Dutchmen Slip by Huskies

There weren’t any smiles on the faces of Union coach Nate Leaman, goalie Corey Milan and forward Steph¬ane Boileau in the interview room after Friday’s non-conference college hockey game against Connecticut.

And the Dutchmen won.

But there wasn’t much for the Dutchmen to be happy about after their 3-2 win over the Huskies in their Messa Rink opener.

The Dutchmen (3-1-1) went from dominating UConn (2-3) to holding on for dear life.

“We didn’t finish our chances well tonight,” Leaman said. “When you don’t put a team away with the number of chances we had tonight, it allows them to keep hanging around.”

The Dutchmen jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead on goals by Kelly Zajac and Adam Presizniuk 58 seconds apart early in the first period. They took a 3-1 lead into the third, but couldn’t get another puck past goalie Beau Erickson.

The Huskies pulled to within one on Brendan Olinyk’s goal at 7:09 of the third. UConn had two great chances to tie it, but the Dutchmen got some fortunate breaks.

The first came with 4:03 left, when Nick Schneider’s drive from the left circle hit the post to the left of Milan. Less than two minutes later, Milan stopped Daniel Naurato’s right-wing drive, but he couldn’t control the rebound. Justin Hernandez had Milan down, but he shot the puck over the net.

“It was pretty hectic,” Milan said. “I got lucky with some posts, and them missing the net. We got away with it.”

Then, with 1:37 left, Boileau was called for tripping Jason Krispel in the UConn zone, giving the Huskies a power play and one last chance to tie it up.

The Dutchmen survived that, too.

“I was feeling bad,” said Boileau, who scored late in the second. “It was a bad penalty at the end of the game. I want to say thank you to the PK [penalty kill], thank you to Corey Milan, who did a great job at the end of the game.”

Ken Schott covers college hockey for the The Daily Gazette in Schenectady, N.Y.