AMHERST, Mass.- No. 11 University of Massachusetts hockey used eight different goal scorers to a defeat Alaska Anchorage 11-2 at the Mullins Center Friday night. The 11 tallies set a new program record for most goals against a Division I opponent as the Minutemen move to 10-4-1, while the Seawolves drop to 6-12-1 on the year.
"A lot of goals, a lot of chances," said UMass head coach Greg Carvel. "I really liked our first and third period, the second period I wasn't happy with. We took our foot off the gas, but the guys responded and it was great to see Jackson Irving get a chance. He's a great kid, good young goalie. I don't think any goalie has ever had their first minutes in net be a 5-on-3 power play against and he made some huge saves, so it was great to see him. There was a lot of offense, but we gave up a little more offense than I would've like to see tonight."
Fourteen Minutemen found their way onto the scoresheet in the contest, including nine multi-point performances. Junior Ryan Ufko and freshman Aydar Suniev led the way with career highs of four points apiece, each with a goal and three assists. Junior Scott Morrow (2g, 1a) and freshman Jack Musa (1g, 2a) had three points each, while Morrow was one of three multi-goal scoreres, joined by freshman Dans Locmelis and junior Taylor Makar. Freshman Cam O'Neill contributed a goal and an assist for his first collegiate multi-point game and defensemen Sebastian Törnqvist and Owen Murray both finished with two helpers.
In his first game back from injury, sophomore Michael Cameron put UMass out in front at the 2:37 mark of the first period. The Berwyn, Pennsylvania native out-skated a pair of defenders and beat UAA goaltender Jared Whale for the game's first goal while juniors Ryan Lautenbach and Ufko picked up the assists.
Less than two minutes later, Suniev doubled the UMass lead with his fifth tally of the season on a delayed penalty. Ufko earned his second helper while Musa recorded his first point of the night.
Continuing the scoring, Ufko netted a power play goal to give him a three-point first period, set up by Morrow and Suniev at the 7:31 mark.
Midway through the frame, O'Neill scored his second of the season to put the Minutemen up 4-0. Fellow Senators' draft pick Nick VanTassell recorded his first collegiate point with the assist while Lucas Vanroboys added the secondary helper.
To round out the scoring in the opening stanza, Murray and Musa set up Locmelis for his third goal of the season at 16:25.
Just 10 seconds into the second period, the Seawolves got on the board with a tally from Maximilion Helgeson. However at 7:07, Morrow regained the five-goal advantage off Törnqvist's first collegiate point as well as O'Neill's second assist of the contest.
After Riley Thompson added the second tally for Alaska Anchorage 9:38 into the period, Makar responded for UMass to bring the score to 7-2 at the 17:09 mark.
In the final frame, the Minutemen picked up right where they left off as Murray found Locmelis for his second goal of the evening just 1:54 in.
A minute and 26 seconds later, Musa added another for the Minutemen on a power play, as Suniev and Ufko picked up the assists.
At the 9:33 mark, Makar became the second Minuteman to score a pair of goals in the game to extend the UMass lead to eight. Cole O'Hara and Kenny Connors' work behind the net set up the tally.
Morrow then capped the scoring with a power-play goal at 19:58 from Törnqvist and Suniev.
UMass finished with a 37-26 advantage in shots and went 3-for-4 on the power play and 3-for-3 on the penalty kill.
Senior Cole Brady turned aside 18 in net for the Minutemen before being relieved by Irving who made six stops over his first 8 minutes, 50 second of collegiate action.
The teams will close out the weekend series tomorrow, December 9, at the Mullins Center with puck drop set for 7 p.m.
