NORTH ANDOVER – The Massachusetts hockey team was once again unable to escape its inconsistency problems on Friday night, falling 3-2 to Merrimack at Lawler Arena. The Warriors (9-11-1, 5-6-1 Hockey East) gave UMass (10-10-2, 3-7-2 HEA) all kinds of problems in the offensive zone, making it difficult for the Minutemen to sustain pressure all night.
Trailing 2-1 with just over three minutes remaining in the third period, Michael Cameron took an untimely tripping penalty for UMass. In the midst of killing the penalty, Linden Alger sent an errant pass through the middle of the defensive zone, where it was picked up by Merrimack forward Michael Emerson.
Emerson had a clear lane at goaltender Michael Hrabal and sent a wrist shot at him. Hrabal made the initial save, but the rebound was tapped in by Ty Daneault, giving the Warriors what looked to be the dagger.
The Minutemen won the following face off at center ice and immediately pulled Hrabal to send out the extra skater. After a little over a minute of attack time for UMass, Lucas Olvestad and Francesco Dell’Elce made two passes to swing the puck around the offensive zone to Daniel Jenčko. Jenčko fired a bullet of a one-timer through a fray of bodies in front of Warrior goaltender Nils Wallström that found the back of the net to get UMass within one with 47 seconds left.
The Minutemen had a couple of quality looks at Wallström in the final seconds of desperation hockey, but Merrimack held strong until the clock ticked to zero, solidifying the win.
UMass has now dropped back to the tenth spot in the HEA standings, while Merrimack jumped up to a tie for the fifth spot with Providence and UMass Lowell.
“Our sixth and seventh defensemen got exposed for their two goals and our power play can’t score right now,” UMass head coach Greg Carvel said.
The power play has been one of the Minutemen’s strongest assets this season, but fell flat Friday night, failing to convert on any of their four man advantages. They are now 0 for their last 10.
Merrimack opened the scoring in the second period when freshman Nick Pierre tucked a partial-breakaway goal through Hrabal’s five-hole.
Aydar Suniev answered the bell four minutes later when he scored his 14th of the season with a suave one-man effort. Suniev picked up a loose puck in the neutral zone and evaded a Warrior forechecking. He then skated through the rest of the neutral zone unopposed and entered the offensive zone with numbers in his favor. As his linemates cut to the net, he opted to cut across the two Merrimack defenders in front of him to open up his shooting lane, where he sniped it over Wallström’s glove.
Tyler Young scored two minutes into the third period, forcing UMass to climb an uphill battle for the rest of the game.
“We don’t score goals easily. We want it to be pretty,” Carvel said of UMass’ offense.
Although the final shot total was even at 33-33, UMass had 73 shot attempts to Merrimack’s 44. The Warriors were tight in their defensive zone all game, negating more than half of the Minutemen’s shot attempts.
UMass and Merrimack will both make the bus ride to Amherst for game two of the series Saturday, Jan. 18. Puck drop at the Mullins Center is set for 7 p.m.
Matt Skillings can be reached at [email protected] and followed on X @matt_skillings.
