BOSTON — Joey Muldowney had excessive hopes for his first time taking part in at TD Backyard.
The Connecticut sophomore ahead won’t have had visions of hats raining down on him, nevertheless.
However that’s what occurred Thursday evening, as Muldowney led the best way for the Huskies with a hat trick en path to a 5-2 win over Boston College within the Hockey East semifinals.
“It’s positively fairly cool,” Muldowney mentioned. “Truthfully, although, it felt similar to one other recreation. I feel that’s the type of group that we’ve got. We’re successful. It’s simply grow to be a behavior and it’s fairly superior.”
UConn superior to the Hockey East championship recreation for under the second time in program historical past and the primary since 2022. With its first-ever NCAA berth already wrapped up because of its place within the PairWise, fourth-seeded UConn (22-10-4, 14-8-4 Hockey East) now seeks its first Hockey East event title.
The Huskies scored three unanswered targets within the first half of the second interval, together with a highlight-reel strike by Muldowney, his first of the evening. Selecting up a rebound of his personal shot to the left of BU goalie Mikhail Yegorov (19 saves), and along with his skates firmly behind the purpose line, Muldowney backhanded it into the web just below Yegorov’s glove. UConn led 3-1 at 8:42 of the body.
“That stretch within the second interval, within the first 10 minutes, I believed that was in all probability among the finest hockey we’ve performed all 12 months,” UConn coach Mike Cavanaugh mentioned.
Muldowney scored his second of the evening simply over 5 minutes into the third interval to shut the door on the Terriers. Muldowney slammed the puck previous Yegorov’s left skate after Jake Richard snapped a backhanded move throughout the entrance of the web to present UConn a commanding 4-1 lead.
Richard had 4 assists on the evening, none prettier than a second-period move from the Huskies’ left faceoff circle to a wide-open Ryan Tattle at middle ice. Tattle scooped up the puck, skated uncontested into the BU zone and fired the puck previous Yegorov for a 2-1 lead at 2:56.
“All I heard was Tattle screaming for the puck (and) I type of simply threw it there,” Richard mentioned. “He was in a position to catch it properly. Nice end.”
Tristan Fraser obtained UConn on the board lower than a minute into the second interval, following up a rebound of his personal shot for simply his third purpose of the season to tie the sport 1-1.
UConn goalie Callum Tung, making his thirteenth begin of the 12 months, made 25 saves, none prettier than a pad save on a one-timer by BU’s Cole Eiserman early within the third interval throughout a Terrier energy play with the Huskies clinging to a two-goal lead.
BU opened the scoring with a power-play purpose by Quinn Hutson 9:32 of the primary. Hutson faked out his defender excessive within the slot and fired the puck at ice stage simply previous Tung’s left skate and into the again of the web. The Terriers took a 1-0 lead into the break.
“That was a great, old school (butt) kicking,” BU coach Jay Pandolfo mentioned. “That’s what that was. Out-competed, out-battled for each puck. Out-battled on the wall, out-battled within the slot. They performed successful hockey. They wished to win. They wished it a heck of much more than we did.”
Muldowney accomplished his hat trick with an empty-net purpose at 16:12 to make it a 5-1 recreation, and BU’s Kamil Bednarik scored with 10 seconds to play to account for the ultimate rating.
No. 3 BU (21-11-4, 13-9-4) was searching for its first Hockey East event title since 2023. The PairWise already had the Terriers as NCAA worthy. BU will intention for its third straight look within the Frozen 4 and fifth since 2009, the final 12 months it received the NCAA championship.
