AMHERST, Mass. - An early two-goal lead helped University of Massachusetts hockey roll to a 7-3 win to complete its weekend sweep of Alaska at the Mullins Center on Saturday night. With the victory, the Minutemen improve to 13-10-2 on the year, while the Nanooks fall to 7-11-5.
"We were very opportunistic tonight," said UMass head coach Greg Carvel. "I don't think the score is indicative. I thought Alaska gave us a really good game and that we were very opportunistic in our scoring early on. It was pretty wide open. A little more wide open than I'd like it to be. I thought (Michael) Hrabal played really well all weekend, and it's three in a row, we'll take it and move on and try to make it four."
The Minutemen opened up the scoring at the 3:22 mark of the first as Lucas Mercuri's offensive zone faceoff win bounced through Nicholas Grabko and into the back of the Alaska net.
It quickly became 2-0 just 48 seconds later as a rebound from sophomores Dans Locmelis and Jack Musa amidst a scramble in front of the Alaska goal kicked out to Cole O'Hara in the slot for him to bury into the twine for his 13th goal of the season.
The Nanooks cut their deficit in half with Kyle Gaffney and Brendan Ross starting a rush up the ice that Matt Hubbard was able to tap home at the back post at the 9:29 mark of the opening frame.
UMass then made it a 3-1 margin at 11:55 with Mercuri hammering home a rebound after freshman Francesco Dell'Elce's initial attempt was stopped. Freshman Larry Keenan earned an assist on the play, as well.
Alaska pulled back within one 19 seconds into the second period when Chase Defoe's shot off a feed from Cade Ahrenholz banked off the end boards into goaltender Michael Hrabal and in.
Musa promptly gave the Minutemen back some breathing room, knocking the puck into an open net from the slot after graduate student Linden Alger picked up a pass from O'Hara and circled the offensive zone before setting up Musa at the 5:10 mark.
Locmelis then made it a 5-2 margin, converting on UMass' lone power play of the contest off a feed from juniors Lucas Olvestad and Kenny Connors at 18:14.
With 59 seconds to go in the frame, O'Hara pocketed his second of the night, redirecting a pass from Alger at the net front. Junior Kennedy O'Connor also earned an assist on the play.
Alaska, with an extra attacker on and the net empty, managed to score a power-play goal midway through the third with Dafoe cleaning up a rebound from Peyton Platter and Broten Sabo for his second of the contest at the 12:47 mark of the third.
Connors then pocketed an empty net goal from Musa and junior Owen Murray 15:13 into the final frame to complete the scoring.
The Nanooks finished the night with a 33-28 edge in shots and went 1-for-4 on the power play to UMass' 1-for-1.
Six Minutemen ended the evening with multi-point performances, led by O'Hara (2g, 1a) and Musa (1g, 2a) with three points each.
Hrabal totaled 30 saves in the win for UMass, while Grabko and Lassi Lehti posted 16 and five saves, respectively, for Alaska.
The Minutemen will be back in action next Friday, January, 31, when the squad will wrap up its series with Merrimack at 7 p.m. at the Mullins Center.
