The 11th-ranked UMass hockey team stayed perfect in Hockey East with a 5-1 win over New Hampshire, Saturday in Durham.
The Minutemen (6-1-0, 3-0-0 Hockey East) are off to their best start in eight seasons.
“I really like my hockey club,” UMass coach Greg Carvel said a release provided by the school. “I think we came in here tonight and we wanted to try and frustrate UNH and I thought, through the first period, we were doing a real good job of that. It’s tough to win on the road this league and UNH is a skilled team with speed. I thought we did a good job limiting their skill and their speed and their power play was something else I was worried about, our kill did a good job tonight.”
UMass jumped out to a 4-0 lead.
Mitchell Chaffee tapped home a between-the-legs, backhand pass from Oliver Chau 7 minutes, 19 seconds into the first period.
Philip Lagunov made it 2-0 with assists from Jacob Pritchard and John Leonard about seven minutes later.
Cale Makar found the corner of the net in the second period with assists from Chaffee and Jake Gaudet for a 3-0 lead.
Leonard made it 4-0 with a power-play goal off assists from Makar and Chaffee.
Pritchard made it 5-1 late in the third with assists from Leonard and Ivan Chukarov.
UMass killed all three UNH power plays to extend its streak to 16 straight. The Minutemen outshot the Wildcats 22-20 and went 1-for-4 on the power play.
UMass has now scored in 20 of 22 periods this season.
Matt Murray made 19 saves to improve to 4-0-0 on the season.
Trinity 27, Amherst 16 — The Mammoths (7-1) lost out on a chance to wrap up a NESCAC championship with the road loss, Saturday. Amherst needs to beat Williams this weekend to earn at least a share of the title. If Wesleyan beats Trinity and Amherst wins, the Mammoths will win the conference outright.
Bo Berluti caught nine passes for 142 yards. Quarterback Ollie Eberth finished 17 of 35 for 217 yards for Amherst.
Former Williston Northampton standout Max Chipouras rushed for 205 yards and scored two touchdowns to power the Bantams (7-1).
VCU 1, UMass 1 (VCU 5-4 PKs) — The eighth-seeded Minutemen gave the No. 1 Rams all they could handle, but the defending conference champions were eliminated on penalty kicks in the Atlantic 10 Tournament quarterfinal round, Sunday in Richmond, Virginia.
Clement Benhaddouche scored his first career goal with an assist from David Smith (Amherst) to tie the game early in the second half.
Marvyn Dorchin made six saves for UMass (7-8-3)
VCU scored on its first four penalty kicks in the shootout.
Benhaddouche scored UMass’ first, but AlecMichael Petrizzi missed as the Minutemen fell behind 3-1.
Christian Labeck, Brandon Merklin and Jack Fulton scored three straight for UMass, which tied the shootout at 4-4 following Mario Sequeira’s miss for VCU.
Oquin Robinson gave VCU a 5-4 lead that held when Chandler O’Dwyer missed for UMass.
Colby 3, Amherst 1 — Bryce Johnson scored for the Mammoths (12-4-1), but the Mules led 3-0 en route to the win in the NESCAC semifinals, Saturday in Amherst.
Middlebury 1, Amherst 1 (Middlebury 4-3 PKs) — Rubii Tamen scored for the Mammoths (13-2-2), but the Panthers advanced to the NESCAC finals with the victory in a shootout, Saturday in Williamstown.
Natalie Landau, Ruby Hastie and Lexy Cook scored shootout goals for Amherst.
Bowdoin 3, Amherst 1 — The Mammoths were in the NESCAC finals for the first time in 10 years, but the Polar Bears took home the title with a 25-19, 16-25, 25-13, 25-13 victory, Sunday in Brunswick, Maine.
Emily Kolsky had 15 kills and 19 digs, while Charlotte Duran had 35 assists. Skyleur Savage (22), Duran (21), Candace Chung (15) and Hayes Honea (11) each reached double digits in digs for Amherst (22-5).
The Mammoths reached the finals with a 3-0 win over Wesleyan on Saturday.
Amherst won 25-21, 25-21, 25-22.
Kolsky led all players with 16 kills. Sophie Launsbach had 12 kills and Duran paced the offense with 40 assists.
Boston University 118, UMass 111 — Luke Gordon led a sweep in the 100-yard breaststroke, Seamus Trzewik-Quinn won the 100 back and Reece Donahue won the 1-meter dive, but the Minutemen fell on the road Saturday.
Boston University 176, UMass 124 — Katie Polk and Maja Boric finished first and second, respectively, in both the 1-meter and 3-meter, but the Minutewomen fell on the road Saturday.
Ansley Baker won the 100 breaststroke and 50 free for UMass.
Mount Holyoke 151, University of New England 105 — Caitlyn Richmond (Northampton) picked up the victory in the 50-yard backstroke (30.86), while Tamara Mukulu won the 50 free and 100 free for the Lyons (1-1), Saturday.