AMHERST — For the second straight Friday, UMass played well enough to earn points but came away empty-handed.
The Minutemen couldn’t take advantage of their energetic start and early chances, allowing Boston University to make the most of its opportunities as UMass fell, 3-2, at the Mullins Center.
Minuteman coach Greg Carvel was frustrated after his team’s fifth straight loss.
“I might be a little biased, but I think we deserved better tonight,” he said. “I think we deserved better in a bunch of games this year. … I liked our game for 60 minutes. The kids were great tonight. We’re a young team. This seems to be common where they play well, but not well enough. We’ll move on and try to get better.”
UMass is at New Hampshire, Saturday at 7 p.m. The Minutemen (11-15-1, 5-11-1 Hockey East) and Terriers (14-11-2, 10-7-2) will play again Friday in Boston.
With a big, boisterous and often profane crowd, UMass came out with energy and dominated possession in the first period. The Minutemen outshot BU 16-9 in the first period, forcing Jake Oettinger to make some difficult saves, but it was the Terriers who scored the only goal of the period. Shortly after coming out of the penalty box, Brandon Hickey jumped into the rush on a break-in and beat Matt Murray to make it 1-0 with 5:17 left in the frame.
BU coach David Quinn said Oettinger’s early play allowed his team to stay afloat.
“It should have been 5-0. That was huge. That’s what an elite goalie does for you,” Quinn said. “That was probably as bad a period as we’ve played in a long time. I say that, but a lot of that had to do with how well they played and how fast they played. … To be up 1-0 was almost criminal. But I’m not going to apologize. Jake gives us a chance to dust ourselves off and play better as the game goes on.”
The Minutemen tied the game 33 seconds into the middle period. On the power play, Mario Ferraro fed Mitchell Chaffee in the right-wing corner, who one-touched it to Johnny Leonard in the slot. The freshman from Amherst slung a wrist shot by Oettinger to make it 1-1.
UMass appeared to have a lead with 12:21 left in the second period, but Jake Horton’s goal was called back for goalie interference. Carvel disagreed with the call and thought it changed the game.
“We watched it on video. It was pretty sad that they determined that was goalie interference,” Carvel said. “The goalie wasn’t the least bit affected. I think we still don’t get the respect we deserve. We’re trying to earn it from the referees. That’s a tough one. That would have put us up 2-1 and given us momentum. For our team that was a real moment. To get it called back was tough.”
Murray made a terrific skate save to rob Jordan Greenway less than a minute later.
But Greenway, who is playing in his final two games before joining Team USA for the Winter Olympics, found the back of the net with 5:43 left in the second. As UMass fans taunted him profanely, Greenway’s backhand pinballed the puck off a Minuteman’s leg to make it 2-1 after two periods.
The back-breaker came with 12:32 left in third period. Murray (36 saves) got a clear look at Shane Bowers’ shot from the left-wing faceoff circle, but the puck got through his legs to make it 3-1.
Niko Rufo cut the deficit to 3-2 with 7:56 left. Amid chaos in front of Oettinger, he pulled the puck out and then poked it through traffic.
NOTES — After playing most of the season without a captain, UMass officially named Horton a captain. … For breast cancer awareness, the players wore pink stickers on their helmets, the coaches wore pink ribbons on their lapels and the referees wore pink striped jerseys.
Matt Vautour can be reached at mvautour@gazettenet.com. Get UMass coverage delivered in your Facebook news feed at www.facebook.com/GazetteUMassCoverage