2023-10-15 03:53:03
AMHERST, Mass. – A Hockey East era program-record six third period goals lifted the University of Massachusetts hockey team over #6 Michigan, 6-3 on Saturday night in front of a sellout crowd of 8,412 at the Mullins Center. The win moves the Minutemen to 2-1-0 on the year, while the Wolverines fall to 2-2-0.
“I said last night to the team following the game, it was an ugly score but I wasn’t upset because I see a lot of good pieces here,” said UMass head coach Greg Carvel. “We’ve got a lot of pieces there and I’m proud and happy that the kids got rewarded. They played hard and the message going into the third period was ‘This is the sixth period and I think we’re wearing them down. Keep pushing, keep pushing.’ I said if we get one, we’ll get two, we’ll get three—I forgot to keep counting. I never lost hope; 5-on-5 the kids played hard. It’s a big win for our program. It’s a big win for the confidence of our team and a big win that we had a full building for and finally gave them something to cheer regarding at the end of the third period.”
After a scoreless first, Michigan broke through for the first tally of the night with Jacob Truscott and Jackson Hallum setting up Frank Nazar III for the tally with one second remaining on their power play 4:36 into the second.
The Wolverines then doubled their lead 1:50 later as Garrett Schifsky put back a rebound following Nick Moldenhauer rung his shot off the post.
Midway through the period, Michigan’s Steven Holtz was sent off for cross checking, resulting in a five-minute UMass, power play, but the Minutemen were unable to convert and went into the third still in search of their first of the night.
At the 3:30 mark of the third, junior Ryan Ufko put Massachusetts on the board with a power-play goal from freshman Jack Musa and senior Liam Gorman as he crashed the net and cleaned up the loose puck in front for his second of the season.
Just 54 seconds later, Owen Murray snapped a wrister over Barczewski’s shoulder to knot the game at two apiece, with Ufko and Taylor Makar collecting the assists.
Scott Morrow then netted the go-ahead goal at the 6:06 mark from Ufko and Musa on the power play, which was awarded off a video review nearly four minutes of game play later as his one-timer rung off the center bar and came back out in a flash.
Sophomore Kenny Connors pushed the UMass advantage to two 13:14 into the final frame, trailing the play on an odd-man rush and finishing off a feed from Musa.
With the Michigan net empty, graduate student Lucas Vanroboys picked up his first two tallies of his UMass career at 16:38 and 18:03, respectively, with Morrow assisting the second to give him a two-point night.
In the final minute of play, T.J. Hughes capped the scoring for the Wolverines with a 6-on-4 power-play goal.
Massachusetts ended the contest with a 31-27 shot advantage and both teams went 2-for-7 on the power play. The Minutemen went 36-for-65 (55.4%) over the faceoff dots, led by Connors’ 16-for-23 (69.6%) effort.
Freshman goaltender Michael Hrabal made 24 saves and earned the win in his collegiate debut., while Jake Barczewski totaled 25 stops for Michigan.
Ufko finished the evening with a three-point night with a goal and two assists and was +4, while Musa dished three assists, joining Morrow and Vanroboys to round out the group of Minutemen with multiple points in the contest.
UMass will return to action on Friday, October 20, when the team will play at Minnesota State for the first time. The contest is set for an 8:07 p.m. Eastern start.
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