AMHERST – Everything being equal, the UMass hockey team controlled Saturday’s game against UConn. The Minutemen outshot them by 20 and won 54.1 percent of the faceoffs.
But things were rarely equal in a game that featured five penalties by each team. The No. 20 Huskies scored two power-play goals in their five opportunities and kept No. 10 UMass off the board with a man advantage. Those two goals separated the Hockey East rivals, as UConn won 4-2 at the Mullins Center.
“Big difference in the game was special teams,” UMass coach Greg Carvel said. “UConn did an excellent job frustrating us, and they scored two power-play goals pretty easily.”
The Huskies only generated two shots in their five opportunities, but both went in the net. UMass had nine shots on the power play but couldn’t bury any.
UConn (17-12, 13-7 Hockey East) sent the Minutemen on the power play first when Jachym Kondelik was whistled for interference 6 minutes, 33 seconds in. It ballooned to a 5-on-3 1:20 later after a Carter Turnbull cross check. The Huskies killed both penalties in part due to goalie Darion Hanson’s excellence. He made 35 saves in the game, his second game in a row over 30 saves.
“He was outstanding. He competes. He’s not only a good goaltender, he just competes so hard. He was fantastic, but he has been all year long,” UConn coach Mike Cavanaugh said. “Those penalty kills gave us a lot of energy. They really got our bench going.”
UMass defenseman Colin Felix went to the box for roughing at 15:54 of the first, then Reed Lebster was whistled for hooking 59 seconds later.
“They get a 5-on-3 on a really questionable call. To me it’s a make up,” Carvel said. “They were opportunistic.”
John Spetz converted the two-man advantage with a power-play goal with 2:27 left in the period. Kondelik and Jarrod Gourley assisted on the play.
UMass (17-10-2, 12-6-2) went to the locker room trailing 1-0 despite holding a 9-3 shots advantage and winning 13-of-20 faceoffs.
“We thought we were really good in the first, and just continue what we’re doing,” Carvel said. “We came out flying in the second.”
UMass captain Bobby Trivigno tied the game 12 seconds into the second period on a stretch pass into the zone from Garrett Wait. Ryan Ufko also picked up an assist on the play. Both Wait and Ufko extended their point streaks to six games.
The Minutemen then lived up to their name, scoring again 51 seconds later to take a 2-1. Josh Lopina fired home a pass in tight after buzzing tic-tac-toe passes from Aaron Bohlinger and Trivigno.
“I thought, ‘here we go,’” Carvel said.
Then the penalty box doors opened for business. Kondelik went to the box for handling the puck at 6:00, but it quickly became a 4-on-4 after a Lopina trip 46 seconds later. Kondelik’s penalty expired at 8:00, and the Huskies only needed 26 seconds with a man advantage to knot the game at 2.
Ryan Tverberg deflected a John Spetz shot into the net at 8:26. Carter Berger added an assist. It was UConn’s third power-play goal in two games.
“Unfortunately the refs started calling penalties,” Carvel said. “That was definitely in UConn’s favor because their special teams was way better than ours.”
UMass had two more power play chances in the second but couldn’t bury either of them.
“The ice was tilted for two periods,” Carvel said. “UConn did a good job in the third.”
Hudson Schandor put the Huskies’ noses in front 6:59 into the final frame. Tverberg and Harrison Rees assisted on the play.
UMass tried to pull goalie Matt Murray (13 saves) in the final few minutes but couldn’t get him off the ice because of a turnover. Marc Gatomb capitalized on that miscue to score the Huskies’ insurance goal with 1:15 remaining. Tverberg added his third assist, and Kondelik picked up the secondary.
“That’s a good hockey team,” Carvel said. “I thought our kids played pretty fair, the puck just didn’t bounce our way tonight.”
The loss wasn’t as detrimental as it could have been. The Minutemen are still tied atop the Hockey East standings with UMass Lowell with 40 points after the River Hawks fell at Providence. UMass has four games remaining compared to two for Lowell.
“The league’s really tight this year. It’s a grind every night. We’ve gotta win every game. We control our own destiny,” Carvel said. “We’ve just got to take care of business. I thought the effort we came with (Saturday) was enough. There’s times we looked like we owned the game, but we lost the game. It’s one of those games.”
Kyle Grabowski can be reached at kgrabowski@gazettenet.com. Follow him on Twitter @kylegrbwsk.