The Massachusetts hockey team’s defense opened up scoring opportunities against Robert Morris University on Saturday evening to carve out an 8-0 win after falling to Cornell University on Friday. UMass’ (9-8-2, 2-5-2 Hockey East) defense put up four points collectively on two goals and two assists.
The victory secured the Minutemen third in the Desert Hockey Classic Tournament.
The Colonials (8-9-2, 5-5-1 Atlantic Hockey America) sparked up some momentum in the first two minutes of the second period after the Minutemen tired them out in the first period. UMass quickly took back control and put up three goals in one minute. Francesco Dell’Elce and Owen Murray scored the second and third goals of this stretch to give the Minutemen a cushion on the scoreboard, putting them up 4-0.
From Kenny Connors and Daniel Jenčko, Dell’Elce waited up the middle to collect the puck and find the perfect timing to snipe it past Robert Morris goaltender Croix Kochendorfer. The Colonials defender looked to block the freshman defenseman’s lane, but Dell’Elce paused just a moment for him to slide further over. With a slot opening up, Dell’Elce snuck the puck in on Kochendorfer’s right and tripled UMass’ lead.
Roughly 30 seconds later, Murray connected with Lucas Ölvestad and Aydar Suniev to quickly send the puck past Kochendorfer and extinguish Robert Morris’ early second-period spark.
Ölvestad worked the puck around coming in across from Kochendorfer’s right side, giving Murray time to position himself in front of the net on the left. As soon as the puck touched his stick, the junior defenseman immediately tapped it through a sliver of an opening.
The junior transfer also paved the way for assistant captain Ryan Lautenbach to tally the Minutemen’s seventh goal of the evening with the same distraction move. Ölvestad forced Kochendorfer to keep his eyes to the right as Lautenbach slid up on the left with a wide opening available to score his second goal.
UMass kept Robert Morris contained in the neutral zone and locked out of Jackson Irving’s net, only allowing 22 shots on goal.
The Minutemen clogged up the neutral zone, forcing the Colonials to play alongside the boards. Even when trying to set up scoring opportunities against Irving, UMass was quick to react and stayed on top to turn the puck over and send the game back between the blue lines.
On the 22 shots Robert Morris found, the Minutemen applied the right amount of pressure to close in on the Colonials in front of Irving and squeezed them alongside the boards to eliminate any organized attempts from the circles.
Though facing almost half the shots Kochendorfer faced, Irving bounced back from his performance against Cornell on Friday evening. As the Minutemen pushed off Robert Morris’ defensemen from creating screens, the sophomore goaltender kept his focus on the puck and followed it to avoid the Colonials from capitalizing on rebound opportunities. When they found a straight shot at UMass’ net, Irving was quick to sink down and keep chaos from ensuing in front of him.
He ended his night with his first shutout of his career in Michael Hrabal’s absence. The second-string goaltender also tallied an assist on Suniev’s first power play goal that opened scoring for the Minutemen.
“I’m not surprised … every time [Irving’s] gone in the net for us he’s been outstanding, really solid. He’s exceeded our expectations,” head coach Greg Carvel said. “… he’s a really good number two for us … I’m very happy for him because he’s a tremendous teammate.”
The Minutemen stay on the road to take on Northeastern University on Friday, Jan. 10. Puck drop in Matthews Arena is set for 7 p.m. to open the series against the Huskies. The game can be streamed on ESPN+.
Sydney Ciano can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter/X @SydneyCiano.
