I hate to step on Christian’s toes, but since I attended this game, I felt inclined to share my thoughts on the performance of both teams and its implications for them as part of this very chaotic and unpredictable early stage of the 2023-24 Hockey East/NCAA D1 season.

These two teams entered this game in very different situations. UMass Lowell’s interconference performance in the first few weeks of the year was outstanding, going 3-1 via an OT loss and regulation win over Alaska Anchorage and 2 regulation wins over Colgate, with a +5 goal differential. UConn entered with a win and tie over Colgate, two losses against Holy Cross, and a win and loss to Union to their name, along with a +1 GD. UConn needed the intraconference victory in their Hockey East opener badly to get some optimism going for the group. UML, meanwhile, were looking to make an impact on the conference after the solid start to the year.

A UMass Lowell lead was kept throughout much of the game, with a one-timer by D Mitchell Becker past Connecticut G Arseni Sergeyev off an assist by F Stefan Becker with 6:06 remaining in the first period being the difference maker through most of the game’s runtime. UConn threatened in the opening stanza with a couple of great chances in the last minute that UML G Luke Pavicich was able to glove and turn aside as he faced sustain pressure during the PK for F Alex Peterson’s cross-check in what ended up being a busy night for him and the UML defensive core (he’d end the night with 40 saves). The Huskies further had opportunities on the power play in the second, with some brief time spent 5-on-3 (in a very physical and sometimes chippy matchup that sent the home team to the box fairly often) in particular yielding some great looks, but to no avail, as UML did a fantastic job picking up the trash and making clearances. However, UConn’s ability to exploit open space would eventually win out during a 6-on-4 that came via Sergeyev being pulled for the extra attacker at the time of Lowell D TJ Schweighardt’s tripping penalty, as LW/C Chase Bradley found the back of the net via assists from D Andrew Lucas and RW Jake Richard with just 1:15 remaining in regulation. This conceded goal by UML came after the Riverhawks had killed yet another, slightly longer stretch of 5-on-3 thanks to F Dillan Bentley and D Isac Jonsson going to the sin bin for tripping and hooking, respectively. Ironically, the Riverhawks had the Huskies beat at the faceoff dot, 34 to 28, but lost the possession battle. In the long run, this and poor discipline caused them to lose the game, as well. With 1:20 left in the 5-minute 3-on-3 OT, with Lucas drilling one home past Pavicich on a pass by C Hudson Schandor. In the long run, UConn won the battle of attrition and got the win that they sought and that any team that out-shoots their opponents 42 to 29 hopes for. It was a tough pill to swallow for the home team and their fans to lose the home opener and the first Hockey East matchup of the series and bliss for a team hoping to get a good seed for the conference tournament, as their at-large bid hopes are looking shot at this point due to their poor opening interconference outings.

These two teams face each other again tonight (10/28) in Storrs as the other end of the home-and-home series. If it’s anything like this one, it’ll be a heavy-hitting matchup with plenty of scoring chances yet effectively amounting to a not dull defensive chess match. Players to watch include Huskies LW/C Matthew Wood (who’s still looking for his offensive productivity this year somewhat as he’s tailed off this year relative to his D0 year which resulted in him being drafted 15th overall by the Nashville Predators, but appeared strong and confident on the puck and aggressive as he unleashed a game-high 8 shots on net while operating as a driving force for the offense, which makes me think his scoring and creation touches will come soon), the aforementioned Richard (performing at a point-per-pace game as a freshman so far after tonight’s assist), UML C/RW Matt Crasa (still looking determined offensively after his four goal game against Colgate), and Pavicich (I mean, do I need to say why?). UML is gonna try to strike back on this one, as, while out-shot, they did create chances to put this away while keeping UConn at bay and playing tight defense but were not able to convert on them. In fact, such an occurrence came on a 3-on-1 odd-man rush in overtime that they lamentably did not make a play on. If they get just a bit more puck luck in a similar collision with the Huskies and exercise more killer instinct on the attack, I have no doubt they will win the rematch.