ORONO, Maine — The University of Connecticut has had a lot of success against the University of Maine in recent years and it continued again on Friday night.
Sophomore right wing Joey Muldowney had all four goals and the 17th-rankled Huskies earned their seventh win in the last nine meetings with a 4-2 victory over the Black Bears at Alfond Arena on Friday night.
UMaine came into the game ranked fifth in one poll and sixth in the other.
Muldowney staked the Huskies to 1-0 and 2-1 leads with UMaine’s Charlie Russell and Nolan Renwick answering.
But Muldowney scored the game-winner with 8:18 remaining in the game as he was set up all alone in the middle of the slot by Hudson Schandor from behind the net and he snapped a one-timer past UMaine goalie Albin Boija.
He added an empty-net goal and now has 12 on the season.
The youthful Huskies outplayed UMaine for two periods, creating the better scoring chances and limiting UMaine’s forecheck time and effectiveness.
UMaine played better in the third period but couldn’t overcome the one-goal deficit.
UConn improved to 12-8-1 and 7-6-1 in Hockey East. UMaine fell to 15-5-2 and 7-3-2.
The teams will play Saturday at 7 p.m.
“For large portions of the game, we got outworked,” said UMaine coach Ben Barr, whose team has now lost two of its last three home games after going 8-0-1 in its first nine. “It may be the first time it has happened this year. Whether we win or lose, we pride ourselves in not getting outworked.”
He said a number of mistakes were made on the game-winning goal.
“We weren’t mentally sharp tonight. We weren’t all week in practice,” Barr said. “Simple, simple mistakes you can’t be making this time of the year. They cost you the game.”
Muldowney opened the scoring on the power play eight minutes into the game.
John Spetz partially fanned on a shot from the left point but the puck stayed in front of him and he slid a pass to Muldowney on the inner half of the left circle.
Muldowney wristed the puck through the pads of Boija from 25 feet out.
UConn had a decided edge in play but the Black Bears were able to tie it off one of their few good chances of the period.
Owen Fowler’s shot deflected to Sully Scholle in the right faceoff circle.
Scholle flipped a backhander toward the net and it hit Russell’s body and stick and glanced into the short side corner.
It was Russell’s fifth goal of the season and snapped an eight-game goalless drought.
Russell was injured late in the second period and didn’t return.
Muldowney regained the lead just 1:10 into the second period off a two-on-one as he carried the puck down the left wing and fired the puck past Boija.
Renwick tied it 3:58 into the third period with a terrific rink-length rush and wrister off the left post and in behind UConn goalie Tyler Muszelik for his seventh goal of the season.
“We brought it in the third period but it was too late,” said UMaine senior defenseman and co-captain David Breazeale. “We’ve got to be able to play those first two periods with as much urgency as we did in the third period.”
He said UConn was fast and the players committed to their game.
“They were chipping pucks out (of the defensive zone). They weren’t turning pucks over at blue lines. They were confident and had a ton of energy,” Breazeale said. “They had a lot of juice in those first two periods and we didn’t match it as well as we should have.”
Muszelik finished with 26 saves and Boija wound up with 21.
UConn coach Mike Cavanaugh said he was pleased with his team’s effort.
“It was a pretty even game. We got big goals. When they tied it, we got another one. When they tied it, we got another one,” Cavanaugh said. “I was happy with the way we defended the five on six (after UMaine pulled Boija in favor of the extra attacker). We were able to get in the lanes and block some shots.”
One of the biggest moments of the game came early in the third period, Cavanaugh said, when Fowler had a breakaway only to have Muszelik close his pads to make the save as Fowler tried to beat him five-hole with UConn leading 2-1.
“That was a big, big save,” Cavanaugh said.