The UMass hockey team was ready to go from the opening faceoff against AIC on Saturday. 

The Minutemen scored three goals in the first period before holding off a late Yellow Jackets rally to walk away with a 4-3 non-conference victory at the MassMutual Center in Springfield. 

Jack Musa put UMass on the board with nine minutes to go in the first period, tallying off assists from Cole O’Hara and Dans Locmelis. 

Musa added an unassisted goal two minutes later and Ryan Lautenbach finished off a 3-0 chance on the break with 1:07 to play in the frame to give the Minutemen a 3-0 lead after 20 minutes. Francesco Dell’Elce had the assist on Lautenbach’s goal. 

AIC’s Tyler Procious scored on the power play 3:40 into the second period but Locmelis tipped in a Kenny Connors shot on the power play two minutes later on the power play, helping UMass hold a 4-1 lead going into the third period. Aydar Suniev also had an assist on Locmelis’ goal. 

Timofei Khokhlachev lit up the scoreboard with 15:35 to play before Evan Stella scored with eight minutes to go for the Yellow Jackets to cut the lead to 4-3, but the Minutemen did not surrender another goal the rest of the way to walk away with the victory. 

Michael Hrabel came up with 44 saves in goal for UMass while Chase Clark made 30 saves for the AIC. The Minutemen were 1-for-4 on the power play while the Yellow Jackets were 1-for-3.

UMass next heads to Burlington, Vt. to play the University of Vermont for a pair of Hockey East games Nov. 8-9.