The No. 11 Massachusetts hockey team fell to the Northeastern Huskies 4-2 on Friday night in front of a sold-out Mullins Center crowd. The Minutemen (3-1, 0-1 Hockey East) struggled to find any sort of offensive rhythm in their conference opener after giving up double-digit shot totals to the Huskies (2-1, 1-0 HEA) in both the first and third periods.
“Last two periods we played pretty well, but the bottom line is we didn’t look like the team I usually see from UMass,” Carvel said. “We didn’t look like the team we usually do.”
With just over 12 minutes left in the contest, the Minutemen won a power play, trailing by two goals. UMass worked the puck around for 30 seconds without producing a shot. Then, sophomore forward Daniel Jenčko unleashed a wrister off the right blocker of Northeastern goaltender Lawton Zacher. The rebound slid right into the path of Jack Musa, who poked at it a couple times, and then produced a behind-the-back shot to push the puck into the net.
However, the Minutemen struggled to find any momentum following Musa’s goal. Head coach Greg Carvel pulled UMass goaltender Michael Hrabal with just over a minute to go. The Minutemen created a few chances, including a hip-high shot from Francesco Dell’Elce, which ended up in Zacher’s glove.
UMass went into the third period down a goal, and it didn’t get better after the initial puck drop.
The Minutemen established the offensive zone in the first minute of the period, but couldn’t settle after they couldn’t connect on a pass, Joe Connor approached Hrabal with the forehand, but quickly shifted to the backhand to send it right by Hrabal’s left blocker to make it 2-0 for the Huskies.
“Even at the end there with the empty net, we had the puck on our stick and we passed it to them,” Carvel said. “That happened a lot tonight.”
In the middle parts of the second period, UMass built its best frame of sustained offense.
With less than seven minutes left in the period, junior forward Bo Cosman broke through for the first time in his career as a Minuteman. UMass produced a well-worked attack up the left boards in the neutral zone courtesy of Cam O’Neill.
The Senators’ draft pick played a neat pass off the boards into the offensive zone for Cosman, who saw a streaking Owen Mehlenbacher. The Georgia native tried to center it to a fairly open Mehlenbacher, but earned a goal instead. The puck ended up tipping off of Northeastern defender Joaquim Lemay’s stick and snuck by Zacher to cut the Husky lead in half.
“I like [the way] we came out in the second period with the first shift,” Carvel said. “We were in the zone and buzzing, and then the puck came to the blue line. We get a bad bounce and a bad breakaway. That was tough.”
Cosman and his teammates erupted after the special moment.
“I don’t really remember, and it’s been a long time coming,” Cosman said. “I’m really grateful for everyone, and I tried to make that play over to [Mehlenbacher] and got lucky. It hit a stick and went in.”
The Huskies’ offensive pursuit began early, putting 12 shots on the board in the first period. Almost two minutes into the game, Northeastern forward Amine Hajibi played a pass back to Jack Henry at the point. Henry unleashed a scorching wrister, which Griffin Erdman deflected home.
“The group seemed really tired for some reason,” Carvel said. “A lot of guys didn’t have legs, which was really shocking. I don’t want to make excuses. Northeastern played very well. We didn’t do enough to neutralize them.
“A rough first period for us tonight,” Carvel said. “We weren’t ready to start the game tonight, it was obvious.”
Hrabal ended the game with 29 saves on 33 shots. Zacher saved 25 shots on 27 UMass attempts towards the net. Olvestad, O’Neill, Jenčko and Dell’Elce all provided assists in the Minutemen loss.
“I thought Michael Hrabal was outstanding and gave us a chance to make the game close,” Carvel said.
UMass continues its weekend slate Saturday night against Bentley, the reigning Atlantic Hockey America conference champions. Puck drop is at 7:30 p.m. in Amherst and can be streamed on ESPN+.
Zeke Altman can be reached at [email protected] and followed on X @EzekielAltman
