UMass hockey: Inconsistency again plagues Minutemen in 3-0 loss to Northeastern

UMass goalie Michael Hrabal (30) makes a save during the Minutemen’s 3-0 loss to Northeastern on Saturday night at the Mullins Center in Amherst.

UMass goalie Michael Hrabal (30) makes a save during the Minutemen’s 3-0 loss to Northeastern on Saturday night at the Mullins Center in Amherst. PHOTO BY THOM KENDALL/UMASS ATHLETICS

By RYAN AMES

Staff Writer

Published: 01-11-2025 10:41 PM

Modified: 01-12-2025 2:17 PM


AMHERST – The UMass hockey team continues to struggle with consistency after its 3-0 shutout loss to Northeastern on Saturday night at the Mullins Center.

The Minutemen played arguably their best game of the year against the Huskies Friday night in their 5-0 win in Boston, but allowed Northeastern to be the more urgent team in the rematch.

“I just thought we were missing the urgency, the energy that we had [Friday] night,” UMass head coach Greg Carvel said. “That led to our details being sloppy. Both of their [non-empty net] goals I thought were us being sloppy, giving them opportunities. I thought their goalie played really well. They did a really good job protecting the net-front, blocking shots, they had more desperation than we did tonight.”

UMass (10-9-2) is still searching for its first series sweep of the season. The Minutemen have won two games in a row three separate times this season, which is good, but might not be good enough to earn an at-large bid in the NCAA tournament.

Saturday night, shots slightly favored Northeastern, 39-35, but a high volume of UMass’ looks came from the perimeter of the attacking end.

“I think we were trying to obviously get the pucks there, but they did a pretty decent job boxing us out,” Minutemen senior Ryan Lautenbach said. “We just need to screen the goalie a little bit better, couple times he saw the puck well and made good saves. Hopefully we can work on that and get more pucks to net.”

The Huskies also threw their bodies in the way of pucks often on Saturday as the visitors blocked 21 UMass shots.

Two of the three Northeastern goals came from its defensemen in Vinny Borgesi and Jake Boltmann. Borgesi made it 1-0 near the halfway point of the first while, Boltmann’s came late in the second for the 2-0 score after Minuteman goalie Michael Hrabal ( 36 saves) couldn’t catch Boltmann’s initial shot.

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“To me, it was just a breakdown on our part,” Carvel said on the second Huskies goal. “But 20 minutes left at home, we’re usually a pretty good third-period team. I hadn’t lost hope by any means. Northeastern played a good game.”

Dylan Hryckowian, who assisted on the first two goals, secured the empty-netter in the dying minutes of the third for the Huskies, to seal the deal versus UMass.

“I think it all comes down to our start,” Minuteman captain Linden Alger said. “We were flat and they kind of had the momentum at the beginning. We had plenty of chances at the end of the day, we just couldn’t bury [them]. We got to compete every single night, especially at the net-front, that goes both ways in the offensive and defensive zone.”

Northeastern goalie Cameron Whitehead bounced back with a 35-save outing in Amherst.

UMass’ power play didn’t break through in two tries on Saturday, despite six total shots across both man-advantage opportunities. The Minutemen’s second power play came when they were down 1-0 in the second period, but Northeastern’s commitment in its D-zone kept UMass’ usually dangerous man-advantage at bay.

The loss brings the Minutemen’s record to 0-3-1 when the opposition scores first.

“Every point, every game from here on out is precious,” Alger said. “Obviously we got to learn from this game we just played. We also got to look forward to Merrimack and really focus on those games, because you can’t change the past. Like I said, every point from here on out is super important.”

UMass has Merrimack on deck next week for another home-and-home.