FINAL SCORE: #8 UConn 4, Vermont 1
BURLINGTON, Vt. – Joey Muldowney had two goals and an assist Thursday night leading No. 8 UConn (20-10-4, 12-8-4 HEA) to a 4-1 win over Vermont (11-19-3, 6-15-2 HEA) in Hockey East action from Gutterson Fieldhouse on Vermont Night presented by Vermont Federal Credit Union.
 
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HOW IT HAPPENED

• The Catamounts came out strong on Thursday night largely controlling play in the opening eight minutes. UConn goaltender Callum Tung made five early saves to keep things scoreless.
• UConn opened the scoring 8:28 into the contest. Trey Scott fired a shot from the point that Axel Mangbo padded aside but the rebound came right to Joey Muldowney who stashed home his 21st goal of the year to make it 1-0.
• With 9:23 to play in the opening frame on a two-on-two rush Simon Jellus fired a shot off the far post after beating Tung clean.
• The Huskies doubled their advantage on the first power play of the game with 6:29 to play in the first period. Scott cut to the middle at the top of the slot then fired a pass to Jake Richard on the left faceoff for a one-timer that found the back of the net for his 14th goal of the year.
• The Huskies made it a three-goal lead at the 10:01 mark of the second period. The Vermont defense tipped the puck away from an attacking rush, but it came right to UConn's Hudson Schandor. Schandor cut inside and dropped the puck down low to Richard and he made a move and slid the puck inside the far post for his second goal of the night.
• Connor MacKenzie took over the crease for the Catamounts in the third period, he finished the night with 12 saves.
• The Catamounts got on the board with 3:53 to play with the net empty for an extra-attacker. Joel Maatta won the faceoff, and Simon Jellus dropped the puck back to Luca Munzenberger at the point. Munzenberger waited for traffic to gather and then fired a wrist shot home for his fifth goal of the season.
• Muldowney cemented the win for the Huskies with an empty net tally with 2:45 to play.

INSIDE THE BOX SCORE

• With tonight's 4-1 decision, Community Bank N.A. will donate $75 to Special Olympics Vermont. Community Bank, N.A. donates $75 per goal to Special Olympics Vermont for every goal the men's and women's team scores this season.
• With tonight's results the Catamounts are now locked-in to playing in the Hockey East Opening Round on Wednesday, March 12 as the 10 or 11 seed. Vermont will travel to Providence, UMass Lowell, UMass or Merrimack pending the weekend results.

UP NEXT
Saturday is Senior Night presented by Widewail and the Catamounts will be hosting No. 9 Boston University at 7 p.m. Prior to the game the Catamounts will honor their six seniors and one graduate student.  Widewail will be doing an on-ice t-shirt toss for fans in between the first and second periods. MVP Healthcare will be distributing 500 water bottles and NBT Bank will be giving away 500 co-branded Pom Hats. The Alumni Association will have tabling for this game and will be giving out Pom Poms.
Saturday's regular season finale will be broadcast live on ESPN+ with Rob Ryan on the call and as always it will also be broadcast live on WVMT (96.3 FM/620 AM) with the voice of the Catamounts Adam Lafleur in the Handy Toyota Broadcast Booth.
 
Hockey East and NESN will debut Hockey East Live, a first-of-its-kind whip around show that will cap off the men's regular season, on Saturday, March 8 at 7p.m.
 
Adam Pellerin, Billy Jaffe, and Andrew Raycroft will host, taking a live look into each game during key moments, showing power-plays, goals, clutch saves, and more throughout the night while providing insight and analysis into the country's most competitive college hockey conference. 
 
For news and updates about the Vermont men's hockey program, follow @UVMmhockey on Instagram, X, and Facebook, and visit UVMathletics.com.
Handy Toyota is the presenting sponsor of the UVM men's hockey program