AMHERST — The UMass hockey team is still waiting to break through in 2017.
Merrimack took an early lead and sent the Minutemen to their 12th consecutive loss, 3-0 Tuesday at the Mullins Center.
It was their 16th loss in their last 17 games. They haven’t led in 267 minutes, 52 seconds and haven’t won since the calendar changed.
Still, Merrimack coach Mark Dennehy praised UMass’ effort.
“I give (UMass coach) Greg Carvel and his team a lot of kudos,” he said. “That team plays hard. I know they’ve lost some games in a row, but you talk about changing culture. They battled tonight.”
Carvel saluted his team’s effort and ability to stay together.
“That’s the bright spot for me. I want it to be a hallmark of our program that the opposing coach says things like that,” said Carvel, whose team fell to 5-24-2 (2-16-1 Hockey East). “I know our record is poor. I’m proud of these kids. They play hard. They give what they have. That’s what makes it fun.”
UMass senior captain Steven Iacobellis said the team has stayed committed.
“From the start of the year we knew there were going to be a lot of lessons to be learned and it was going to be a battle. It has been,” he said. “We’ve come a long way. There’s no question, especially the freshmen here, are going to have a lot of success in the future if they keep doing the little things every day. You can see flashes of it. It takes time. It’s not an easy process. We’re going to keep chipping way.”
Carvel is challenging his team to gain something from its current frustration.
“I feel strongly this is part of our process,” he said. “Let’s deal with it. Let’s get mad about it. Let’s dig deeper. It’s an opportunity.”
Merrimack (12-13-5, 6-7-5 Hockey East) took a 1-0 lead just before the midway point of the first period when Brett Seney tipped a Sami Tavernier shot past UMass goalie Alex Wakaluk with 11:31 left.
The Minutemen, who are Hockey East’s lowest scoring team at full strength, lost second-leading scorer Austin Plevy to a major/game misconduct penalty for an open-ice hit with 2:41 left in the first period.
That left UMass scrambling with Ray Pigozzi already out. Hockey East suspended Pigozzi for a hit in Saturday’s game at Lowell. Carvel said he’d been led to believe Pigozzi would be available and didn’t find out he’d been suspended until 11 a.m.
“Any 5-minute major is going to be reviewed. We found out Monday that Lowell was going to submit for supplemental punishment. I was made to feel he wasn’t going to be suspended,” Carvel said. “We practiced with him in the lineup, him on the power play. That’s pretty late on a game day to find out. The protocol wasn’t as smooth as it should have been for this situation.”
The Warriors took advantage quickly when Alex Carle redirected a Ludvig Larsson shot by Wakaluk on the power play to make it 2-0 with 2:41 left in the first.
Johnathan Kovacevic stretched the edge to 3-0 early in the second.
“Merrimack did a good job early on. They won a lot of battles,” Carvel said. “We couldn’t get anything going.”
For a few moments, UMass appeared to have escaped being shut out for the third time this season when Iacobellis’ shot beat Merrimack goalie Collin Delia (22 saves) with 12:20 left, but the play was reviewed and the goal overturned because of goaltender interference.
Wakaluk, a senior, started his second straight game after only playing three games in relief before that. He made 29 saves.
With just three games remaining, the Minutemen are almost certainly locked into the No. 12 seed in the next month’s Hockey East Tournament. With five points in league play, UMass is four points behind Maine (10-17-3, 4-13-1).
UMass hosts No. 6 (national rank) UMass Lowell (Saturday) before closing the year with a home-and-home with Providence on Feb. 24 and 25.
The Black Bears swept the Minutemen in January and would have the tiebreaker if they finish tied. If Maine gets one point, UMass would need to win its last three to pass Maine. If the Black Bears lose their remaining four games (two at Merrimack, two vs. Northeastern at home), the Minutemen would need at least five points.
Matt Vautour can be reached at mvautour@gazettenet.com. Get UMass coverage delivered in your Facebook news feed at www.facebook.com/GazetteUMassCoverage