The Massachusetts hockey team knocked off its fourth top-10 opponent this season, Friday night at the Mullins Center.

With a 6-1 win over No. 8 Northeastern, No. 1 UMass (18-3-0, 10-1-0 Hockey East Association) picked up its 10th victory in Hockey East and fourth-straight in the last five contests. Six goals counted as the fifth time this season that the Minutemen have registered six or more tallies in a single game.

Jacob Pritchard and Cale Makar tied for a team-high three points each, while Ty Farmer and Bobby Trivigno chipped in with two points each as well.

It was an overall dominate performance from the Minutemen, who outshot the Huskies (14-5-1, 8-3-1 HEA) 38-16 through 60 minutes, including a 14-4 shots on goal advantage in the first period. UMass was 2-5 on the man-advantage while Northeastern went 1-3.

“Wow,” Northeastern coach Jim Madigan said, “They out-competed us, out-battled us, wanted it more, right from the opening faceoff and it continued through three periods. It was embarrassing, it was our worst loss in probably five years and they just kept on hammering us, and we didn’t respond.”

The Minutemen wasted no time after puck drop, taking the lead just 1:30 into the first period. Mario Ferraro sent a rocket shot from in front of the blueline that Kurt Keats managed to get a stick on to trickle past Husky netminder Cayden Primeau.

Northeastern defenseman Jeremy Davies gave UMass its first power play of the night after he cross-checked Oliver Chau into the boards. Seconds into the man-advantage, Pritchard battled his way to the front of the net and beat Primeau stick side to double the lead.

“When you play against a good goalie like Primeau – I know the first two we made it tough for him,” coach Greg Carvel said, “Pritchard’s was the second goal and he comes hard across the crease.

“To do that early, because we’ve had games where we’ve played well and we made it a little too easy for a goalie to keep his team in the game, but tonight was a lot different because I thought those first two goals set the tone for the night.”

Brett Boeing made it a 3-0 game after he cradled a ridiculously long pass from Makar in the defensive zone and put it on net only for a Northeastern skater to knock it behind the goal line himself.

Chau added to the score in the second with his third straight goal in the last three games, and just over a minute later Trivigno net UMass’ second power play goal of the night to make it 5-0. Ryan Ruck replaced Primeau in goal after Trivigno’s tally.

“I think we just came out with a lot of energy,” Makar said. “We knew it was going to be a tough, skilled game and we knew that we wanted to outwork them and play to our strengths in just being hard in the offensive and especially in the defensive zones. I think we did that very well.”

Just 19 seconds into the final period Philip Lagunov joined the score sheet with his sixth goal of the season. But shutout hopes were spoiled after UMass found itself defending four-on-three play from an Ivan Chukarov holding penalty and a Matt Murray 10-minute misconduct, as Tyler Madden beat a cold Filip Lindberg off the bench.

Carvel has been satisfied with the penalty kill all season and even after the Husky’s lone power play goal on Friday evening, he referred to the penalty kill as “outstanding.” He credits the special team success to the squad’s confidence, noting how things seem to work out better when the confidence is there.

Primeau collected 17 saves before Ruck replaced him and had to make 15 stops. Murray turned aside 11 shots while Lindberg only had to defend four in his 12 minutes on the ice.

The Minutemen look for the sweep against the Huskies as they travel to Matthews Arena for a Saturday rematch.

Puck is set to drop at 7 p.m.

Mollie Walker can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter @MWalker2019.