AMHERST — When UConn joined Hockey East, longtime UMass fans hoped the Minutemen and Huskies would evolve into a rivalry.

Friday’s game was a good start. The two state flagships from bordering states played a terrific game that was competitive and at times chippy.

All that was missing was a winner. UConn took an early lead, UMass came back and both teams left with a 2-2 tie at the Mullins Center.

Hockey is one of the few sports where the teams play at all and the only one where it’s a league contest with something on the line. They’ll play again Dec. 9 at the XL Center in Hartford, Connecticut.

UConn took a 2-0 lead less than 4 minutes into the game, but UMass carried the play from late in the first period until the end of overtime.

“We reset and regrouped. For the last 45 minutes of the game I thought we were really, really good,” UMass coach Greg Carvel said. “I thought we played really hard to an identity I would like to see for our team. We were real good without the puck, tenacious. We found ways to score goals. It was a fun hockey game to coach.”

Kurt Keats scored the tying goal for UMass with 13 minutes, 35 seconds left, but Jack Suter set up the highlight. The freshman center tiptoed through traffic parallel to the goal line and threaded a perfect pass to Keats.

He tapped the puck past UConn goalie Adam Huska a split second before getting knocked off his feet. The sophomore celebrated the goal from his backside on the ice.

“Kurt has been outstanding the last couple of games, kind of leading the way for us,” Carvel said. “He’s leading by example of how we need our guys to play.”

Both goalies made big saves late. Freshman Ryan Wischow made 20 saves, including three big ones in overtime for UMass (2-4-1, 0-2-1 Hockey East).

“I liked late in the game how comfortable he looked in the net,” Carvel said. “When we needed him there on a couple rushes, he was really sound.”

Keats agreed.

“It was 2-0 and it could have been 3-0 even 4-0. He made a big save on a 2-on-1 and that really turned things around,” Keats said.

Wischow shook off the tough start.

“I just try to stay in the moment, have fun and give the team an opportunity to win,” Wischow said.

Huska robbed William Lagesson late and finished with 23 stops.

UConn got a quick goal after an even quicker whistle to open the game. Riley McDougall was called for a hooking penalty 30 seconds into the game. It was a call that likely wouldn’t have been made a year ago, but with the emphasis on tighter officiating this year, it gave the Huskies an almost immediate man advantage.

It was a short power play as Maxim Letunov fired a shot past Wischow from just inside the top of the right wing faceoff circle.

Some late arriving fans were still filing in when UConn doubled its edge to 2-0 when Miles Gendron one-timed an Evan Richardson pass by Wischow on an odd-man rush, 3:10 into the game.

“It’s real unfortunate we’re not starting games well enough,” Carvel said. “It’s starts with the first shift of the game. We take a poor penalty and they have good power play with some very high-end players and they makes us pay right away.”

UMass was better in the second half of the first period, but couldn’t cut into the lead.

The Minutemen halved their deficit with 12:04 left in the second period on the very last second of an abbreviated power play. The newly healthy Ray Pigozzi slid a centering pass from the right wing to the slot where Austin Plevy redirected it past Huska to make it 2-1.

Matt Vautour can be reached at mvautour@gazettenet.com. Get UMass coverage delivered in your Facebook news feed at www.facebook.com/GazetteUMassCoverage