AMHERST, Mass. - University of Massachusetts hockey rallied from a 1-0 first period deficit to knock off No. 15/14 Northeastern, 3-2 on Senior Night at the Mullins Center. With the win, the Minutemen move to 11-15-5 overall, 5-13-3 in Hockey East, while the Huskies fall to 15-11-5 overall and 12-6-3 in league action.
"That was a great way for the seniors to go out," said UMass head coach Greg Carvel. "Their last game at Mullins. I thought as a group they played extremely well. I tell you what, it felt like UMass hockey tonight and we haven't had that a lot this year. We carried a lead into the third and really played well. We had defensemen playing well. I think that's a big part of us playing well and scoring on the power play. I'm very proud of the group, very proud of the outgoing seniors."
Northeastern opened the scoring at the 9:21 mark in the first period as Jack Hughes collected the puck from Gunnarwolfe Fontaine at the left point and sent a centering pass to Justin Hryckowian who was alone at the top of the crease to net the power-play goal.
Minutes later, UMass tied the score at one. After Cole Brady turned aside a Huskies' chance, the rebound kicked to senior Cal Kiefiuk who was off to the races on an odd-man rush with junior Elliott McDermott joining him. As the duo closed in on Northeastern netminder Devon Levi, Kiefiuk dished the puck to McDermott who deposited it into an open net at 13:52.
Massachusetts converted on its lone power play of the night 41 seconds into the second period to pull in front, 2-1. Kiefiuk found senior Reed Lebster in the slot for a quick wrister. Freshman Kenny Connors earned the secondary helper on the play.
The Huskies knotted things up at 2-2, 8:57 into the second period when Liam Walsh finished off a pass from Matt Choupani on the doorstep after the play started with Vinny Borgesi lofting the puck out of the Northeastern zone.
UMass was quick to respond, however. Senior Jerry Harding's physical play caused a neutral zone turnover by Northeastern and graduate student Matt Koopman tapped the puck to sophomore Scott Morrow who skated in alone on Levi and tucked it around the goaltender at the right post at the 11:39 mark.
The Minutemen finished the night with a 26-24 edge in shots on goal and went 1-for-1 on the power play, while the Huskies were 1-for-3. Brady made 22 saves for UMass and Levi finished with 22 stops for Northeastern.
The teams will be back in action tomorrow night, February 25, at Matthews Arena with puck drop slated for 7:30 p.m. in Boston.
