A four-goal explosion in the third period from the No. 20 Massachusetts hockey team led it to a 5-3 victory over Harvard Friday night at the Mullins Center. A four point night from junior Cole O’Hara lifted the Minutemen (6-5-2, 1-3-2 Hockey East) in the third period when they needed his offensive support the most.
With the outcome of the game teetering on edge heading into the third period, UMass’ top six forwards answered the bell for the team.
Just under two minutes into the final frame, the Minutemen had a strong cycle working in the offensive zone. Lucas Mercuri picked up a loose puck in the corner and sent it up to Linden Alger at the point. Alger kept the puck in the offensive zone and kicked it over to his partner Kennedy O’Connor.
O’Connor recognized that O’Hara was left unguarded in front of the Harvard net after a lapse from the Crimson (2-3-1, 2-2-1 Eastern College Athletic Conference) and sent a shot on the ice towards the net. O’Hara lightly deflected the puck through Harvard goaltender Asa Koskenvuo’s five-hole to tie the game at two.
Less than four minutes later, the Minutemen took advantage of a hooking penalty from the Crimson to retake the lead for the first time since midway through the second period.
Once again it was O’Hara creating offense for UMass, as he streaked into the zone on a 3-on-2. O’Hara made a nifty move through a Harvard defender to give himself a shooting lane and sent a bullet at Koskenvuo’s blocker side. The netminder made the first save, but Dans Locmelis recognized where the rebound was going to pop to and put himself in a spot to one-time the puck into the open net.
Jack Musa and O’Hara added two insurance goals less than a minute apart midway through the third to seal the victory, despite Harvard’s late push when it was able to scrape a goal across in the final minute of the game.
“It’s good to see us score five goals again, that was our issue; [came from] the usual suspects,” head coach Greg Carvel said.
All five UMass goals were scored by its top six forwards, something that Carvel is happy to see while the team is shorthanded, battling through injuries to several forwards.
“We’re pretty shorthanded right now; our bottom two lines, if we get a goal out of them it’s going to be a huge bonus. So yeah, we’ve stacked two lines and those guys have to score for us and they did tonight.”
UMass outshot Harvard 16-3 in the first period and dominated puck possession time, but was ultimately left with nothing to show for it as Koskenvuo had a stellar period and made some acrobatic saves.
The Minutemen’s punch in the first was emphatically answered with one right back in the second period from the Crimson. After Suniev broke the ice with the first goal of the game three minutes into the second, the final 17 minutes solely belonged to Harvard. The Crimson scored two goals in a 23 second span in the middle of the period and outshot UMass 22-8 in the frame.
Both of Harvard’s goals came after severe misplays from the backend of the UMass roster. An uncovered Marek Hejduk was the beneficiary of a puck that kicked right into the slot as Minuteman goaltender Michael Hrabal allowed the puck to kick off of him when he was attempting to play it behind the net. Hejduk had no one to beat and easily tapped the puck in the bare net.
23 seconds later, Harvard forward Mick Thompson cut through the middle of the zone with the puck during a Crimson cycle. Both UMass defenders allowed him to cut across the goal and give him an easy shooting lane, where he made no mistake, sending a wrister past Hrabal.
The Minutemen will look to carry their first and third period play into a matinee matchup with Vermont Sunday, a HEA matchup that didn’t go in UMass’ favor when the two teams matched up just a few weeks ago. Puck drop Sunday Nov. 24 is slated for 3 p.m.
Matt Skillings can be reached at [email protected] and followed on X @matt_skillings.
