huskies improve to 7-1-1 on the season and 4-1-0 in Hockey East play.

BC scored first but UConn responded with five unanswered goals from Harrison Rees, Hudson Schandor, Ryan Tverberg, who scored a pair, and Adam Dawe. Dawe notched his first goal for the Huskies while Tom Messineo earned his first collegiate point on an assist of Schandor’s tally.

Logan Terness got the start in net and was stellar yet again, stopping 33 of 34 shots — including 16 in the final period — while coming up with clutch saves as well. The Eagles went 1-of-5 on the power play but failed to score on their final four man-advantages — including a long 5-on-3. The Huskies did not convert on any of their five power plays.

Freshman Samu Salminen made his debut after joining the team last week. He had previously been stuck in Finland while awaiting his visa and finally arrived last Friday. Salminen played on the second line with Justin Pearson and Matthew Wood but did not record any stats.

UConn squandered three power plays in the first period and failed to create much danger on the advantages. The Huskies had 10 shots in the opening 20 minutes, though only two really threatened the net — Tverberg had a grade-A chance denied in close while a strong back-check broke up a 2-on-1 with Pearson and Salminen.

On the other end of the ice, Terness made two big saves late in the period. First, he denied a one-timer with a quick save and just moments later, he stopped Nikita Nesterenko on a breakaway.

At the end of one, UConn and BC went into the locker room knotted at 0-0.

After the Huskies had all the man advantages in the opening period, the Eagles got the first opportunity in the second and didn’t waste it. Lukas Gustafsson threaded a pass to Colby Ambrosio in front of the net, who buried it past Terness to put BC up 1-0.

From there, it didn’t get much easier for UConn. The hosts took three more penalties — including two that overlapped to give the Eagles a 54-second 5-on-3 — but held strong on the penalty kill to keep the deficit at one. As it turned out, the Huskies’ poor discipline worked out in their favor.

As Harrison Rees’ hooking penalty expired, UConn cleared the zone and hit him straight out of the box for a breakaway. The defenseman skated in free and beat Eagles goalie Mitch Benson five-hole to tie the game at 1-1.

The two teams went into the final intermission even, but the Huskies didn’t wait long to break the deadlock once the third period began. Messineo sent the puck towards net and Schandor blasted it on-the-fly into the top corner to give UConn its first lead of the day, 2-1.

From there, BC dominated and owned a 13-4 shot advantage at one point in the third period. The Huskies struggled to clear the zone and retain possession but scored against the run of play with 3:26 remaining. Tverberg had a breakaway chance denied but the puck trickled over the line and in to put UConn up 3-1.

Soon after, the Eagles pulled the goalie but the Huskies quickly won back the puck, took it down the ice and eventually found Tverberg for the easy empty-netter to extend the lead to three. UConn added a final tally with 1:32 left when Dawe scored on a shot that deflected off Benson and in to reach the final score of 5-1.

UConn will have the weekend off before returning to action on Friday, Nov. 4 against Maine at the XL Center.