It took some time, and three big goals that sent the previously stagnant momentum into the UMass end, but the Minutemen pulled off their first round victory, thanks mostly to the work of Messrs. Kevin Leveille, Kevin Glenz, and Jeff Zywicki.

The third quarter was, by far, the best one the Minutemen played yesterday, and while they managed to score two goals in the fourth, it was the way they came out of the blocks after halftime that gave them the victory.

Prior to that, the offense that had been averaging nearly 13 goals a game struggled to score four in an uninspired first half.

Whatever the team talked about at halftime worked, though, because the Maroon and White came out with controlled, aggressive offense, and set the tone for the rest of the game with Kevin Leveille’s tally at 5:08 in the third.

It was the start of five minutes of play that were all UMass, and the Hofstra team that only trailed for 2:48 in the entire first half suddenly went quiet.

Less than two minutes after Leveille’s goal, Jeff Zywicki provided one of the prettiest plays of the day, though UMass coach Greg Cannella still chalked it up as a “garbage goal.”

Zywicki pounced on an errant rebound 10 feet from the net, and in one motion picked the ball up, and put it high over goalie Matt Southard to make the score 6-4.

As well as the 2,031 in attendance, Hofstra coach John Danowski took notice of Zywicki’s work.

“It’s a big play certainly,” Danowski said. “I thought that we just didn’t match up in the crease and [UMass] made a good play. I thought they made a couple of real slick plays inside that good teams make.”

The Minutemen took Zywicki’s fireworks in stride, though.

“Jeff is very good at that,” Cannella said. “It’s one thing that he’s been able to do, he’s got such quick hands. We talked about this week that we thought Southard would give us a couple rebounds, that we had to follow shots.

“Jeff has been in tune with that all year and been able to put some of those away, so anytime you get a goal off a save, it’s huge.”

Then came the game winner. Kevin Glenz’s quick feet got him past a defender and close enough to cram the ball in past Southard. It was the third of a series of goals that produced a lead of more than one goal for the first time all game.

Until that point, the UMass faithful, and the Minutemen themselves, were becoming increasingly tense as the Pride continued to control the game.

“I think we play a lot better when we have a lead,” Zywicki said. “When we had that three-goal lead there, we started playing more comfortable, we made them play our game. That just plays in our hands, I think we definitely play better with a lead.”

Zywicki’s teammates agreed.

We feed off each other, we feed off when we play well,” Leveille said. “It took us a couple minutes to get going there in the third, but once we got one, I said to Jeff and he said to me, let’s get one, and open this game up, and we got a couple more, and that helped a lot.”

What the trio of goals did was provide the Maroon and White with enough space to play the game that got it here, and the game that is taking it to Syracuse, N.Y. for Saturday’s quarterfinal matchup against Maryland.

And while UMass had time to make up for the lackluster first half by finally bringing out its high-flying attack in the third quarter, it’s a luxury the Minutemen may not be able to afford against the Terrapins.