University of Connecticut Athletics
University of Connecticut
5-9-1, 2-7-1HEA
Massachusetts
12-1-0, 7-0-0HEA
Huskies Dealt 7-4 Loss at No. 3 UMass
11/30/2018 9:53:00 PM | Men's Ice Hockey
AMHERST, Mass. – The UConn men's hockey team suffered a 7-4 loss at the hands of the No.3 nationally ranked Massachusetts Minutemen Friday night in a Hockey East match-up from the Mullins Center. The Huskies drop their fifth-straight as they fall to 5-9-1 overall and 2-7-1 in Hockey East with the loss.
The Minutemen stayed unbeaten in the league at 7-0-0 and pick-up their ninth-straight win overall to improve to 12-1-0. UMass got two goals apiece from Mitchell Chaffee and Bobby Trivigno while goaltender Matt Murray made 29 saves to stay unbeaten at 9-0-0 on the year.
For the Huskies, freshman Kale Howarth (Red Deer, Alberta) scored his first collegiate goal and added another for his first career multi-goal game. Junior Wyatt Newpower (Hugo, Minn.) scored his first of the season and senior Karl El-Mir (Montreal Quebec) scored his eighth of the season and picked-up a point in his third straight game. Freshman Ruslan Iskhakov (Moscow, Russia) picked-up assists on three of the Huskies' four goals, his second career multi-point game.
The Huskies held a 2-1 lead after the first period but two UMass goals in the second put the Minutemen up 3-2 after two periods. UConn tied it at 3-3 just 34 seconds in to the third period on El-Mir's goal but UMass responded with three-straight goals in a span of 2:09 to take control en route to the win.
Both teams picked-up power play goals on the night while UMass held a 38-33 advantage on the shot chart. UConn junior goaltender Adam Huska (Zvolen, Slovakia) finished with 31 saves in the loss.
1st period:
The Minutemen had a 16-8 edge on shots in the first and jumped out to a 1-0 lead just 1:34 into the game but the Huskies tacked on two to take the lead into the locker room. UMass freshman Bobby Trivigno got his third goal of the season to put his team up 1-0, sending a rebound in front past Huska, five-hole, at 1:34.
The Huskies tied it up at 9:54 with Iskhakov feeding Newpower up at the high point, just inside the blue line. The junior d-man threw the puck on net through a lot of traffic in front of Murray and found the back of the net for his first of the season.
UConn went up 2-1 at 13:28 as Iskhakov helped set up the Huskies second on the night as well. The freshman put the puck on the stick of junior Benjamin Freeman (Falmouth, Maine) in the right circle who fired on net. Howarth was posted up right in front of Murray at the post and got a deflection into the top-shelf for his first career goal.
2nd period:
UConn put 17 shots on goal in the second and Murray stopped every one while the Minutemen offense put two the board to take a 3-2 lead into the second break. Del Gaizo pulled the game even at 5:05 of the second. The rookie defenseman broke up the right wing and used some nifty stick work, putting the puck behind his back to create space and then beat Huska top-shelf, glove side for his fifth this season.
The Minutemen took a 3-2 lead at 14:29, scoring on the power play. Senior Jacob Pritchard centered a pass to Chaffee in the slot who buried a one-timer for his ninth of the season.
3rd period:
The Huskies had almost a full power play to start the third period but needed only 34 seconds to tie the game up as El-Mir scored his eighth of the season. Freshman Jachym Kondelik (Budejovice, Czech Republic) took a feed from Wisocky on the right half boards. The rookie picked-up his team-leading 12th assist as he fed El-Mir in the slot who shoveled it past Murray to tie it at 3-3.
The Minutemen responded with three-straight goals over the next seven and a half minutes to seize control of the game. Chaffee picked-up the game-winner at 5:24, scoring his second of the night, followed by Pritchard at 6:34, who got a tip past Huska in front.Â
UMass was awarded a penalty shot at 7:33 on a holding call on Philip Nyberg (Linkoping, Sweden) and Trivigno converted for his second goal of the game and a 6-3 lead.Â
The Huskies cut it to 6-4 at 16:25 as Howarth notched his second, taking a feed from Iskhakov on a break-out and burying it past Murray. UConn pulled Huska with just under three minutes to play but UMass got an empty net goal at 18:36 from Niko Hildenbrand.
Up Next:
The Huskies will close out the first semester with a home-and-home series against Boston College next week. UConn will host the Eagles at the XL Center on Thursday, December 6 and head up to Chestnut Hill on Friday night, October 7.
