AMHERST, Mass.- University of Massachusetts hockey senior captain Bobby Trivigno dished four assists and added an empty net goal to help carry the No. 10/9 Minutemen past LIU, 6-3 on Friday night at the Mullins Center. The win moves the Minutemen to 14-8-2 on the year, while the Sharks fall to 8-16-3.
"Mostly positives tonight, the only thing I didn't like about the game was they get three goals on 13 shots and two of the goals were odd-man rushes," said UMass head coach Greg Carvel. "I didn't think we were hard enough above the puck for the goals and a few other times during the game, but otherwise a pretty solid effort."
Trivigno factored in five of the six tallies on the evening for the first five-point game by a Minuteman since James Marcou had five helpers at Vermont on November 24, 2009.
UMass opened the scoring 10:15 into the contest when Trivigno picked up the puck from junior Matt Kessel behind the Minutemen net and skated coast-to-coast, curling around the LIU cage and dishing to senior Garrett Wait for a point-blank strike.
Freshman Ryan Ufko then made it a 2-0 margin at the 11:53 mark, converting on the power play from the perimeter after Trivigno fed him at the point. Sophomore Josh Lopina registered an assist on the tally, as well.
The Sharks took one back 17:19 into the stanza as Jordan Timmons redirected in a shot at the post from John Gormley and Carson Musser, cutting their deficit to one.
UMass quickly responded as Trivigno found Kessel alone in the slot just 39 seconds later for a quick strike that expanded the advantage to 3-1.
LIU made it a one-goal game once more at the 12:33 mark of the second period with Jack Quinn finishing off an odd-man rush from Spencer Cox.
Lopina put the Minutemen back up by two before the intermission, roofing a pass from freshman Scott Morrow and Trivigno over Vincent Purpura on the power play at 19:02.
LIU's Preston Brodziak crashed the net and poked home a pass from Quinn to close the gap to 4-3 at the 3:44 mark of the third period.
However, junior Cal Kiefiuk picked a corner off a feed from senior Anthony Del Gaizo at 13:26 to give UMass some breathing room and Trivigno later added an empty net goal from Wait with five seconds left in the period.
The Minutemen out-shot the Sharks, 34-13 and went 2-for-4 on the power play, while LIU was 0-for-1. Goaltender Matt Murray totaled 10 saves on the night and Purpura had 28 stops for the Sharks.
The two teams will be back in action tomorrow, February 5, at 7 p.m. at the Mullins Center.
