DURHAM – With the Wildcats leading 2-0 after the first period, the Catamounts responded with three straight goals as the University of New Hampshire men’s hockey team fell to Vermont, 3-2, in their regular season finale on Thursday evening at the Whittemore Center.

Sophomore forward Liam Devlin (Needham, Mass.) and senior alternate captain Kalle Eriksson (Leksand, Sweden) each scored a goal for the Wildcats.

The Wildcats fall to 11-20-3 (6-15-3 Hockey East), while the Catamounts improve to 10-18-5 (5-15-3 Hockey East).

The Wildcats will next play a Hockey East Tournament Opening Round game on the road on Wednesday, March 8. UNH will be either the No. 9 or No. 10 seed in the tournament and will play at the No. 7 or No. 8 seed.

At 10:50 of the first period, Devlin opened the scoring with his 12th goal of the season. The power play goal was assisted and set up by freshman defenseman Damien Carfagna (Wood-Ridge, N.J.) who had a wrist shot from the blue line that was deflected in the slot by senior captain Chase Stevenson (West Kelowna, British Columbia), causing the tap-in rebound for Devlin sitting outside the crease.

Only 29 seconds later at 11:19, Eriksson extended the Wildcat lead to 2-0 with his top left corner snipe. The play started with junior defenseman Luke Reid (Warman, Saskatchewan) finding freshman forward Jake Dunlap (Windham, Mass.) on the counterattack, who then entered the right side of the offensive zone, leaving Eriksson all alone in the slot ready for the impending pass.

At 1:03 of the second period, Vermont found the back of the net and cut the deficit in half with Massimo Lombardi’s wrist shot goal from the high slot.

Nearing the end of the second period at 15:45, freshman goalie Tyler Muszelik (Long Valley, N.J.) came up clutch to preserve the Wildcat lead after making a low glove save on Andrei Buyalsky’s breakaway attempt.

Vermont equalized the score 2-2 at 3:00 of the third period after Simon Jellus’ cross-crease one-timer goal from the right face-off circle.

A minute and a half later at 4:30, Isak Walther scored the game winner on his backhand for the 3-2 final.