They came in large numbers to PeoplesBank Arena, the most anticipated hockey game of the year. UConn is in a fight for its postseason life, and needed to win to maybe lock something up.
Didn’t happen Friday in Boston, didn’t happen with 10,494 gathered to watch on Saturday. Boston College’s Lukas Gustaffson scored 27 seconds into OT to win the game, 2-1, stun the crowd and send them out sullenly Saturday, without the clean, clear-cut result they came to see, to make way for the Wolf Pack crowd.
“I was a lot happier with our team’s performance (Saturday) than I was (Friday), or last weekend,” UConn coach Mike Cavanaugh said. “I thought we played hard, played smart. Neither team was able to generate a lot of offensive chances. It was a good hockey game back and forth.”
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If the Huskies, who played in the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 2025 and reached the Round of 8, are going to go back, they need to shake off their sluggishness and generate more offense and turn their share of their remaining Hockey East games into victories. A loss and a tie this weekend probably takes UConn (17-9-4, 11-7-2 in conference) out of contention for the regular-season title. They’re at 15th in the NCAA’s Percentage Index (NPI), right on the bubble for an at-large bid.
That’s the bookkeeping end. What the eyeball tells you is the Huskies have been getting outstanding play from goalie Tyler Muszelik, a semifinalist for the Richter Award given to the best in the nation, without enough to show for it.
Things went from bad to worse to stranded by the side of the road for the “Ice Bus” on Friday night. After rallying to tie BC at Conte Forum, the Huskies gave up three and lost, 5-2, as James Hagens, who could be playing for the Bruins sooner than later, was firing missiles and scoring a hat trick.
Then UConn’s bus blew a tire on the Mass Pike, and they were stuck close to two hours before mechanics could reach the scene and fix it. By the time they reached their hotel in Hartford, it was 2:30 a.m., not the best set of circumstances for what could turn out to be a make-or-break game for NCAA Tournament purposes.
“It’s an uncontrollable and our guys are mentally tough enough to work through that,” Cavanaugh said. “We got plenty of sleep. You can’t control referees, can’t control crowds, you can’t control the bus breaking down. We played our best game of the last four.”
Muszelik, who transferred from New Hampshire last season, split the goaltending duties with Callum Tung most of the season. Muszelik was MVP in UConn’s CT Ice victory in 2025, but was on the bench as Tung took over for the postseason. The Rangers signed Tung immediately after the season, and Muszelik returned to be the No.1 goalie at UConn. Though he didn’t win the MVP this time, Muszelik was called “the best player in the ice” by Quinnipiac coach Rand Pecknold after the Huskies repeated in CT Ice.
He never stood taller than last weekend at Maine, winning on Friday, and making 50 saves on Saturday as the Huskies, outshot 53-23, got out of Orono with a tie. He made 26 saves Saturday, stopped a few breakaways to get the crowd chanting “Moooooo” with four times the throats that howl it in games on campus.
“He’s playing great, he’s giving us a chance to win every night,” Cavanaugh said, “and that’s all you can ask from your goaltender. He’s dialed in. He’s putting the work in every week and, hey, for 60 minutes he held that team to one goal.”
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Both UConn and BC are projected as tournament at-large entries, but with a 16-team field, there’s not much margin for error. The Huskies needed a regulation win this weekend, instead came away with one point.
The Eagles (19-10-1, 13-7-0) are healthier and hotter than they’ve been in a while. UConn was 10-2-2 on the road, 6-7-2 at home, but this was not a typical home game, the last of four scheduled for PeoplesBank Arena, which some have taken to calling “The Vault,” where the 15,000 seats were legit two-thirds filled for faceoff, second biggest crowd UConn hockey has brought downtown.
Muszelik made four saves early, then UConn began to control the play and take pressure of their goal. Both teams were called for six penalties in the first period, and at one point the Huskies had a 4-on-3 advantage for 91 seconds. They took advantage of the open ice when Alexandre Blais made a perfect pass across the slot to Kaden Shahan, who ripped the puck past BC’s Louka Cloutier for a 1-0 lead with 8:20 left. UConn killed one penalty, but BC quickly was back on the power play and tied it when Dean Letourneau beat Muszelik from the left circle with 1:06 to go.
The rules of engagement established, there were no penalties in the second period — and no goals. “We all needed to turn the temperature down,” Cavanaugh said. UConn was on the attack more often, but Cloutier withstood all shots, including a point-blank shot from Shahan on a breakaway. The third period was almost identical, and overtime would decide, and it took only 27 seconds.
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UConn has four regular-season games left, two against rising UMass next weekend, then first-place Providence, eight points up on the Huskies, and New Hampshire March 5-6, high-value targets to move up in the NPI. But the Huskies’ offense needs to pick it up, after generating only 22 shots Saturday, and it’s been a month since they’ve had more than 24 in a game.
“I don’t think there is one simple answer,” Cavanaugh said. “We need to get more pucks down from the point. We maybe need to stop trying to score on that shot and just find a stick.”