On Friday, November 28, and Saturday, November 29, 2025, the Union men’s hockey team played in the Friendship Four tournament against Sacred Heart University and Miami University of Ohio. The team settled for second place after winning the opening game and then losing the championship game. This was the team’s second time participating in the tournament, and they were the only ranked team out of their competitors.
In November 2018, the team played in the tournament for the first time and won the Belpot trophy in a 2-1 victory over Boston University. Parker Foo ‘21 scored the trophy-winning goal early in the second period of the championship game.
This year’s tournament featured Union, Sacred Heart, RIT, and Miami (OH). Union won the first game against Sacred Heart 8-1 but lost the championship game to Miami (OH) 3-2. Rochester Institute of Technology also played in the tournament.
A notable strength of this year’s teams was their penalty kill. Coming into the tournament, Union, RIT, and Sacred Heart had the top 10-ranked penalty kills in the NCAA. RIT ranked #2 in the NCAA in penalty kill with a 92.7% rate, while Union ranked #3 at 91.7%. Additionally, Sacred Heart was ranked at #10 with an 85.4% penalty kill percentage. By contrast, Union held a #8 nationally ranked power play percentage, scoring on 25.9% of opportunities, significantly higher than all other teams.
In the first game against Sacred Heart, seven Union players scored a tournament-record eight goals throughout the game. Ben Muthersbaugh ‘28 scored two goals in the game and was named Union player of the game, while his teammates easily buried six other goals behind the Sacred Heart goaltenders. To top it off, Lucas Buzziol ‘28 scored a power play goal at the end of the 2nd to make a dent in Sacred Heart’s top-ranked penalty kill.
The title game was significantly more competitive than the first game. Miami (OH) opened the scoring halfway through the first period, and then Étienne Lessard ‘29 scored his second collegiate goal at the beginning of the second period to tie the game. Miami scored once again halfway through the second on a power play goal, making a dent in Union’s top-ranked penalty kill in the process. Connor Smith ‘28 responded early in the third period with another game-tying goal, and the game was tied 2-2 until the final three minutes of the third period.
Miami scored the tournament-winning goal with about three minutes left in regulation. Cameron Korpi ‘28 made a save, but the puck bounced off another Union player and into the net. Union pulled Korpi and made several good shot attempts on the Miami net, but Miami prevented them from scoring a third game-tying goal.
“It’s a gut-wrenching way [to lose a game],” Head Coach Josh Hauge said after the game. “I felt that we were playing some better hockey in the third, and we obviously didn’t finish it out.”
Union was the only ranked team in this year’s tournament (at #20 in the USCHO poll), but Union’s national rankings have not been stable since before the COVID-19 pandemic. Last week, Union was ranked #20 in both the USCHO and USA Hockey/The Rink Live polls. However, after Union’s loss to #17/19 Cornell and an overtime win against unranked Colgate, Union lost its ranking in the USA Hockey poll and barely held onto its USCHO ranking. After this split weekend, it is unclear whether Union will be able to maintain its national rankings this week.
This upcoming weekend, Union will return home and play against Princeton and nationally ranked Quinnipiac. The game against Quinnipiac will be crucial for ECAC hockey standings, postseason chances, and preparation for the ECAC championship and NCAA tournament. Union has not won a game against Quinnipiac since 2018 and hopes to change that.
“We need to correct some small details, especially when we need a goal.” Étienne Lessard ‘29 said about the Friendship Four games. “It’s a big learning experience for us, and it gave us a taste of what a championship game could be.”
As the team heads into the second half of the season, it’s clear that Union needs to maintain its top penalty kill, power play, goaltending, and goal scoring to reach the ECAC championship game and the NCAA tournament.
