HARTFORD – Travis Blanleil scored a pair of goals and
Brendan Bradley slotted home the game-winning goal with less than five minutes left to power Vermont past UConn 4-2 on Friday night at the XL Center. The Catamounts improve to 10-14-2 (4-7-2 HEA), while the Huskies fall to 8-14-2 (4-8-2 HEA).
With the score tied at two late in the third period,
Mario Puskarich carried the puck into the right side of the Huskies' zone and fired a wrist shot on target. Puskarich's second attempt was kicked out by UConn netminder Tanner Cheel, but Bradley followed to put the Catamounts ahead for good with his seventh tally in the last 12 games.
Blanleil's second goal of the night came with an empty net at 19:18 to seal the victory.
Packy Munson stopped 22 saves to collect his sixth win of the year in the Catamount net.
RELATED LINKSCatamounTV HighlightsBox Score UConn opened the scoring just past the midway point of the first period as Shawn Pauly fed Joseph Masonius down the right wing. Masonius quickly centered a pass to Max Letunov, who deked backhand and roofed a shot under the crossbar for his 10
th of the year.
Creel stopped 13 shots in the first period to preserve the 1-0 cushion. The sophomore robbed Blanleil on a shorthanded one-timer, then made a shoulder stop on another shorthanded 2-on-1 rush from
Jarrid Privitera. The Catamounts held a 13-7 shot advantage after 20 minutes.
UVM stormed back in the second period to take its first lead with a pair of goals in 28 seconds. At the 10:30 mark,
Chris Muscoby sent a dump-in around the left wing boards, and the puck took a deflection off a stanchion in the corner into the right corner of the net. Blanleil then buried a rebound at the top of the crease with a backhand inside the left post at 10:58.
Munson made a couple of positional saves near the end of the period, including a point-blank chest stop on Letunov at the edge of the crease. Vermont limited UConn to just five shots on goal in the middle frame.
Tage Thompson knotted the score with seven minutes remaining in the third with a weak-angle backhander on the power play, but Bradley's eighth of the year restored the UVM lead. The Catamounts finished with a 34-24 advantage in shots, registering at least 30 shots for the 16
th time in the last 19 contests.
Vermont travels to the Mullins Center in Amherst, Massachusetts on Saturday (Jan. 23) to face the UMass Minutemen at 7 p.m. Live pay-per-view video is available at UMassAthletics.com, and pre-game radio coverage begins at 6:30 p.m. on WVMT 620-AM, SportsJuice.com, and the TuneIn Radio app with
Alastair Ingram and Andy Merritt on the call.