This weekend, the Massachusetts club hockey team looked to improve its record to 8-5 after taking on Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute on Friday and Vermont on Saturday.

On Saturday, the Minutemen defeated the Catamounts 2-1 in a back-and-forth affair. Both Mike Spunt and Brett Mason notched goals for UMass. Mason’s goal occurred on a power play and became the eventual game winner.

Andrew McLeman had another solid game in net, giving up only one goal.

The Minutemen won despite committing four penalties.

On Friday, however, the Minutemen were plagued by even more penalties.

UMass coach Jamie Magarian said, “It’s hard to play hockey when you are always in the penalty box.” He continued, “We can’t get any flow in the lines and it gets tough to keep the guys settled down.”

Despite the penalties, the Minutemen outlasted RPI 4-3 in what ended up as a close game.

UMass scored its first goal off of a great passing sequence with 4:35 left in the first period.

Kyle Wakefield scored the Minutemen’s second goal after juking out the RPI goalie. Less than a minute later, however, UMass was called for two penalties, and RPI took advantage with a goal.

Magarian reflected that this was when his team started to raise the energy and pick up momentum.

“We started a little bit too slow,” he said. “We are a much faster skating team than what we displayed in the first 30 minutes of hockey, and we finally started getting things together in the second period.”

Nick Carter proceeded to score with 11:02 left in the second period.

The Minutemen went on to capitalize on RPI mistakes with a goal by Jonathan Fuchs.

“We played well for the last 25 minutes of hockey,” Magarian said.

With 2:45 left in the second period, however, UMass was called for multiple penalties.

“Sometimes it feels like the calls aren’t going our way.  … I shouldn’t comment on it either way, but you can hear the people around the rink calling the same thing,” Magarian said.

Right after the penalty was called, RPI scored another goal, bringing the score to 4-2. Right after the goal, however, the Minutemen were called for yet another penalty, which gave RPI another opportunity to score. With 2:16 left in the game, RPI made it a one-goal deficit.

Magarian believes that the frustration with the penalties made his players lose their edge. To illustrate the point, he noted that he was once told that “anger is the wind that blows out the candle to the mind.”

Magarian also made it clear that players lose their focus when calls aren’t going their way. In fact, he asserted that over the last four minutes, his team fell apart and the frustration snowballed.

Despite a close game, UMass survived and will take on Boston College next weekend.

Magarian was pleased to emerge on top and said that “a win is a win.”

Matthew Zackman can be reached at [email protected].