Bobby Trivigno kicked the door down, and the rest of the UMass hockey team followed.
The Minutemen’s junior alternate captain snuck two goals past UMass Lowell short side in the first period Saturday night, sparking a dominant 5-0 win. It was UMass’ first regulation victory and shutout since Jan. 6 against New Hampshire.
Trivigno first struck 8 minutes, 29 seconds in, collecting a loose puck shortly after it entered the offensive zone. None of the Lowell defenders closed him down at the right circle, and he wristed the puck past Owen Savory’s glove. Garrett Wait picked up an assist.
“He’s a small guy, but he can really dart and he can really jump in the hole,” UMass coach Greg Carvel said. “He’s not a natural goalscorer, but when you do things fast like he does a lot of pucks will find the back of the net.”
Trivigno, who had his first multi-goal game of the season, approached from the left for his second tally. Wait again fed his entry pass, and Trivigno shot high by Savory’s helmet for a 2-0 lead with 7:36 remaining in the period. He sat on the bench and grinned, perhaps surprised the attempt went in at all.
“He leads by example better than anybody on our team,” Carvel said. “He came into this season with something to prove, and I think he’s proved it. He’s made a statement this year.”
The strong start impressed Carvel because of the late puck drop. The game didn’t start until 8 p.m., the latest all season after many games started between 3:30 p.m. and 6 p.m.
“It felt like midnight when they finally dropped the puck,” Carvel said. “Maybe I’m an old man and I’m the only one that was tired, but our effort was very consistent.”
No. 10 UMass continued the pressure in the second period. Josh Lopina slid a perfect pass across the ice to Matt Kessel approaching the net, and he buried the shot first time for a 3-0 lead 3:33 into the second. Trivigno received the secondary assist.
The Minutemen continued to show the diversity of their scoring ability. Cal Kiefiuk fired home a rebound after a mess nine minutes later from Aaron Boehlinger and Ryan Sullivan.
Four minutes later, Jerry Harding slammed home a shot from the front step from George Mika and Colin Felix to make it 5-0.
Building the lead was partially so easy because the Minutemen stayed out of the penalty box. They only committed one infraction: a Ty Farmer interference halfway through the second period. Most of the game was 5-on-5, in face, as UMass drew its only penalty with 5:17 left. Neither team scored. It was the fewest penalties UMass committed in a game since also going to the penalty box once Nov. 28, 2020, against Boston College.
“I love it when the refs don’t call penalties. I love it when they just call the real obvious stuff,” Carvel said. “It really allows for flow, and I think that’s an advantage to us because we can build shift to shift.”
The Minutemen rang the crossbar twice in the third period. They outshot Lowell, 44-37.
“A very complete game. Lowell’s been on pause for a very long time,” Carvel said. “It’s a huge advantage for us in a lot of ways. I complained about having not played for whatever that stretch was and I thought we lost our edge.”
Filip Lindberg picked up his seventh career shutout, stopping all 16 shots. He started for the third straight game.
“The guys played very well in front of him, I thought it was very much a team shutout,” Carvel said.
Now they have to do it all again Saturday. The second game of the series it at 7 p.m. at the Tsongas Center, where UMass hasn’t won since 2011.
“You can erase this score right now. You don’t beat Lowell 5-0,” Carvel said. “It’s not going to happen tomorrow night unless we play extremely well.”
Kyle Grabowski can be reached at kgrabowski@gazettenet.com. Follow him on Twitter @kylegrbwsk.