The Massachusetts hockey team dropped the puck on the Greg Carvel era in a fashion the Minutemen only could have hoped for.
A shutout in net by freshmen goaltender Ryan Wischow and two third period goals clinched a 3-0 UMass victory over Colorado College in the season opener at the Mullins Center.
“I liked the way we played tonight,” Carvel said. “I thought when the game was five-on-five for stretches, we were the better team five-on-five. I thought we came out real strong, probably could have had a goal or two early. We obviously need to do a better job of getting pucks to the net. I thought the game was pretty even but they outshot us pretty handily.”
The Minutemen (1-0) jumped out to a hot start early, with multiple scoring chances only to be outshot 12-4 in the first period. Wischow had no choice but to stand on his head, with 12 of his 31 saves coming in the period.
Wischow took control of the game in the second period, keeping UMass in the game and helped close the door on six Tiger (0-1) penalties in the final two periods.
The stout play in their own end helped the Minutemen generate scoring chances, kick started by a Jonny Lazarus power play goal at 11 minutes, three seconds of the second period.
Left winger Patrick Lee entered the zone with a pass to centerman Dominic Trento who fed Lazarus in the slot, who bested goaltender Alex Leclerc on the blocker side.
This was the lone UMass goal on the power play, which saw the Minutemen on the special team’s advantage five times, combining for 20 penalties on the night with CC.
“Unfortunately, the way the referees are going to call the game now for the foreseeable future it’s going to be like this where there’s just way too many special teams,” Carvel said. “I think it’s unfortunate. It’s tough to manage the bench because you have a lot of guys that play both power play and penalty kill. A lot of guys get short changed on ice time.”
The high-quality scoring chances continued during even ice play in the third period. The Minutemen scored twice to extinguish hopes of a final period Tiger rally, with even strength goals from Anthony Petrella (2:08) and William Lagesson (12:25).
Although outshot 31-18 in the contest, UMass capitalized on its quality chances with Wischow stoning CC at every attempt.
“We had 18 shots, but I felt we had 10-12 grade-A scoring chances and hit a bunch of posts,” Carvel said. “I’m proud of my guys. They played the way we asked them to. I think our compete (level) needs to come (up) and I think it’s something that they’ll learn with time.”
It was unclear who would start in net tonight for UMass, and after falling out of the tunnel coming onto the rink, Wischow made sure his mishap would not foreshadow the events in between his pipes.
“It was a lot of fun,” Wischow said. “Obviously it’s something you dream about as a kid. You grow up, everybody in America wants to play college hockey, and tonight I got an opportunity to put on the jersey and represent the school and the boys played well in front of me, made it pretty easy there, especially in the second and most of the third. When they play like that and get shots from the outside it’s easy to put pucks in good spots for them and get them in transition so they can score goals.”
“He looked pretty damn good,” Carvel said. “He hasn’t been very good in practice. He was really good tonight. I was hoping he was a gamer, he proved he was tonight.”
Defenseman Marc Hetnik led the Minutemen in plus-minus with a plus-two on the night.
Carmine Buono and Ray Pigozzi each tallied an assist on the third period goals.
“I think there’s a good comradery between the boys on the bench,” Trento, a senior assistant captain said. “We took a bunch of penalties today and it was a tight game early, but we found a way to get to the net and score some goals. It’s definitely a different atmosphere in the room. You love to see that. It’s a big win for us.
The Minutemen resume action tonight at the Mullins Center for the second consecutive night against the Tigers. Puck drop is set for 7 p.m.
Kyle DaLuz can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter @Kyle_DaLuz.
