TROY, N.Y. - After going into the third tied 1-1, No. 9 University of Massachusetts hockey scored four times in the final period to pick up a 5-3 win at Rensselaer on Sunday evening. The Minutemen improve to 13-4-1 following their final game of the calendar year, while the Engineers fall to 6-10-1.

"It was a real tennis match," said UMass head coach Greg Carvel. "Goals back and forth, as soon as one team scored, the other team found a way to respond. You never know what you're going to get in these games post-break and both teams looked a little ragged. Us giving up three goals in a game, we haven't done that in a while, so that was a little concerning, but the resiliency to score goals tonight and to score a big power-play goal was good to see."

Despite beginning the game with a 9-0 shot advantage, UMass went to the locker room trailing 1-0 after one. Mike Gornall knocked in a rebound from Simon Kjellberg and Ottoville Leppanen on the power play to the put RPI on top at the 18:22 mark of the opening stanza.

The Minutemen leveled things up at 1-1, 5:43 into the second. Junior Oliver Chau fed senior Jack Suter from behind the net and Suter put home his own rebound from the top of the crease for his first of the season.

UMass finally pulled ahead 2-1, 6:35 into the third with Reed Lebster scoring on the power play off a pass from John Leonard and Mitchell Chaffee down low.

The Lebster tally sparked a flurry of scoring as the teams combined for five goals over the next six minutes and four seconds. Daniel DiGrande came up with an answering tally at 7:47 to knot the score at 2-2.

Just 54 seconds later, freshman Matthew Kessel crashed the net to put home a rebound from freshman Peyton Reeves and Chaffee to put the Minutemen in front once more.

RPI countered again at the 9:11 mark with Patrick Polino finishing off a pass from Chase Zieky and Zack Dubinsky, tying the score at 3-3.

Senior Niko Hildenbrand ended the rally by redirecting a shot from Marc Del Gaizo at the left point 12:39 into the third to put UMass in front for good. Hildenbrand later sealed the victory with his second of the night, an empty net goal at 19:43.

The Minutemen ended the contest with a 37-23 shot advantage and went 1-for-3 on the power play, while the Engineers were 1-for-4.

Goaltender Matt Murray totaled 20 saves to improve to 8-1-0 on the year and Alec Calvaruso stopped 32 shots for Rensselaer.

UMass will next travel to No. 6 Denver for a two-game set on Fri., Jan. 3, and Sat., Jan 4. Puck drop is slated for 9:07 p.m. Eastern for both games, with Friday's matchup airing on NESNPlus.