MANKATO, Minn. - University of Massachusetts hockey never trailed, putting up two goals in each period to claim a 6-3 victory over #19/20 Minnesota State at Mayo Clinic HSEC on Friday. The win moves the Minutemen to 3-1-0, while the Mavericks fall to 2-1-0 on the year.
"It's a tough place to play," said UMass head coach Greg Carvel. "It was the kind of game I expected and I'm really proud of our group. We got out to an early lead, there was a pushback and in the third period we pulled away. It's a really good sign the last two games that our third periods have been our best. That always was the case a few years ago when we were winning more than we were losing, third periods were our strength and tonight we were dominant in the third."
Freshman Aydar Suniev opened the scoring at the 6:02 mark of the first period with his first collegiate goal, cleaning up a rebound at the net front from senior Aaron Bohlinger and freshman Jack Musa.
Musa then pushed the lead to 2-0 with a power-play goal in the final minute of the frame as he finished off a centering feed from junior Scott Morrow from the slot with junior Ryan Ufko picking up the secondary helper.
The Mavericks responded at 1:19 in the second period by halving their deficit as Adam Eisele buried a one-timer from Luc Wilson and Jakob Stender from the left faceoff circle.
Minnesota State then leveled the score at 2-2 when Brenden Olson put back a rebound from Connor Gregga and Evan Murr 5:52 into the frame.
Less than a minute later, junior Ryan Lautenbach responded by picking a corner off a feed from Morrow to put UMass back in front.
Wilson pulled the Mavericks level once more at the 11:56 mark, but Lautenbach once again had the answer, collecting his second of the night on a shorthanded 2-on-1 from junior Lucas Mercuri 18:56 into the second.
UMass added a pair in the third to wrap up the win with Mercuri finding the back of the net with a redirection from sophomore Cole O'Hara and Bohlinger on the power play at 11:52.
O'Hara capped the scoring 49 seconds later, tipping home a puck from sophomore Michael Cameron and Morrow.
The teams finished level in shots with 31 apiece, while the Minutemen went 2-for-5 on the power play and a perfect 6-for-6 on the penalty kill.
UMass put together a dominant effort over the faceoff dots, winning 36-of-62 (58.1%) of the draws, led by graduate students Lucas Vanroboys (11-for-15, 73.3%) and Liam Gorman (10-for-13, 76.9%).
Freshman Michael Hrabal made 28 saves to pick up his second straight win for the Minutemen and Alex Tracy turned aside 25 in net for the Mavericks.
Six UMass players finished with multi-point nights, led by Morrow's three helpers. Musa, Mercuri and O'Hara all chipped in a goal and an assist apiece, Bohlinger had two assists and Lautenbach scored twice.
The teams will close out their weekend series tomorrow, Oct. 21, with game two slated to begin at 7:07 p.m. ET.
