After a promising start, the Massachusetts hockey team’s mistakes plagued it, falling to the Sacred Heart Pioneers, 4-3 on Friday at home.
Down by two goals with two minutes left in the third period, No. 15 UMass (2-2) pulled goaltender Michael Hrabal to add an extra forward on the ice. Sacred Heart (1-1) made a rush down the ice with a wide-open net but couldn’t find the back of the net. The Minutemen then grabbed the puck and made a rush of their own down the ice. Owen Murray was the one to slip the puck behind goaltender Cullen DeYoung to give UMass hope.
Despite the late goal, the Minutemen couldn’t connect to tie the game and push the Pioneers to overtime.
A glaring hole for UMass was its defense that couldn’t cover up Sacred Heart’s offense. On most of the Pioneers’ goals, it was due to a defender’s mistake. The freshmen pairing of Larry Keenan and Francesco Dell’Elce especially struggled. Their passing wasn’t in sync and the Pioneers took advantage of the young blue liners.
“I think the biggest thing [on Friday] was we let them get behind us, especially on our [defense],” Captain Linden Alger said. “Going into tomorrow, a big focus is going to be keeping the game in front of us and trying not to let them get a step on us in the offensive zone.”
Hrabal also struggled in net with his right shoulder being a large weak side for him throughout the night. On former Minuteman Mikey Adamson’s goal in the third period, as he fell to the ice, he popped it easily past Hrabal’s shoulder to bring Sacred Heart up by three goals.
“We needed [Hrabal] to make some saves to help those defensemen out,” Carvel said.
Cam O’Neill tried to get the Minutemen offense going, answering back to Adamson’s lamp lighter with a goal on a Lucas Ölvestad pass that he tipped in to bring UMass up 4-2.
Alger was the one to get on the board first less than two minutes into the first period. On a cross ice pass from Cole O’Hara, Alger settled the puck before sending a wrist shot past DeYoung to put UMass up 1-0.
While the Minutemen got on the board first, Sacred Heart took any offensive opportunities they had in the first frame of the game. It paid off when Charles Tardif grabbed the puck in the neutral zone and skated through UMass defenders and popped the puck past Hrabal to tie the game at the 11:20 mark.
With the game tied, UMass continued to fire shots at DeYoung, easily skating through Sacred Heart’s defense but came up short. With seven minutes left in the period, Dans Locmelis fired a shot at the net but the puck was blocked away. Ölvestad found the rebound and tried against but the goaltender continued to stand tall in net. The final attempt from the Minutemen was after Kenny Connors skated through the neutral zone on a breakaway but the shot sailed high of the Pioneer net.
One of the Minutemen’s best chances was when they were put on a 5-on-3 for over a minute in the second period. The power play unit passed back-and-forth and put a puck on net but the Pioneers goaltender stood tall. Daniel Jencko put the last shot on net but it wasn’t enough to grab a goal for UMass.
“[Sacred Heart’s] goaltender was outstanding,” Carvel said. “I thought we could have had a couple goal lead coming out of the first period, he made some saves that were unbelievable, we outshot them 18-4 in the second period and couldn’t score a goal.”
Despite UMass’ 36 shots throughout the game, they struggled on defense through 60 minutes of play.
The Minutemen look to bounce back against the Pioneers on Saturday, Oct. 19 on the road. Puck drop is set for 7 p.m. at Martire Family Arena.
“Tomorrow’s a new day,” Alger said. “It’s a fresh start, we get another chance at them [Saturday] so it’s not the end of the world, obviously it doesn’t feel great but we’ve got to move on from this.”
Kayla Gregoire can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter @Kaygregoire.
