Brian Tedder / Collegian‘
They were outshot. They lost the faceoff battle. And they were slaughtered in ground balls. They had every reason to lose. Yet, the
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Senior goalkeeper Doc Schneider faced 44 shots, recording 17 saves as he carried the Minutemen to the victory in
After two straight losses knocked them out of the national rankings, the Minutemen (4-3, 1-0 ECAC) responded by gutting out a win where they led in only a couple of statistical categories. Despite the overall dominance of the Greyhounds (5-3, 2-1 ECAC), UMass led in the one stat that truly matters: goals.
Senior Jim Connolly and junior Bobby Hayes both scored twice in the win with Hayes also recording an assist. Connolly leads the team with 22 points on 19 goals on the season. Meanwhile, Hayes is now tied for second on the team with 15 points on seven goals and eight assists. Junior Cooper MacDonnell had a hat trick and an assist for Loyola, scoring the team’s final three goals on the day.
The Minutemen drew first blood 2 minutes, 36 seconds into the game when Art Kell hooked up with Hayes for his first goal of the day. The Greyhounds would respond just over a minute later but the Minutemen closed out the half by scoring three unanswered goals.
Senior Evan Blum put the Minutemen ahead with 30 seconds remaining in the first quarter, while fellow seniors Connolly and Rory Pedrick tallied goals before halftime to give UMass a 4-1 lead.
The Greyhounds made hardly a dent in the lead for the rest of the game.
Loyola’s Colin Finnerty opened up the second half just under two minutes in with a goal, one of eight in the third period. But the Minutemen would respond with goals by Hayes and senior Tim Balise.
The scoring outburst of the third quarter included goals by MacDonnell, Kell and Matt Langan all within a minute of each other. Connolly scored his second, giving UMass an 8-4 lead while MacDonnell scored once more in the third and again in the fourth to close out the game.
While MacDonnell had a huge day against the Minutemen, Loyola’s other two main scoring threats, Finnerty and Shane Koppens, were shut down, recording one point between them.
Loyola outshot UMass by a 15-shot margin, 44-29, and beat out the Minutemen in ground balls, 41-28. While the Greyhounds had numerous opportunities in the game, they failed to convert in no small part because of Schneider in goal.
Schneider played stopper to 17 Loyola shots while his Greyhound counterpart, Jake Hagelin, recorded eight saves on the day. Schneider’s performance improves his goals-against average to 7.48 and his save percentage to .614.
The key to the UMass victory was the fact that it did not beat itself. The Greyhounds may have dominated in a number of areas, but the Minutemen did not commit a single penalty on the day ‘- giving Loyola no man-up opportunities.
The Minutemen return to action in a home meeting with ECAC foe
Game notes
UMass is now 2-11 in 13 career meetings against Loyola. The Minutemen were 0-8 against the Greyhounds in
Nick O’Malley can be reached at [email protected].
