UMass again rose to the occasion against one of the best teams in the country but couldn’t raise a trophy.
The No. 17 Minutemen tied No. 4 Quinnipiac 2-2 for NCAA seeding purposes in Saturday’s Friendship Four championship game in Belfast, Northern Ireland, but the Bobcats prevailed 1-0 in the shootout to claim the tournament title. They rang the Belpot trophy after Cristophe Tellier converted the only shootout attempt.
“Our start could have been a little better, but really happy with the last two periods. Hit the bar in overtime,” UMass coach Greg Carvel said. “I hate to see games go to shootouts. I don’t think anything should be decided by shootouts, but I’m in the minority on that.”
UMass’ Scott Morrow, Kenny Connors and Cole O’Hara all missed, while UMass goalie Luke Pavicich saved two shots. He made 31 saves across regulation and overtime.
“He was outstanding. He’s our guy. It’s pretty clear the way he’s played. We need that,” Carvel said. “It’ll help that his confidence is growing because my confidence is growing in him.”
UMass (7-5-2) rallied twice to push the game beyond 60 minutes. Quinnipiac’s Ethan de Jong scored the game’s first goal on the power play with 5 minutes, 35 seconds left in the first period.
That goal held until 14:48 showed on the first period clock when Taylor Makar knotted the game at 1 from Connors, who had three points in the tournament, and O’Hara.
An Eric Faith hooking penalty put Quinnipiac back on the power play with 4:47 left, and Skyler Brind’Amour potted another power play goal 43 seconds remaining.
The Bobcats’ lead lasted 30 seconds before Michael Cameron evened the game again from Morrow and Aaron Bohlinger.
“Our guys found a way to score late, another example of good character by the team,” Carvel said.
The Minutemen went 1-0-1 in Northern Ireland against two ranked teams in No. 14 UMass Lowell and the Bobcats.
“Those are two NCAA-level teams. We were right there with both of them if not better,” Carvel said. “It should grow our confidence.”
Kyle Grabowski can be reached at kgrabowski@gazettenet.com. Follow him on Twitter @kylegrbwsk.