LOWELL — The No.17 Massachusetts hockey team picked up a 5-3 win on the road over No. 16 UMass Lowell on Saturday. The win is important for the Minutemen (18-12-4, 9-9-4 Hockey East) as it puts them at No. 12 in pairwise, keeping their NCAA Tournament hopes alive.
The win also makes head coach Greg Carvel the all-time winningest coach in UMass hockey history with 167 victories.
“This is one of the bigger regular season wins for me,” Carvel said. “Not because of any milestone. This was the next step for this team.”
Heading into the third period, the Minutemen held a one goal lead on the River Hawks (15-13-4, 8-11-3 HEA) but the period shifted the game for both teams. Jack Musa opened the scoring in the third period on a pass from Lucas Mercuri. Skating through the neutral zone, Mercuri passed to Musa along the boards. The sophomore picked up the puck before shooting it on the goal line. The puck went behind goaltender Beni Halasz head and into the net.
Musa’s goal gave UMass a 3-1 lead, but Lowell didn’t back down. Exactly two minutes later, Libor Nemec sent the puck past goaltender Michael Hrabal. Then, less than four minutes after that, River Hawk captain Owen Cole scored to knot the game at three goals apiece.
The Minutemen, though, found some wind less than two minutes after the River Hawks’ third goal. Kennedy O’Connor backhanded a pass to Ryan Lautenbach in the neutral zone. Lautenbach tapped the puck to Kenny Connors who skated by a Lowell defender. Connors shot the puck past Halasz’s right shoulder for UMass’ second lead of the game.
“Just trying to have a shooter’s mentality,’’ Connors said about the goal.
Owen Murray was the one to cement the win, shooting the puck from the corner of the defensive zone into an empty net at the other end of the ice.
“We don’t usually score a lot of goal in these games against Lowell,” Carvel said. “…For us to find a way to get four [goals] and an empty netter is a statement for me.”
The Minutemen got out to a hot start, scoring just over a minute into the first period. Dans Locmelis came streaking down the ice and passed to Daniel Jenčko. The freshman forward quickly got the puck to Aydar Suniev who sent a shot on goaltender Beni Halasz. The goaltender blocked the shot but the rebound landed on Larry Keenan’s stick along the boards on the blue line. Keenan got the puck to Suniev who shot it to put UMass up early and give the team momentum.
Just over three minutes later, the Minutemen scored again after Locmelis drew a penalty on Lowell. Musa in front of the crease passed to Cole O’Hara. The junior was sitting on the right side of the net and sent an easy one timer past the goaltender and extended UMass’ lead to two goals.
The goal put the junior in the UMass history books for the longest point streak, tallying a point in 12 straight games.
In the second period, the Minutemen went scoreless, but the River Hawks found their first lamp lighter of the game. Suniev was whistled for slashing, putting Lowell on its first man advantage of the game. Chris Delaney along the boards passed to Nick Anderson at center ice. The Minnesota native quickly sent a wrist shot on goaltender Michael Hrabal. Lee Parks on the right post tipped the puck past the goaltender to cut UMass’ lead in half.
The goal came after O’Hara blocked a hard shot which sent him down on the ice. The Hobey Baker candidate got up to defend the UMass net before quickly skating to the bench. Nick VanTassell played a shift with the top line to replace O’Hara before the junior came back for his next shift.
“You’ve seen that before,” Carvel said about O’Hara’s block. “We talked about it last weekend or the [Boston College] week, he’s blocking shots at the end of the game. Jack Musa is blocking shots at the end of the game. You need your best players to be your highest character to be a good team.”
Hrabal also came up big for UMass throughout the 60 minutes. In the third period, Jak Vaarwerk attempted a wraparound goal. As Vaarwerk reached the left post, Hrabal shifted from the right post to the left post and sprawled out for the save. He totaled 29 saves throughout Saturday night.
UMass will have its last regular season series next weekend against Maine at the Mullins Center. The series is set to start on Friday, March 7 at 7 p.m.
“We [have got to] beat this Maine team,” Carvel said. “It’s gonna help us in every possible way.”
Kayla Gregoire can be reached at [email protected] and followed on X/Twitter @Kaygregoire.
