LAS VEGAS, Nev. — The Massachusetts hockey team fell to the Omaha Mavericks, 3-2, in overtime in the opening round of the Ice Breaker Tournament on Friday.
With three minutes remaining in the third period in a 1-1 game, Omaha (1-0) seemed to shut the door on UMass’ (1-1) hopes. Jacob Slipec skated through the offensive zone around Minutemen defenders and around the net. After skating to the slot, Slipec shot a wrister past goaltender Michael Hrabal that put the Mavericks up 2-1.
With 1:26 remaining in the game and Hrabal pulled to give UMass a 6-on-5 advantage, Kenny Connors slapped the puck at the net but his stick exploded. Aydar Suniev continued his hot start by grabbing the puck from Connors’ shot and sending a one-timer to tie up the score and send the game to overtime.
“Keep believing, keep pounding the rock, it’s kind of a saying here, just keep going, keep chipping away and we usually find ways to comeback in the third, find ways to just pound the rock and keep going,” Lucas Mercuri said on the tying goal.
Due to Suniev being whistled for an unsportsmanlike penalty after his goal, overtime started with 4-on-3. After the penalty was over, a whistle did not sound until the two-minute mark of overtime. Once the whistle sounded, the teams shifted to 3-on-3 where Omaha found an advantage.
In UMass’ offensive zone, Suniev skated around, trying to skate towards net but Zach Urdahl picked the puck off Suniev’s stick. On the breakaway, Urdahl shot a wrister at Hrabal that was blocked away. On the deflection, Urdahl stayed with the puck and slipped it behind the goaltender to cement an Omaha overtime win.
“That’s a very frustrating thing for guys that played hard the whole game to have a turnover like that which was unnecessary, it was unforced, just completely not necessary,” head coach Greg Carvel said.
Throughout overtime, freshman Larry Keenan played strong defense for the Minutemen. On what could have been a shot for Omaha turned into a Keenan blocked shot due to staying with the puck.
To start the game, both teams took three penalties each in the opening period, but it was UMass that took advantage. On Omaha’s third penalty of the period off a Nolan Krezen interference call, the Minutemen opened up the scoring.
Mercuri parked himself in his usual spot in front of Omaha goaltender Simon Latkoczy. Daniel Jencko passed the puck to Ryan Lautenbach who shot the puck on net but was deflected off Latkoczy. Mercuri grabbed the deflection and backhanded the puck but the goaltender blocked it away. The senior then dove for the puck to pop it by the goaltender for a 1-0 UMass lead.
“A little frustrated because I liked our game,” Carvel said. “First period was really strong, second period Omaha gave a push but then I thought we got our momentum back.”
Hrabal stood tall in net through almost 38 minutes of play but once Omaha was put on its first power play in the second period, the Mavericks capitalized on their chance. Jacob Guevin tapped the puck to Urdahl who wasn’t far from the blue liner. Urdahl skated for a few seconds before sending a wrist shot past Hrabal’s right shoulder to tie the game at one.
Due to choppy ice conditions, both teams struggled to read the puck bounces that caused the teams to chase after the puck.
“Just playing simple, the puck just was bouncing a lot, the ice was really soft,” Mercuri said. “I don’t really think that was a game we should have lost so we’re just going to bounce back, look to tomorrow, it was game two, learning experience for all our guys and we’ll bounce back and come up with some juice tomorrow.”
UMass will shift its focus to the loser of Minnesota vs Air Force in the consolation game at 4 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 11.
Kayla Gregoire can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter @Kaygregoire.
