An unbeaten January put the UConn men’s hockey team in a strong position, and Huskies record crowd Saturday left no doubt they have the state’s attention.

But with 11,781 in attendance at the XL Center Saturday, the largest crowd ever for a UConn hockey game, they picked the wrong day to have a bad day, or at least a bad start.

Though the Huskies rallied from three goals down to tie the game early in the third period, Providence came up with a crucial power play goal, and then two empty-netters, to put UConn away, 6-3.

“We didn’t start on time, and that was frustrating,” coach Mike Cavanaugh said. “We tied it up there in the third and I really liked the way we were playing, then we take an undisciplined penalty, and you can’t give good teams a five-minute major in a 3-3 game in the third.”

Hudson Malinoski scored three goals, the third coming during a five-minute major penalty against Ethan Gardula, cross-checking, called after an officials’ review, to put the Friars (16-6-4) back on top with 9:42 left to play, and UConn could not regain momentum.

So the Huskies (14-9-3), who won by shoot-out at Providence on Friday night, took only two points from the weekend Hockey East series.

Gardula, Jake Richard and Joey Muldowney scored for UConn, the first two on the power play, Muldowney’s tying it 3:31 into the third period. John Spetz had two assists, as the Huskies scored their three goals in 36 shots.

Turnovers plagues UConn in the early going, as Malinoski scored twice and John Mustard once for Providence.

“It should have been good; we had 11,000 people here which was fantastic,” Cavanaugh said. “Credit to all the people that showed up and the fans that came out.”

UConn goalie Callum Tung, a freshman, stopped 36 shots.

After beating Quinnipiac and Sacred Heart to win CT Ice last weekend, the Huskies surged to a tie for fourth in the PairWise rating, and the NCAA Tournament bracket analysts were penciling the Huskies in for a No.1 seed in the 16-team tournament. UConn dropped to sixth, but a top seed is still in play, with UConn’s next six games at home, in Storrs or Hartford.

“We have a good hockey team, I’m not worried about that,” Cavanaugh said. “We didn’t start on time, we take an undisciplined penalty and we’re not winning face-offs. So you’re chasing the game quite a bit when you’re not winning face-offs. All three are correctable and those things will certainly be a focal point this week in practice. We put ourselves in a hole, but credit to the kids, they did climb back into the game. Going forward, we’re going to learn, you don’t take an indiscipline penalty.”