UConn men’s hockey takes down Yale, 6-1

UConn men’s hockey had little trouble dispatching Yale in the Connecticut Ice tournament opener in M&T Bank Arena in Hamden, Connecticut Friday evening. The Huskies won 6-1 to advance to play Quinnipiac in Saturday’s final.

After a rush of chances in the early part of the first period, UConn got on the board first with a power-play goal, one of three on the night. Justin Pearson pushed in a rebound at the net to make it a 1-0 game eight minutes in. With 2:17 left, Ryan Tverberg made it 2-0 on a nice individual play, skating around a defender to give himself an open look at the net, and fired it in.

The Huskies blew it open in the second period. Matthew Wood sniped one from the inside zone on the power play to quickly make it 3-0 and Samu Salminen finished a nice set of passes to put a second straight power-play goal in the net and make it 4-0. Roman Kinal and Jake Veilleux added some extra insurance with goals in the final minutes of the second period to turn this one into a 6-0 laugher after 40 minutes.

Yale got on the board after a Chase Bradley game misconduct led to a 5-minute major and a goal that the Bulldogs put in off a rebound as the time expired on their man advantage. That would be the end of the scoring as the rest of the final period went on uneventfully.

Next up, the Huskies return to this arena to play the CT Ice final at 7 p.m. in a game that will be televised on SNY. Quinnipiac defeated Sacred Heart 5-0 on Friday night and is ranked No. 3 in the country. The Bobcats will present a real challenge, particularly on their home ice, while the Huskies will be riding a three-game winning streak.