Brian Tedder/Collegian

It wasn’t the type of win the Massachusetts hockey team wanted following a 2-1 loss Friday night to the same Northeastern team, but at this point, the Minutemen will take it. UMass won, 3-1, in front of 4,921 Saturday night over the Huskies, powered by Alex Berry’s two goals in the first period. P.J. Fenton made it a three-goal lead in the second before NU’s Kyle Kraemer broke the shutout in the third. The Minutemen played most of the third period on their heels, and it was clearly noticed by the Huskies, who were a penalty shot away from a one-goal game with plenty of time left. “It wasn’t a perfect performance by any means,” UMass coach Don Cahoon said. “But it was a start. I’m just happy to get through the evening, come out with two points and give us a chance to move forward and hopefully right the ship.” UMass got on the board first, 7 minutes, 19 seconds into the game with Berry’s first goal of the night. The puck went end-to-end and showed what the Minutemen can do with the almost-Olympic-sized rink they call home. Defenseman Martin Nolet took control of the puck to the left of his own goal and rifled it up to Berry, who crossed the red line on the right side of the rink, pulled up at the faceoff circle and fired past Northeastern goaltender Brad Thiessen (30 saves). Cahoon has stressed that the team needs to take more shots on goal to increase the team’s offensive output. Berry wasted no time putting that into practice. “It’s one of our biggest goals is to take a lot of shots and get them in early,” Berry said. “I just tried to get to the net and create some rebounds. I got a lot on it, and it found the back of the net.” Berry found the net again just six minutes later, scoring on the power play with a feed from James Marcou. The junior had the puck on the left wing and dumped it down to Chris Davis behind the net. After fighting to keep control of the puck, James Marcou dug it out and gave it back to Berry, who had drifted toward the net and buried it past Thiessen. “Things were going well for me,” Berry said. “I’ve been in a bit of a slump lately scoring goals, but I just got a couple opportunities tonight to finish.” Marcou helped pad the lead again in the second, finding Fenton with the man advantage for the early 3-0 lead. The pair found themselves in a 2-on-2 charge toward the net. Marcou passed the puck left-to-right through both defenders to Fenton, who easily beat an out-of-position Thiessen. “Marcou’s play is one for the books,” Cahoon said of his freshman star forward. “He sees the ice like no one’s business. I don’t think anybody in the building thought he was going to move the puck to P.J. there, never mind P.J.” The Huskies best chance to get back in the game came with 13:39 left in the third period following a hooking penalty by Justin Braun. Northeastern’s Tyler McNeely drew the penalty by catching defenseman Pat Dineen out of position at the blue line, forcing Braun over to help. McNeely split the defense and Braun did the only thing he could do to stop the break away, and the referee awarded him a penalty shot. UMass goaltender Paul Dainton (30 saves) cut off the angle, but McNeely’s shot went well to the right of the net anyway and bounced off the boards. Kraemer got NU off the snide anyway, scoring while catching UMass in a slow line change and beating Dainton glove side 11:30 into the third. Cory Quirk got his own penalty shot attempt with 1:33 remaining, but Thiessen swallowed up his back-hand attempt.

Berry had just three goals entering the night, and Cahoon was happy to see the junior find his shot again, but said he has not been invisible on the ice, contributing to a lot of scoring chances.

“Alex is one of the guys going into his junior year who we were hoping to get a little more offense from,” Cahoon said. “I think he’s given us some really good games.” Jeremy Rice can be reached at [email protected].