UConn men’s hockey falls at UNH, 4-1

UConn men’s hockey lost to New Hampshire on Friday night at the Whittemore Center, 4-1. The Huskies put in a low-energy effort as they fell behind 2-0 in the first period and never recovered.

Hudson Schandor scored UConn’s lone goal while Logan Terness started in goal and made 28 saves on 30 shots. The Huskies went 2-for-2 on the penalty kill but came up empty on their lone power play. They had an opportunity to tie the game with a power play in the final minutes but UNH added a pair of empty netters to seal the victory.

The loss drops UConn to 17-9-3 on the season (11-7-2 Hockey East) and almost certainly kills the team’s hopes of an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament.

The Wildcats drew first blood courtesy of a penalty shot. Roman Kinal blasted a shot into the skate of UNH’s Chase Stevenson, who broke free the other way. As Kinal chased him from behind, the officials whistled him for interference and awarded the Wildcats a penalty shot. Stevenson buried the attempt to give the hosts a 1-0 less than three minutes in.

With less than two minutes remaining in the opening period, Stevenson scored again to double UNH’s lead off a rebound that Terness had no chance at stopping. It was 2-0 after the first period.

After struggling offensively in the first period, UConn picked it up in the second. Six minutes in, Justin Pearson threaded a beautiful pass in front of net to Schandor, who knocked it home to get the Huskies on the board. They continued to apply pressure in the offensive zone and had multiple grade-A chances, including a pair of re-directs in front of the net and a backdoor shot by Andrew Lucas — that were turned away.

UConn played most of the third period in the opponents’ zone but couldn’t find the game-tying goal. The Huskies put eight shots on net and 19 attempts overall in the final 20 minutes, but nothing too dangerous.

UNH notched an empty netter with 1:12 left and then added another with less than a second to go to make it a 4-1 win.

The Huskies will look to avoid the weekend sweep at 4 p.m. on Saturday.