HAMDEN, Conn. - No. 1 University of Massachusetts hockey saw its program-record and nation's best nine-game winning streak come to an end on Friday night, falling on the road to No. 8 Quinnipiac, 4-0 at a sold out Frank Perrotti Jr. Arena. The loss leaves the Minutemen at 12-2-0, while the Bobcats improve to 14-2-0 on the year.
"Quinnipiac came out very hard and we weren't quite ready to compete at that level," said UMass head coach Greg Carvel. "It's very discouraging to let up a goal on the first or second shift of the game. We had a lot of pucks bouncing around the goaltender. I think the fact that none of those found the back of the net was kind of indicative of our compete level. We went into this game highly respectful of our opponent. I was scared to death of this team. I know how well they're playing. I know how well they're coached. I think we had a handful of guys that weren't ready to play tonight. Their goaltender played extremely well and we missed a couple wide open goals that would have made a big difference if we could have tied the game at one or at least got it to 2-1. I give a lot of credit to Quinnipiac. They were excited to play us."
The Bobcats opened the scoring just 42 seconds into the first period. Wyatt Bongiovanni cleaned up a loose puck to the left of freshman netminder Filip Lindberg from Chase Priskie and Odeen Tufto to give Quinnipiac a 1-0 advantage.
Though UMass had the majority of the chances in the second and out-shot the Bobcats 11-6 in the frame, Quinnipiac managed to add another to their lead, going up 2-0 midway through the period. Off a faceoff in the Minutemen's zone, Zach Metsa connected with a feed from Joe O'Connor for a one-timer from point-blank range at the 12:56 mark.
Craig Martin then contributed two tallies for the Bobcats in the third, at 12:34 and an empty net goal at 16:37 to complete the scoring.
The Minutemen out-shot Quinnipiac, 32-26, and went 0-for-1 on the power play, while the Bobcats were 0-for-3. Lindberg (3-2-0) totaled 22 saves for UMass and his counterpart, Andrew Shortridge (6-0-0), had 32 stops for the Bobcats.
UMass and Quinnipiac will close out the weekend series tomorrow night, Dec. 8, at the Mullins Center at 7:30 p.m. Doors will open at 6 p.m. to accommodate an expected capacity crowd. Fans are encouraged to wear white to the game for #ChillTheBill and bring stuffed toys for the post-game Teddy Bear Toss.
