AMHERST, Mass. - Led by a four-point night for junior Cole O'Hara, a four-goal third period helped lift No. 20 Massachusetts hockey to a 5-3 win over Harvard on Friday night at the Mullins Center. With the victory, the Minutemen move to 6-5-2 on the year, while the Crimson falls to 2-3-1.
"I don't think I've ever coached a game where we dominated the first period so badly and got dominated in the second period," said UMass head coach Greg Carvel. "The issue to me was we played that well and didn't have a goal to show for it, and then I think our guys just took their foot off the gas, started cheating the game, and then we get that bad bounce. I give Harvard credit, they didn't have much life in the first, but they had a ton of life in the second. I give our guys credit for coming back out in the third and out-scoring them 4-1. I thought our defense was a showed young, immature decisions at times. We thought we worked our way away from that, but they are young. They're going to have some off nights, but it's good to see us score five goals again. That was our issue, and it's the usual suspects."
UMass opened the scoring when sophomore Aydar Suniev put home a rebound at the net front from senior Lucas Mercuri and O'Hara amidst a scramble for the puck at the 2:59 mark of the second period.
Harvard leveled the score at 1-1 after a long-range dump in from Mick Thompson ricocheted off the end boards to Marek Hejduk who crashed the net to put the puck home at 8:31. Mick Thompson earned the secondary helper on the play.
Thompson then added a goal of his own 23 seconds later, sending a shot past Michael Hrabal along the ice from close range off a feed from Lucas St. Lous and Casey Severo.
Just 1:56 into the third period, O'Hara redirected a shot from junior Kennedy O'Connor at the right point past netminder Aku Koskenvuo to level the score at 2-2. Graduate student Linden Alger collected an assist, as well.
Sophomore Dans Locmelis put the Minutemen back in front on the power play at the 5:45 mark. O'Hara gained the offensive zone after collecting the puck from junior Kenny Connors and fired a shot that was turned aside by Koskenvuo. However, Locmelis was there at the back post to bang home the rebound into an open net.
Sophomore Jack Musa pushed the margin to 4-2, 10:17 into the third, redirecting in a shot from Alger at the left point after Locmelis won a battle for the puck along the half wall.
Less than a minute later, O'Hara added the fifth and final tally for UMass with a top corner snipe from the left faceoff circle off a feed from Mercuri and Suniev.
The Crimson capped the scoring in at the 19:18 mark, as Joe Miller converted with the extra attacker on for Harvard.
The teams ended the night level in shots at 40 apiece. UMass was 1-for-2 on the power play and 2-for-2 on the penalty kill.
Hrabal totaled 37 saves for the Minutemen and Koskenvuo had 35 stops for the Crimson.
Five Massachusetts players had multi-point efforts, led by O'Hara's two goals and two assists. Alger (2a), Locmelis (1g, 1a), Mercuri (2a) and Suniev (1g, 1a) all contributed two points apiece in the victory.
UMass will return to action on Sunday, November 24, when the squad plays host to Vermont at the Mullins Center at 3 p.m.
