AMHERST, Mass. - No. 10 University of Massachusetts hockey began the night with a 1-0 lead, but No. 4 Boston College converted three times on the power play to skate past the Minutemen, 6-3 on Saturday night at the Mullins Center. The setback leaves UMass at 14-7-1 overall, 7-4-1 in Hockey East play, while the Eagles improve to 13-5-0 and 7-3-0 in league action.
"Strange weekend of hockey where I think last night we stole a victory and tonight, if it wasn't for their power play, I thought we were the better team," said UMass head coach Greg Carvel. "I thought 5-on-5 our guys played really well, but Boston College really took advantage of everything that we gave them tonight. Their power play was outstanding, basically 4-for-5, and the few turnovers we made in the offensive zone they had some rushes up the ice for some nice goals. I actually didn't mind our game tonight, again 5-on-5 I thought we were very good. Last night goaltending was a big factor and I think it was again tonight, but playing the last four games against Denver and BC, I think it'll really help us going forward."
UMass opened the scoring 11:10 into the first with senior Jack Suter finding junior Mitchell Chaffee at the back post for the redirection after Bobby Trivigno won the puck in the neutral zone.
The Eagles responded, however, with David Cotton quickly converting the team's first power play opportunity of the night from Julius Mattila and Ben Finkelstein at 13:13.
This began a stretch of four straight tallies for BC, who took a 2-1 lead into the locker room at the first intermission after Mike Hardman buried a feed from Alex New Hook and Aapeli Rasanen on the rush at 16:24.
Boston College made it 3-1 just 2:03 into the second period as Marshall Warren's tally from Matt Boldy and Jack McBain chased UMass starter Filip Lindberg from the net.
Finklestein added the Eagles' second power-play goal of the contest at the 6:13 mark for a 4-1 advantage before sophomore Marc Del Gaizo deposited a puck from Chaffee and Trivigno at the doorstep to pull the Minutemen back to within two at 9:52.
BC added one more in the frame, with Matt Boldy driving a shot from the faceoff circle past junior Matt Murray at the 15:16 mark just as a penalty to senior Jake McLaughlin had expired.
Junior John Leonard opened the third period by wristing his team-leading 15th goal of the year past Spencer Knight from the top of the faceoff circles 50 seconds in, but Logan Hutsko dashed any hopes of a UMass rally, tacking on the Eagles' third power-play goal of the game at 11:46 to cap the scoring at 6-3.
The Minutemen out-shot Boston College, 31-25, but were 0-for-4 on the power play, while the Eagles went 3-for-5.
Murray had 12 saves in relief of Lindberg (seven saves), while Knight made 28 stops for Boston College.
Chaffee finished the contest with a goal and an assist for his eighth multi-point game of the season and Suter and Trivigno each added a pair of assists.
UMass will be on the road next weekend for two as the team will head to Vermont to face the Catamounts on Friday and Saturday, January 17-18. Both contests are scheduled for 7:05 p.m. starts.
