Marcou fuels UMass power play in 5-2 win
1
2
AMHERST - Before practice on Monday, University of Massachusetts junior forward James Marcou talked about wanting to be the type of player who made his teammates better. In Thursday's season-opening win, he took a big step in the direction.
The leading returning scorer in Hockey East got a big jump on the league's scoring chase with four assists as the Minutemen defeated Rensselaer Polytechnic 5-2 at the Mullins Center.
The UMass power play looked woeful In the first period. But Marcou ignited the man-advantage in the second period when the Minutemen (1-0) scored four power-play goals.
"The power play was the big difference in the game - getting the opportunities and capitalizing on them," said UMass coach Don "Toot" Cahoon.
"Their power play looked good," RPI coach Seth Appert said. "Marcou is a special hockey player."
Cahoon said Marcou could have had more points.
"He's a pretty creative kid. It's not surprising," Cahoon said. "A couple of guys have golden opportunities to score some goals that he created that didn't go in."
The Minutemen survived a barrage on an Engineer power play late in the first period. But even after UMass returned to full strength, RPI (0-1) continued to dominate possession in front of goalie Paul Dainton as the Minutemen could not clear the zone.
UMass dodged several bullets, helped by a diving save by Dainton, but Tyler Helfrich redirected Brandon Pirri's shot to put the Engineers up 1-0 after 16 minutes, 33 seconds of the first period.
"When the game started, they had more intensity and outcompeted us in many instances," Cahoon said. "Whatever I said before the game didn't work. We revisited that after the first period and started competing a little better."
Cahoon and captains Justin Braun and Brett Watson all spoke to the team after the first period and the Minutemen responded.
"We were playing pretty soft," said sophomore defenseman Matt Irwin. "We were playing easy to play against ... We had to come in at intermission, regroup and start getting greasy."
UMass tied the game early in the second, taking advantage of a 5-on-3 power play. Casey Wellman collected a pass from Justin Braun just off the right post, switched from his forehand to backhand and flipped the puck into the top left corner just over three minutes into the second period.
"That was a great goal, a really high-end talented play," Appert said. "That certainly gave them a lift. They fed on that energy and the crowd got into it."
A 5-on-4 power play for the Minutemen connected quickly in the second. Braun's slap shot through traffic was behind goalie Allen York (21 saves) before public address announcer Matt Goldstein had even finished announcing the RPI penalty with 12:04 left in the frame.
"In the first period we were on the perimeter too much on the power play," Marcou said. "We said we had to take it to the net and get opportunities. We started shooting it more and crashing the net."
The Minutemen made it 3-1 on the season's first even-strength goal. Freshman Rocco Carzo caught Marcou's pass through the crease and tapped it past York just two minutes after Braun's goal.
"It's good for any freshman to get a goal in his first game. It takes the pressure off them a little bit," Irwin said.
RPI got one goal back on the power play when Jerry D'Amigo tipped in a pass across the crease from Helfrich with 2:18 left in the period.
Another 5-on-3 power play produced the fourth UMass goal as Irwin sizzled a slap shot past York from two steps inside the point, 20 seconds into the third period.
Marcou found Irwin with 10:16 left in the game on a 4-on-3 advantage and Irwin unleashed another cannon that York barely had time to react to that made it 5-2. It was the first two-goal game of Irwin's career.
"It's nice to start off with a couple goals," Irwin said. "I certainly wasn't expecting it."
Dainton made 28 saves.
"Paul looked like he was confident and comfortable tonight," Cahoon said. "He gave me a sense of security and confidence. I have to believe the other players felt the same way."
NOTES - Because the game was one of only two played Thursday in college hockey, there were over a dozen NHL scouts in attendance among the crowd of 3,127.
Matt Vautour can be reached at mvautour@gazettenet.com. For more UMass coverage, including a UMass sports blog, go to http://www.gazettenet.com/blog/umass-sports.
