Turnovers proved costly for the Massachusetts hockey team in its loss to Northeastern. Three of the four goals scored by the Huskies ( 2-1, 1-0 Hockey East) came directly from UMass (3-1, 0-1 HEA) turnovers, and sloppy stickhandling throughout the game made it difficult for the Minutemen to generate sustained momentum.

With three minutes left in the second period, down just one goal, freshman Lukas Klecka took the puck into Northeastern’s zone and attempted a drop pass to defenseman Larry Keenan. The sophomore didn’t control the puck cleanly, and the Huskies’ Jacob Mathieu easily knocked him off the puck while Tyler Fukakusa picked the puck up and sprung Giacomo Martino on the left wing. Martino blew by the retreating UMass defenders, came down on Michael Hrabal all alone and chipped it over the blocker side to give his team a two-goal lead going into the final period of play.

In the first minute of the second period, the Minutemen had some sustained pressure in the opposing zone, passing the puck around. However, when Jack Musa played the puck back to captain Owen Murray, he bobbled it and the puck snuck behind him while Joe Connor blew right by him, picking up the puck on the way to a breakaway against Hrabal. The UMass goaltender made many important saves in the game, but he couldn’t stop Connor’s speedy deke to the backhand cutting in front of the crease.

“[We] just [need to] manage pucks better,” Murray said. “When we get the puck below their goal line and go to work, kind of play our game, just manage pucks. Not usually a problem we have, so we just have to get back to it tomorrow.”

In the final moment of the game with the extra attacker on and Hrabal on the bench, the Minutemen needed a goal to tie the game, but another turnover was the final dagger in UMass’ comeback hopes.  Daniel Jenčko received the puck at his own goal line and attempted to pass the puck to one of his teammates leaving the zone, but instead sent the puck right to Vinny Borgesi, who promptly passed it to Dylan Hryckowian. The junior from Quebec hammered a one-timer into the empty net to make it a 4-2 game.

“I didn’t think we managed the puck very well, turned a lot of pucks over, even at the end of the empty net,” head coach Greg Carvel said.  “We had the puck on our stick and we passed it to them. That happened a lot tonight.”

The Minutemen’s struggles handling the puck also prevented UMass from consistently setting up in the offensive zone. On the power play early in the third period, Francesco Dell’Elce failed to control a simple pass back to the point and the puck passed the blue line. A rushed reentry resulted in an offside, and an additional 20 seconds ticked off the power play after the Huskies won the ensuing face-off.

With just 1:35 left and the Minutemen looking to pull the goalie with possession deep in the offensive zone, the puck was played back to Dell’Elce. For the second time in the period, the sophomore lost control of the puck and was forced to regroup in the neutral zone.

UMass will look to clean up the turnovers in Saturday’s game against Bentley. The game will be played at 7:30 p.m. at the Mullins Center for the second of the family weekend games and can be streamed on ESPN+.

Myles Donato can be reached at [email protected] and followed on X @myles_donato.