Uconn, Providence tie twice in top 10 matchup
Huskies bring home two points with shootout victory
Two ties and two shootouts is about what could have been expected between two top-10 teams in a weekend home-andhome series featuring No. 7 Uconn and No. 9 Providence.
In one of the top Hockey East matchups of the season so far, the Huskies and Friars played to a 1-1 tie on Friday night at Providence, with the Huskies winning the shootout, 1-0. The two then played to a 6-6 tie on Saturday at the XL Center with Uconn again winning the shootout, this time 2-1.
The games count as ties in the standings but the Huskies pick up two points on the weekend for the shootout wins. It’s those two points that now separate first-place Uconn (6-1-2, 9-1-3, 20 points) from second-place Merrimack and Northeastern in the Hockey East standings. PC (4-0-3, 6-2-3, 15 points) is in fourth.
Following Friday’s defensive battle in which both teams scored in the third period, the offenses unloaded on Saturday.
The Friars quickly took a 2-0 lead with goals in the first 5:17 and would increase the advantage to 3-0 before Ryan Tverberg got Uconn on the board late in the opening period. The Huskies would tie the game in the second on goals from John Spetz and Matthew Wood.
After PC regained the lead, Justin Pearson - who scored Uconn’s lone goal on Friday night - tied it again with 1:17 remaining in the second. Pearson would soon after be charged with a five-minute major penalty for boarding that led to two Providence goals and a 6-4 lead early in the third. The Huskies answered late with two power play goals, the first by Samu Salminen and second by Tverberg with five seconds remaining to force the tie.
Logan Terness had 35 saves in goal for Uconn on Friday while Arsenii Sergeev had 26 saves in allowing all six goals on Saturday.