STORRS, Conn. — The Massachusetts hockey team struggled on both sides of the puck, going down 3-2 to the University of Connecticut on the road on Saturday night.
Out of the gate, UMass (3-3-1, 0-1-1 Hockey East) struggled with errors from its defense. The team’s young defenders couldn’t find a balance between protecting the puck in front of their goaltender and adding shots on net.
“They’ve got to play defense,” head coach Greg Carvel said about the blue liners. “They’re not called offensemen, they’re called defensemen and they’re making too many mistakes.”
In the third period, the Minutemen played from behind and couldn’t get quality shots on net. With less than five minutes remaining, though, Musa gave the team momentum with a power play goal. As Dans Locmelis and Suniev passed back and forth on the left side of the crease, Locmelis backhanded the puck at Muszelik. Musa, right in front of the crease, caught the rebound and tapped the puck into an open net.
Despite UMass pulling its goaltender for an extra man late, UConn’s (4-2-1, 1-1-1 HEA) defense was too much to overcome. Two Minutemen shots from Suniev and Connors in the last 30 seconds were both blocked.
The Huskies capitalized off UMass defenders’ mistakes, getting on the board first off a shorthanded opportunity. The Minutemen were put on the first power play of the series after Tom Messineo crosschecked Aydar Suniev. To start the power play, the UConn defense easily covered UMass’ offense, eliminating any offensive opportunities it tried to create. After Francesco Dell’Elce couldn’t settle the puck, Jake Percival grabbed it, went on a breakaway and shot the puck past goaltender Michael Hrabal for a 1-0 Huskies lead.
The Minutemen continued to try and create offense, but UConn covered up their chances. Suniev took chances at the Huskies goal, but goaltender Tyler Muszelik stood tall in net. Jack Musa had a great opportunity in front of the crease, but his attempt to slip it past the goaltender was easily saved.
UMass was without Daniel Jenčko after he left with an injury, so Michael Cameron shifted up with Ryan Lautenbach and Lucas Mercuri. Extra forward James Duerr played consistently with the fourth line and added three quality shots on net.
“Duerr gave us some good shifts, happy with his first game,” Carvel said. “It’s good for him to get some experience and he proved some things to me [on Saturday].”
In the second period, things didn’t change for the Minutemen as the team continued to struggle on defense. Dell’Elce specifically had a weak period, as the freshman was sent to the box on a tripping call that put more pressure on Hrabal.
With the defensive errors, Hrabal saw 28 shots, saving 25 of them.
“We tend to shoot ourselves in the foot a lot with our puck management,” captain Linden Alger said. “Usually when we’re managing the puck and playing north fast, the game tends to be a little more smoot. When we overhandle pucks and make poor puck decisions, obviously the results [go] against [us].”
With momentum on UConn’s side, Percival found the back of the net for the second time just over seven minutes into the second period. The junior slipped the puck around Hrabal’s right side to extend the Huskies’ lead. After another UConn goal, Alger got UMass on the board later in the period. Off a faceoff win, Alger snatched the puck and skated down the right side of net. The captain sent a wrist shot over the right shoulder of the Huskies goaltender to show flashes of hope for the Minutemen.
“In the offensive zone we just have to get a bit of a cycle going,” Alger said. “It seemed like we never really cycled the puck in the offensive zone for more than four seconds. They wore us down when they got the cycle going and we couldn’t get it going here.”
UMass now looks ahead to a non-conference opponent, playing American International College next. Puck drop is set for Saturday, Nov. 2 at 1 p.m. at the MassMutual Center.
Kayla Gregoire can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter @Kaygregoire.
