AMHERST – New UMass coach Greg Carvel has been concerned about his team’s consistency and competitiveness all season. Those concerns came to a head, Friday in the Minutemen’s 4-1 loss to New Hampshire in their Hockey East opener at the Mullins Center.
“(Consistency) is a real concern. It’s my biggest concern,” Carvelsaid. “It’s day to day around here. We’re trying to teach guys how to be consistent. Our game is directly reflective of where our team is at right now. Some days we come to practice ready and some days we don’t. It’s a big part of the learning process of how to be a successful team. We play O.K. in spurts, but then we do things to shoot ourselves in the foot.
“Consistency is a big word for me as a coach,” Carvel added. “There’s a standard we want to be at and it’s got to be every night. Right now I’m not sure what that standard is. We might have a decent game and then we fall off pretty quickly. Consistency is a major issue right now.”
UNH goalie Danny Tirone didn’t make an eye-popping number of saves with 26 in the game, but the Wildcat junior was up to the task in big spots preventing UMass from getting any confidence on offense.
“I thought Tirone was solid, he made key saves at key times to keep us in the lead,” UNH coach Dick Umile said. “He battled. He was quick. There were shots, when they threw it to the net, where there was a lot of traffic in front. You never know what’s going to happen, but he was solid.”
Both teams seemed to be feeling each other out in the early going with neither carrying the play, but UNH grabbed a 1-0 lead late in the first period when Michael McNicholas jammed home a rebound on the power play with 3:56 left.
“We weren’t ready to play our first league game of the year,” Carvel said. “The first period was a pretty poor effort for us.
The Wildcats doubled their edge 2:59 into the second when Brendan van Riemsdyk fed Laim Blackburn in the left wing face off circle and the freshman center one-timed it home to make it 2-0.
UMass appeared to get momentum late in the second period. With two Wildcats in the penalty box serving the latest in this season’s continued parade of penalties, the Minutemen attacked the short 5-on-3 aggressively. Freshman defenseman Shane Bear scored the first goal of his college career when his low slapshot from the slot side of the left circle snuck through Tirone’s legs with 6:06 left in the middle frame.
The play seemed to energize the Minutemen, who carried the play for much of the remainder of the period but couldn’t poke home the tying goal.
UMass’ energy didn’t carry into the third. Dylan Maller stretched UNH’s edge back to two goals quickly. He carried the puck into the right wing corner and Wischow overcommitted. Maller wheeled around behind the net and backhanded the puck into the open goal mouth, 52 seconds into the period to make it 3-1.
“That was a huge goal and a great play,” Umile said.
UMass sophomore Ryan Badger said thought UMass didn’t respond well.
“We have to find a way to bounce back and get our momentum going again after things like that happen,” UMass sophomore Badger said.
Shane Eiseman made it 4-1 on another power play goal in the third. Given too much room to operate in the slot, he took a pass from behind the net and then picked the top corner with 10:30 left to provide the knockout blow.
Wischow finished with 27 saves for the Minutemen.
“He made some solid saves, but had some goals that shouldn’t have gone in,” Carvel said. “But in no way was this a game that the goaltender lost. I’m much more concerned about the team in front of him.”
UMass (2-3-0, 0-1-0 Hockey East) will host No. 8 Boston College tonight at 7.