The Massachusetts men’s club hockey team lost 2-1 to Vermont on Friday. The Minutemen’s (2-3) comeback attempt ran out of time as the Catamounts (6-0) remained unbeaten.
After killing its fifth penalty of the game, UMass regrouped in its own zone before connecting on a stretch pass through neutral ice. The puck swung around to behind Vermont’s goal, then bounced out to the Minutemen’s Matt Carrara who was in tight on goalie Justin Dickinson. Carrara stickhandled around Dickinson, sliding the puck under his outstretched pad to make it a one-goal game with 14 minutes left.
Despite outshooting the Catamounts 38-34, Carrara’s goal was the only shot that went past Dickinson.
“I think we just got to funnel more pucks to the net. We have decent shape, but we’re not going to score by passing the puck around,” head coach Sean Prendergast said. “Pucks got to go to the net, we got to crash the net to score.”
Vermont put the game away with its second goal early in the second period. A string of quick passes through the neutral zone brought the Catamounts into UMass’ zone. A streaking Mattheau Merrill picked up a quick pass in the middle of the ice with no one between him and Minutemen goalie Ryan Dailida. Merrill took his space before ripping a wrist shot past Dailida’s glove.
Vermont carried the play for most of the game, beating UMass to loose pucks, clogging up passing lanes and causing turnovers in dangerous areas.
“We honestly just got outcompeted,” Prendergast said. “We got a lot of great hockey players on this squad, but it’s hockey. We got to show up for 60 minutes every single game and give our best, and that definitely wasn’t our best tonight.”
The Catamounts’ Riley Shepherd opened the scoring in the first period while on the powerplay. After swinging the puck around the offensive zone, Shepherd walked the blue line and whipped a shot through traffic, slotting it over Dailida’s blocker with 4:23 left in the period.
Dailida stopped 32 of the 34 shots he faced, including several timely saves to keep it a 2-1 game late in the third period. He consistently displayed good rebound control, directing shots into corners and quickly freezing pucks to prevent second-chance scoring opportunities.
The lack of sustained offensive pressure by the Minutemen prevented them from mounting a comeback and allowed Vermont to dictate much of the game.
“We want to play in their zone, not our zone,” Prendergast said. “[We want] to play with the puck on our stick, find our teammates and [then] good things happen.”
Special teams played a large role in the game with a combined 11 penalties between the two teams. UMass failed to capitalize on any of its five powerplays while the Catamounts scored on one of their six.
The Minutemen played a physical game with several big open-ice hits, but their physicality was not enough to disrupt Vermont’s momentum. The Catamount pressure caused UMass to repeatedly turn the puck over on its own blue line, struggling to break out of its defensive zone. When the Minutemen got offensive zone time, forwards failed to consistently generate high-level scoring chances.
UMass looks to bounce back against Northeastern on Saturday, Oct. 19. Puck drop is set for 7 p.m. at the Mullins Center Community Rink.
James Rust can be reached at [email protected] and followed on X @James__Rust.
