After a tough overtime loss the night before, the New Hampshire came back to the Mullins Center Saturday night for a rematch with the Minutemen. The teams exchanged chances early, but it took until late in first period for the first goal. Continue reading »
Friday, the New Hampshire Wildcats rolled into Amherst for a weekend series with the Minutemen. It was Umass who got off to a strong start, dominating the play for most of the first period. Michael Lacomte scored the first goal of the game when Wildcat goalie Brian Foster kicked a Will Ortiz shot across the slot towards Lacomte, who beat the defender and buried his third goal of the year. Minutes later, captain Justin Braun rushed into the offensive zone and absolutely hammered a slapshot high short side on the wildcat netminder and Umass took a 2-0 lead into the first intermission. New Hampshire came back to the ice looking like a whole new team. Continue reading »
The Minutemen came into to the Mullins Center Friday night after losing for the first time this season to the Providence College Friars. The Friars played a solid road game, in which they played well defensively, and got great goaltending. Despite getting 29 shots in the third period, the Minutemen were not able to mount a comeback and lost 2-1. Continue reading »
After a terrific start to the season, UMass is 2-0 defeating both Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and defending national champion Boston University. After the second game, the UMass coaching staff was particularly pleased with the overall team discipline. The Minutemen were able to use their speed to draw penalties and pay with enough of an edge that kept the intensity up, but also the penalties down. The second positive is goaltending. Junior net minder Paul Dainton has played both games, surrendering only 2 goals in each of the games. Particularly against BU, he stepped up and made big saves when the game was tight and kept his team in the game despite being out shot severely in the third period. Other standouts so far are defensemen Matt Irwin who leads the team with three goals and forward Will Ortiz who has been all over the ice in an effective manner, and who got the game winner against BU.
The University of Maine came into the Mullins Center Friday night with a record of 1-3. The Minutemen were able to capitalize on a powerplay goal from Casey Wellman not even two minutes into the game. Wellman and James Marcou effectively used a cycle in the corner, in which Wellmen broke off the half wall towards the face-off dot then received a pass from Marcou and took a wrist shot that snuck through on the short side. Martin Nolet scored the second UMass goal with a wicked wrist shot from the top of the circle that beat the Maine goaltender Scott Darling, who would be pulled after the first period. The goal was assisted from Matt Irwin and David Boehm. After Maine managed to pull back within one, James Marcou scored off the rush with a shot, which took a couple bounces off the goalie and post before finding its way over the goal line. In the second period, Michael Marcou got his first NCAA goal on a three on one and a beautiful set up play by his brother James who used a lot of patience to draw in the defender and goalie then dish it off leaving Michael with a wide open net. In the third, TJ Syner deflected a Matt Irwin slap shot to make it 5-2 Minutemen, who eventually took the game 5-3.
There was a lot of action aside from scoring in the game, which was physical right from the start. Soon the physicality turned up the intensity and led to a few extra-curricular scrums, which led to a combined 97 penalty minutes on the night. The game was also the first career NCAA game for Kevin Czepiel of UMass. James Marcou was probably the best player on the ice as hi finished the game with one goal and three assists on the night. On a negative note, Maine freshman Adam Shemansky was taken off the ice on a stretcher in the second period after a dangerous collision with Martin Nolet. At the time he was conscious and did have feelings in all his extremities. Hopefully he will be able to make a full and complete recovery.
The UMass Minutemen are off to a 2-0 start this season with wins over both Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Boston University at home. The team’s season opener against Rensselaer was a special teams battle more than anything, with the Minutemen capitalizing on four of their ten power plays on the night. Despite being out shot 16-6, and being down 1-0 after the first frame, UMass was able to use special teams to get back into the game and eventually roll to an easy 5-2 victory. Defenseman Matt Irwin led the attack for the minutemen with two goals on the night. The Brentwood Bay, British Columbia native notched one goal on a 5-on-3 powerplay and the other on a 4-on-3 man advantage. Both goals were one-timers from the point that beat the RPI goalie high glove side. James Marcou also had an outstanding night with four assists, which tied a personal career high.
The number two ranked Boston University Terriers rolled into Mullins Center at UMass on Friday October 16 for their season opener. The Minutemen jumped out to a 2-0 lead in front of a near capacity crowd in Amherst with goals from Rocco Carzo and Matt Irwin. The Terriers managed to battle back to tie the game at two by the end of the second period with two goals by Alex Chiasson. The third goal for Umass came after multiple quality scoring chances, which on a pass during a 2 on 1 in which the BU defender included about four shots that hit the post. But the persistence paid off as Will Ortiz got the game winner accidentally deflected the pass into his own net while trying to fend off the intended target Danny Hobbs. Between the pipes the netminders, Paul Dainton and last years Hockey East rookie of the year Kieran Millan, put on a clinic. In the end, it was Dainton who prevailed stopping 39 of the 41 shots he faced on the night and was the best player on the ice for either team. The Minutemen’s next game comes on October 23 as they host Maine.
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