Goaltender Luke Lepine stood tall in net, and the Massachusetts club hockey team overpowered New York University in a tight contest Friday night, winning 3-1 at the Mullins Center.

Lepine was excellent as he turned away several NYU flurries when it caught the Minutemen back in their own zone. He recorded 22 saves in net to pick up the win.

“They had some awesome chances and Luke was there all the way,” UMass coach Jamie Magarian said. “He was definitely our MVP for the game.”

Scott Campbell kicked off the scoring for UMass (9-6) late in the first period. After a good shift from the Minutemen that saw lots of puck movement and cycling along the wall, he took the puck off the boards and found space in the middle of the ice, firing a wrist shot into the top right corner of the net to beat NYU (11-2-2) goaltender Samuel Daley.

After NYU tied the game early in the second when the puck trickled into the UMass net off one of its own players, both teams then hunkered down and the game entered the third period tied 1-1.

Eventually, UMass defenseman Allan Haynes fired a wrist shot from the point that made its way through traffic and found its way to the back of the net, giving the Minutemen a 2-1 lead. After a furious NYU push in the final minutes that saw Lepine make several game-saving stops, Harris Stone put home an empty-netter for the 3-1 final.

“They had a tremendous push in the final minutes, and we took a bad penalty to put ourselves shorthanded,” Magarian said. “But we were able to capitalize on a two on one to move the puck out of the zone and get the empty-netter.”

Magarian said it was a tight defensive game between two evenly matched teams.

“It was a close game between two fast teams,” Magarian said. “We were both skating well, and it made for a lot of tight battles.”

Magarian said the team was playing with some extra motivation after a loss to Boston College the previous weekend, when they played well, but were not able to come up with the victory.

Eight different players recorded points for the Minutemen on Friday, and Magarian was pleased with the way his team came together.

“We’ve been shuffling the lines the whole season, and the team is clicking,” Magarian said. “There’s a great mood on the bench. Everybody is up, and everybody is putting in the work. When that happens, you’ll get results in the end.”

The Minutemen will take a long Thanksgiving break, and return to action Saturday, Dec. 7 with a road trip to Maine for a pair of games.

Ross Gienieczko can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter @RossCollegian.