A surge of offense in the second period turned a scoreless contest for the Massachusetts hockey team into a comfortable lead that No. 14 UMass (11-6-2, 8-2-2 Hockey East) held for the remaining minutes, beating Northeastern 3-2 on Friday.
The first period started off very offensive on both sides. Both teams were getting quality shots on net but were coming up short. Even on penalty kills the Minutemen were getting shots of No. 12 Huskies’ (16-6-1, 8-4-1 HEA) goalie Devon Levi. Cal Kiefiuk had a shorthanded chance for UMass putting the puck on his backhand and attempting a shot, but Levi quickly covered up to get rid of the chance for the Minutemen.
Not too long after, Bobby Trivigno made a move on his defender, wrapped around the net and tossed a puck to Garrett Wait in front of the net but was not able to generate a clean look on it. Trivigno continued to threaten the net all game long, taking a total of 11 shots, with six being on goal.
Both Matt Murray and Levi stood their ground in net the whole first period and did not allow the puck by them despite the high number of shots, specifically the number of shots the Minutemen had on net. Murray faced a total of 14 shots, while Levi faced eight.
Colin Felix did a good job using his body against the Huskies to eliminate scoring chances on Murray. The assistant captain had a big hit in the second frame that changed the tone of the period. Then in the third he and Sam Colangelo got into a disagreement that led to Felix on the ground as Colangelo pushed him into the ice. Both players got a two-minute penalty for unsportsmanlike misconduct.
In the second period UMass was capitalizing on Northeastern’s minimal mistakes to add three goals in the frame. There were goals from Josh Lopina, Oliver Macdonald, and Anthony Del Gaizo, which were the only goals that were on the scoresheet for the Minutemen. Del Gaizo and MacDonald each scored pretty goals, but Lopina netted his by getting to the dirty area in tight.
“Lopina scored the way he always scores, two inches from the net, goes off some part of his body, slaps it in,” head coach Greg Carvel said.
Faceoffs became a large factor in the game for both Lopina and Eric Faith. Lopina ended the game with 16 faceoffs wins and six losses, while Faith had 10 wins with two losses. With the help of the faceoffs UMass was generating quick shots to pressure goaltender Levi, and Lopina’s reliability both in the circle and as a scoring threat proved crucial on Friday.
“I literally just throw the puck in front of the net, and it just happens he just bangs it home,” Trivigno said of Lopina’s performance. “His faceoffs were probably ridiculous tonight, I don’t know what his numbers were, but he won a lot of them.”
The Ty Farmer and Scott Morrow pairing turned their game around against the Huskies. During their last series against Michigan, they were causing turnovers that were leading to goals, but on Friday night they were on the ice for all three goals. Morrow even added an assist on Del Gaizo’s goal.
“I know [Morrow] pinched down to keep the puck in. Those two guys have been on the ice for a lot of goals both ways recently. Luckily tonight it was a plus three cause I know in Michigan it was a minus three. Those two guys are growing together and building some chemistry,” Carvel said.
Northeastern came into Friday as the top team in the HEA standings with UMass trailing close behind. Because of that, the Minutemen took the win as a large plus and are expecting all their games to be a battle going forward in conference play.
“Northeastern just jumped ahead of us. We want to win these next five or six games [in HEA]. These points are huge going forward,” Trivigno said.
Kayla Gregoire can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter @kaygregoire.
