UConn men’s hockey blasted by Cornell, 6-0

UConn men’s hockey played its worst game of the season in a 6-0 loss to the Cornell Big Red in the Frozen Apple at Madison Square Garden on Saturday night.

The Huskies looked disinterested from the opening face-off, found themselves down 3-0 at the first intermission and never put up much of a fight. It’s their first non-conference loss of the season and just third overall as they fall to 10-3-3.

Logan Terness got the start in goal and only stopped 24 of 30 shots, though he didn’t get much help in front of him. UConn put 27 shots on target itself and went 0/4 on the power play.

It didn’t take Cornell long to go ahead. The Big Red found the opening goal just 32 seconds in and added a second at the 1:14 mark. UConn struggled to clear the puck from its zone and had nothing to speak of on offense for most of the first period.

The Huskies started to find their footing after Andrew Lucas had a breakaway attempt turned away. John Spetz quickly followed that up with the team’s third shot on goal and soon after, Ryan Tverberg crashed the net for another attempt.

The momentum didn’t stay on UConn’s side, though. Cornell added another with 3:28 left in the period and then killed off the Huskies’ first power play attempt to take a 3-0 lead into the intermission.

UConn nearly got itself on the board on a wrap-around from Tverberg in the first minute of the second but, the junior was denied. A few minutes later, the Huskies went on their second power play but again failed to capitalize.

The Big Red wouldn’t have the same problem. They added to their lead when Zach Tupker took the puck behind the net and found Dalton Bancroft, who fired the puck past Terness. Less than two minutes later, Bancroft scored against when he deflected a shot from Sam Malinksi on Cornell’s second power play of the day. The hosts added another goal in the final minutes of the third period to bring the scoreline to the 6-0 final.

UConn won’t have to wait long to get back on the ice. It’ll return to Hockey East play on Tuesday with a trip up to Merrimack.