The UW men's ice hockey team secured the No. 8 seed in the Hockey East with a resounding 5-1 victory over the Vermont Catamounts on Thursday night and advanced to the Toscano Family Stadium in Storrs, Conn. He delighted the home fans at the Ice Forum. As the No. 8 seed, the team will have home ice advantage in the first round of the Hockey East Tournament.
Icebath started attacking early in the first period. Sophomore Sam Salminen won the faceoff on Vermont's side of the ice and kicked the puck into the back of the Catamounts' net. Salminen recovered the spilled puck and left a drop pass to Matthew Wood. Wood crashed into the goal, narrowly beating Vermont goaltender Gabe Carriere. It was sophomore Wood's 12th goal of the season.
Connecticut added another point in the 11th minute of the period. Nick Capone beat a Catamount defender with a look from inside the faceoff circle and narrowly missed the goal. Freshman Joey Muldowney corralled a miss from the corner, circled to the middle of the ice and fired a quick shot from 10 feet inside the blue line. Carriere pushed the puck into the top left corner of the goal, allowing Muldany to score his third goal of the season and extend University's lead to 2-0. The Huskies held the advantage going into the first period intermission.
Wood continued to lead the Connecticut offense with more goals in the second period. Eight minutes into the period, Wood crossed the blue line and attempted to feed Ryan Tuttle, who crashed in front of the Catamount goal. The pass was deflected by a Vermont defender, but the puck quickly bounced back to Wood, who quickly controlled the rebound and took a shot from close range. He beat Carriere for the second time with his 13th goal of the season, increasing the lead against the Huskies to 3-0.
Vermont isn't going away easily. In the ensuing faceoff, the Catamounts' Joel Metta recovered the spilled puck and passed it to forward Jens Richards just in front of University goaltender Arseniy Sergeyev. Sergeyev managed to deflect a shot from Richards, but the force sent him to the ground and he couldn't recover in time to get back on his feet, allowing Isak Walther to tap in the rebound. This was the junior's fifth goal of the season. The puck remained in the middle of the ice as the second period ended with UConn holding his 3-1 advantage.
Ice Bath got a feel for it in the 6th minute of the third period. Freshman Oliver Flynn crossed a pass to Tabor Heaslip behind the Vermont goal, turned around and spotted Tristan Frazier near the faceoff circle. Fraser was patient until a Catamount defender passed in front of him, then used the space vacated to fire a shot towards the right post of the goal. This was Frazier's seventh point of the season, giving University another three point advantage and making the score 4-1.
As time began to wind down, Vermont pulled its goaltender in favor of an additional skater. The Huskies were able to take advantage with just over two minutes left in the period, as Heaslip tracked a loose puck toward the Catamount goal. He returned the pass to the middle of the ice, where Muldani found the net and took a shot from close range. His fifth goal of the season gave Ice Bath a commanding 5-1 lead, which was made official when the final buzzer sounded.
Despite managing just one score, Vermont actually outscored UConn 26-25 throughout the game. Sergeyev had 25 saves in net for Connecticut, compared to 21 for Carriere in Vermont. Both teams went 0-3 on power play chances and each committed three minor penalties. UW won more faceoffs on his 34-to-28 mark and had more blocks on his 11-to-7 mark.
With the win, Connecticut State enters tied with the Catamounts for the No. 8 seed in the Hockey East. The loss drops Vermont to the No. 9 seed in the conference and will return to Storrs, where the Huskies will host Wednesday's opener.
Nick Spinali is a staff writer for The Daily Campus. He can be reached via email at nicholas.spinali@uconn.edu.