AMHERST, Mass. - Freshmen combined for two goals and seven of the squad's 11 points to help lift No. 13 Massachusetts hockey past Merrimack by a 4-3 margin on Friday night at the Mullins Center. The win moves the Minutemen to 12-5-3 on the season, 5-3-2 in Hockey East, while the Warriors slide to 9-10-1, 2-7-1 in league action.
"We needed a regulation win, and it wasn't easy, it never is against Merrimack, but solid win," said UMass head coach Greg Carvel. I didn't like our start, but once we got going, I liked our game. It was good to go into the third with a lead and try to put the game away and we did. It wasn't exactly as we hoped, but it was good the power play scored a big goal and it's great when your best players on the ice are freshmen."
Late in the first period, freshman Jack Musa opened the scoring with his team-leading ninth of the year at the 14:20 mark, burying a one-timer from the right faceoff circle off a feed from sophomore Owen Murray at the opposite point after he received the puck from freshman Aydar Suniev.
To start the second, the Warriors came up with the equalizer in the opening minute as Matt Copponi's wrap around from Zach Bookman went to video review and was ruled to have crossed the goal line.
The Minutemen then regained the advantage 6:31 into the second when freshman Cam O'Neill won a puck battle below the goal line and found Ryan Lautenbach creeping down the slot for the finish.
Freshman Dans Locmelis then gave UMass a two-goal cushion at the 10:23 mark. Senior Linden Alger collected a pass from Suniev and stickhandled around a Merrimack defender to set up Locmelis for the open net with a tape-to-tape pass across the slot.
The Warriors responded by closing the gap back to one, as Ben Brar sent a redirection past goaltender Michael Hrabal for a power-play tally at 13:01 from Bookman and Alex Jefferies.
With the Minutemen holding a 3-2 lead in the third, junior Ryan Ufko sent a blast through traffic from Suniev and Musa for a power-play goal 2:44 into the frame, stretching the margin back to two.
Jefferies then completed the scoring for Merrimack at the 11:30 mark, tucking a shot past Hrabal at the near post from Filip Forsmark and Ivan Zivlak.
The Warriors finished with a 34-24 advantage in shots and both teams went 1-for-3 on the power play. Hrabal had 31 saves in his first game back from the World Junior Championship and Zachary Borgiel turned aside 20 between the pipes for Merrimack.
