HARTFORD–Bobby Trivigno makes things happen for the Massachusetts hockey team.
He scores goals, draws penalties and initiates body contact toward the opposition and he does all of it with the same amount of vigor now as he had in October.
Friday night at Connecticut, Trivigno was one of the few bright spots in No. 2 UMass’ 4-3 loss at the XL Center.
The freshman winger scored the Minutemen’s (26-8-0, 18-6-0 Hockey East) first goal of the night that eventually led to three straight tallies from UMass, erasing a 3-0 deficit in the process.
Trivigno was also active physically, as he usually is, while drawing both of the Huskies (12-20-2, 7-15-2 HEA) penalties on the night.
“He’s usually one of our best players,” coach Greg Carvel said. “He comes ready to compete hard every night. He’s not one of the one’s I worry about.”
On the man advantage late in the first period, Trivigno saw time on the top unit in place of John Leonard and immediately made his presence known.
No. 8 and Cale Makar played catch with each other at the blueline before Trivigno swung down the weak side, took a back-door pass from Jacob Pritchard and deposited the puck into the back of the net.
The Setauket, New York native’s ninth goal was his second in the past three games as well as his third consecutive point.
“Before the faceoff Cale told me, ‘If he comes towards me I just gotta roll behind him and just pick up the drop pass,’ so I mean he pretty much set up that whole play and it worked out,” Trivigno said about his goal.
Later on, Trivigno had a golden chance to tie the game at 4-4 but UConn goalie Tomas Vomacka robbed him. Parked along the right post, Trivigno found the loose puck around the crease but he failed to lift the disk off the ice and Vomacka was there to keep it out of the net.
Trivigno completed the game with a goal and four shots.
“If you look at our past games there’s a couple times we don’t start out as good as we should have,”
Trivigno said. “We got to focus on that and be ready for every game.”
Tonight, Trivigno was bumped down to the third line with Brett Boeing and Niko Hildenbrand after spending the previous nine games on the top trio with Jake Gaudet and Mitchell Chaffee. Oliver Chau assumed the winger spot in place of Trivigno.
“They told me they wanted to play together,” Carvel said about reuniting Chau with Gaudet and Chaffee. “So usually when players tell me I say ‘ok, go out and show me.’ I thought Oliver did a pretty good job tonight playing with them.”
In 33 games played, Trivigno has compiled 22 points on nine goals and 13 assists, good for sixth-most on the Minutemen.
Ryan Ames can be reached at [email protected] or followed on Twitter @_RyanAmes.
