ORONO, Maine — The University of Maine’s offensive woes at Alfond Arena continued on Friday night.
Senior goalie Tyler Muszelik made 32 saves and the Huskies received goals from junior right wing Joey Muldowney in the first period and a third-period goal by junior right wing Ethan Gardula to deal the Black Bears their fifth consecutive Hockey East loss at Alfond Arena.
UMaine hadn’t lost four league games in a row at Alfond Arena since the 2015-16 season.
The teams will play again Saturday at 7.
UMaine played well and outshot UConn 32-20 including a 24-10 edge over the final two periods but University of New Hampshire transfer Muszelik was outstanding and his teammates did a good job limiting UMaine’s rebound opportunities.
UMaine freshman Mathis Rousseau made 18 stops.
The 11th-ranked Huskies improved to 17-7-3 overall and 11-5-1 in Hockey East play. UConn has now won six of its last seven games.
UMaine lost its third game in a row and is now 14-12-2 and 8-10, respectively.
The Black Bears, who were without leading scorer Justin Poirier due to injury, have now scored a dismal five goals in their five home Hockey East losses this season.
UMaine hasn’t won a league game at home since a 7-0 win over Vermont on Nov. 14, 2025.
Both teams went 0-for-5 on the power play and UMaine has now scored just one power play goal on its last 27 chances.
“It’s a struggle but I thought the effort was a positive,” said UMaine head coach Ben Barr. “At this point, that’s really what you’re gauging your game on. Hopefully, we can find a way to pop one or two here and there.
“It’s hard to score this time of the year. We’ve got a lot of guys learning it the hard way,” added Barr. “These are things we take lessons from and hopefully learn something every game.”
The Black Bears had impressively killed three penalties in the first period including a lengthy two-man advantage that spanned 1:49 and would have taken some momentum into the first intermission only to have Muldowney break the scoreless tie with just 1:03 remaining.
Ryan Tattle cleanly beat UMaine’s Max Scott on a face-off to the left of Rousseau and Muldowney wasted no time snapping a wrister past Rousseau off the far post and into the net.
It was his team-high 14th goal of the season and fifth in his last three games at Alfond Arena.
He had all four UConn goals in a 4-2 victory over the Black Bears on Jan. 17, 2025.
UConn outshot UMaine 10-8 in the first period.
Each team had a pair of power play chances in the second period but neither was able to convert.
UConn came very close to extending its lead in the middle period during a wild flurry in which the Huskies hit the post.
UMaine had a 10-5 edge in shots on goal and Muszelik came up with a good stop off an in-tight chance by Sully Scholle who was set up by Charlie Russell and got off a quick wrist shot from the middle of the low slot after reaching out to corral the puck.
Gardula gave the Huskies an important insurance goal with 10:37 remaining.
Seconds after Rousseau made a breakaway save while the Black Bears were on the power play courtesy of a Gardula penalty, UConn’s Tattle got control of the puck in the defensive zone and fed the puck to Gardula, who had just emerged from the penalty box.
Gardula broke in alone on Rousseau and tucked the puck between the goalie’s pads.
It was Gardula’s ninth goal of the season.
‘Those type of things can’t happen. Those are just mental errors,” said Barr. “You have to know a guy is coming out of the box and get back.”
He said when a team is struggling, every moment matters like the faceoff that produced their first goal and the mistakes that led to the insurance goal.
“Outside of those few moments, we had plenty of chances. It is what it is,” added Barr. “Manufacturing offense is not something we’ve been good at this year.”