The Massachusetts club hockey team paired strong performances on offense and defense to lead them to victories over Montclair State and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, as the Minutemen scored 10 goals over the weekend while allowing just one.
With the two victories, UMass improves to 9-1-1 on the season.
“They played well both games, especially since it was a quick turn around,” UMass coach Mike DeFazio said. “It wasn’t a great game [Sunday] or a perfect game, but they played well enough in to earn the win.”
After defeating RPI in overtime in their last matchup in the 2016-17 season, the Minutemen came into Troy, New York with a different mission: to score more goals than last season.
They did just that, topping the Engineers 3-1.
UMass was led by freshman Scott Shorrock who got them on the board in the first period at the 4:15 mark, giving the Minutemen an early 1-0 lead.
The Engineers (3-6-0) got the goal right back as freshman forward Mitch Bourgerie tied it up at one just 1:04 into the second period.
Shorrock scored again three and a half minutes later to give the Minutemen a 2-1 lead. The goal was the freshman’s fifth of the weekend and 14th of the season.
After Shorrock’s goal, sophomore defenseman John Tomlinson scored, putting the final nail in RPI’s coffin.
“We’re scoring goals, which was a bit of an issue in the past,” DeFazio said. “We play well and we don’t score enough goals to win the close games. This year, we’re blowing teams out before they can do that. It’s new guys, a lot of freshmen in the lineup and a lot are scoring.”
In the game Sunday, sophomore Ryan LaCroix finished with 22 saves on 23 shots. DeFazio said he’s been happy with his goalie’s performance so far this season, and that there is no real number one goalie between LaCroix and Conor Walker, just a “1A” and “1B.”
Shorrock shines with hat trick in 7-0 victory over Montclair State Saturday
In years past, the Montclair State University club hockey team has made it to the national tournament. This year, however, has been a down year for the Red Hawks whose record stands at 2-8-0 after falling to the Minutemen 7-0 on Saturday.
Like Sunday, UMass was led by Shorrock, who had a hat trick in Saturday’s game, scoring at 10:06 in the first period, 13:58 in the second period and 7:30 in the third period. The latter would be the seventh and final goal of the game.
The other four goals were scored by freshman forward Markie Campbell at 7:28 in the first period, senior defenseman Dennis Medeiros at 11:52 in the first period, sophomore forward Tyler Calos at 16:57 in the first period and senior forward Rob Tirea at 16:57 in the second period.
The win was the second largest goal count of the season.
A look ahead
In their next matchup, the Minutemen face one of their biggest threats all season when they take on Delaware on Saturday at 8 p.m.
“We’re taking it one game at a time,” DeFazio said. “We’re not trying to get too cocky, too comfortable. We had two games this weekend before Delaware; it’s one game at at a time. If you have two games back-to-back you think about both, but you don’t want to get too ahead of yourself.”
Zander Manning can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter @ZMSportsReport.