HARTFORD, Conn. — For the final 25 minutes Friday night, UMass showed off exactly why it is the No. 2 team in the country.

The Minutemen were buzzing around the Connecticut offensive zone, creating chances by the dozens in and around the net. They made the fans at the XL Center sweat in their seats as they continued to pound the net with shots and force Tomas Vomacka to flop around his crease to stop the puck. UMass scored three times in that display, too, twice in the final 1:12 of the second period and then again just 45 seconds into the third period.

Yet the first 35 minutes were the realization of every UMass fan’s worst fear before the game. The Minutemen looked disinterested with nothing to play for and the Huskies capitalized for three goals before UMass returned to form. It was that poor first half of the game that was ultimately to blame for the Minutemen’s 4-3 loss to UConn in Hartford.

“Absolutely uneven game from my team,” coach Greg Carvel said. “I could tell this morning they weren’t in the right frame of mind to play. … It’s very disconcerting for me as a coach on March 8 that we can’t be excited to play a game. We were once we got down and found a way to score our first goal, but UConn deserved to win.”

It was evident for most of the first half of the game that UMass (26-8-0, 18-6-0 Hockey East) wasn’t skating at the same level it normally does. UConn (12-20-2, 7-15-2) was skating past the Minutemen to chase down loose pucks and made it look as if the UMass players were leisurely gliding to the puck. It didn’t seem to matter too much with UMass earning most of the early chances, but that quickly flipped midway through the period.

“It’s one of those classic games that we didn’t need to win, it made no difference in a lot of things,” Carvel said. “We didn’t come out to play in the first and you get down 2-0, it’s a tough scenario. When you don’t score the first, it’s tough to win; when you don’t score the first two, it’s really tough to win. But then we decided to play and we dominated the game for the last 30 minutes of the game.”