Despite an offensively dominant first and third period, the No. 20 Massachusetts hockey team fell to Vermont 3-2 on Sunday afternoon at the Mullins Center. UMass will finish this season 0-2-1 against Vermont with Sunday’s matchup marking the final time the two teams will meet this season.
Following a first ten minutes of play dominated by the Minuteman offense, they were the first on the board.
Nick VanTassell opened the scoring for UMass (6-6-2, 1-4-2 HEA) with a diving attempt in the crease. James Duerr pushed the puck up into traffic out in front of the net, leaving it for VanTassell to find the open net as Catamount (3-6-3, 3-4-2 HEA) goaltender Axel Mangbo was laid out from a save. Mangbo managed to get his skate to the pole to deny the first attempt to slip it past him, but VanTassell kept pushing, and forced a gap to put the Minutemen up 1-0 before UVM had a single shot on goal.
“One thing we’ve been working on is kind of getting to the net front and trying to get better positioning on their defensemen,” VanTassell said. “Kind of a lucky bounce and [I] just kind of kept whacking at it and it went in.”
The Catamounts worked quickly to answer UMass’ goal. After a breakdown of the Minutemen defense, Max Strand found Timofei Spitserov, who worked the puck in front of the net and went bar down on UMass goaltender Michael Hrabal, capitalizing on UVM’s first shot on goal of the game.
The Minutemen’s offensive power came through with full force in the final minutes of play. With Hrabal pulled, the top six UMass forwards all worked the offensive zone to look for the equalizing score.
It was senior alternate captain Lucas Mercuri who found the man advantage goal. A shot from Kenny Connors up by the blue line was cut down by Mangbo into traffic. As the netminder worked to corral the puck, it crept through his blockers and Mercuri made a diving effort to bring it home past the goal line.
Despite the goal, the Minutemen couldn’t find another to equalize the score, even with continued attempts to drive the net. They put up a total of 11 shots through the final three and a half minutes.
“We got the looks, we just couldn’t bury,” Mercuri said. “But credit to [Mangbo], he played well.”
Mangbo stopped a career-high 38 shots, recording a .950 save percentage.
At the close of the first period, Luca Münzenberger passed the puck to Isak Walther, who moved across the crease, sticking front to back to flip the puck up past Hrabal to give the Catamounts a 2-1 lead.
Early in the third period, Aydar Suniev took a tripping penalty for UMass, putting UVM on the only power play of the game. The Minutemen defense showed out during those two minutes, disrupting passes and limiting the Catamounts’ offensive momentum, allowing them no shots on goal during the man advantage.
Suniev’s continual offensive efforts helped drive UMass’ chances. He led the team on Sunday with eight shots. In the first period, he skated the puck up the offensive zone, weaving through defenders. Suniev pushed to the crease, which he crossed to look for a backdoor attempt. When he couldn’t find that, he collected his own rebound by the point and took another shot attempt.
With three minutes left in the third period, Hrabal was pulled for the extra attacker. The Minutemen turned over the puck, leading to an Isak Walther takeaway. The UVM forward easily carried the puck past the UMass forwards to find the back of the empty net and cushion the Catamounts’ lead to 3-1 with just over a minute left on the clock.
Through the first and third period, the Minutemen outshot UVM 33-to-9.
“I thought we should’ve deserved to win. I thought we played hard,” UMass head coach Greg Carvel said. “…I thought our kids deserved better tonight.”
UMass returns on Friday, Nov. 29 when it will face Army West Point. Puck drop is set for 7 p.m. at Mullins Center.
“[We’ll] put one foot in front of the other, look at the next game coming up and then try and finish the first half off strong,” Mercuri said. “We’ve dealt with adversity here. We’re not scared of it so [we’ve] just got to keep going here.”
Caroline Burge can be reached at [email protected] and followed on X @Caroline_Burge
